Guide to understanding between customer and contractor

One gets the feeling that only a lazy person doesn’t say about customer orientation and striving for the “Win-Win” model. But, moreover, the “tacit war” continues: the performers scream “arrogant” customers, condemning them in their cozy places, and customers gather at a bar on Friday evening to squeeze a tear of disappointment and complain to friends about the “unprofessionalism” of the next unfortunate developers / marketologists. Everyone pulls the blanket over himself, trying to make Win-Lose in his favor. And in the end it turns out "Lose-Lose". Although it is obvious that 95% of the market on each side is quite adequate, everyone has strengths worthy of respect.

How to stop this senseless "struggle"? Let us examine specific theses without water and tedious philosophy.

PS: this is not a categorical attitude, claiming the ultimate truth, but rather an appeal to the market. I would be sincerely happy if it helps at least a few “duet” (this is the correct form of cooperation).

Paradigm and positions

Despite the loud statements about the "individual approach", most likely you are now working in the "relationship" mode (yes, this is a fictional term, do not even try to search).

Even the old Google knows that you need not to take away , but to understand.

Example:

Client: “ I’ll ask them for a discount .”

Contractor: " Let 's try to inflate the estimate ."

The classic situation, demonstrating attempts at mutual cost per price. Even if the potential customer does not leave, this deflection will make itself known in a month or two of work. True intentions somehow manifest themselves.

Why it happens?

It is like the principle of a pendulum: you swing it in one direction - an answer comes right away. So the responsibility shifts. People create unnecessary borders for nobody, trying to defend their “camp” (of course, no one has canceled a harsh reality: the market determines conditions, it is impossible to constantly “give in”, moderation is needed in everything).

If in your picture of the world there were no businesses / teams that thought of the other side, then this is sad. I assure, based on my experience: they are. I saw many clients who were delighted with the advance of the schedule of work and offered to “not rush”, even despite the approach of the deadline. I also saw performers who discouraged the client from the service for which he was already ready to pay. Why? Because they have a different mindset.

Typical position of "selfish":

• The main thing is to do less and earn more / pay less and get more.

Obviously, you need to always be at least one foot in the “camp” / “skin” of the other side. I will not explain banal things, we go further.

Mutual study

Relatively recently, he voiced this principle - that is, it is no longer new, I am not discovering America within the framework of this material. If you don’t know how your “opponents” think and what their heads hurt about, this game will always end in “Lose-Lose”.

Check yourself.

Through what is the path to the customer's heart

Quotes:

• “I paid them for 4 years, the last year was just for the sake of interest ... So, it was checked with a prick - KIDALOVO ... I have this project to be within the limits of operational error, if it were the only one, it would have ruined for a long time”

The contractor for 4 years was not interested in the state of affairs on the client side. 4 years without feedback, without thinking about what could be the area of ​​risk and consequences. Do your accounts also get in touch only closer to the invoice date?

• “I worked for 1 year with this company, it feels terrible. The base was unloaded only for 4 weeks, which is not clear, although there is a maximum of one hour of work. They asked, they called - it was horror ... In the end, he explained the director to the director that it was easier to do it ourselves, as a result, we barely lost the legs ...

The client wants transparency: if a task is not fulfilled on time (even if it takes into account your workload), he has the right to be notified and explained. When you "apologize" on the otzovike site in the comments under the negative - it's not bad, but it's too late. Do not forget that someone could already slap someone on a hat, forbidding the following account to be paid by the accounting department.

• “The site I dreamed of failed. A little bit wrong, no offense, guys! "

The guys might not be offended, but the sediment remained on both sides. They didn’t find out / fix the “dreams” or promised the “golden mountains”. Classic.

• “... in the end, 3.5 months passed. the site is not ready, the site itself is an ugly, completely ordinary site that cannot be completed in any way, such a site can easily be done 4 times !!! cheaper, they promise to do it and it already stretches and stretches, they often do not respond to letters, the manager **** communicates poorly, many times you write to fix, what you should have corrected a long time ago, every time the answer is “tomorrow” and nothing ... And by the summer there should have been a popular site, now we will be left without clients for the summer season! A month ago, the director himself promised to finish the site in ten days, a month passed and NO ONE shift! ”

On the face of internal organizational problems in which they were afraid to admit, and could not “disguise”. But the trouble is not only in this. One-sided thinking is also obvious here: the guys are digging into their processes. Perhaps the output would have been [a] cool product. But seasonality, Karl, seasonality! The customer has been waiting for this before.

• “Charlatans! Our me on some basis, rather cold ringing. They offered to promote the site for 2 months, doing the installation of windows. After 2 months, no calls or sales. I call to find out what's the matter, say the search engines have changed some filters there and now my site is in **** and they have nothing to do with it and did not swear, went to *** - ***** they said that my site was banned by search engines ”

See, some don't swear. The performer may not even be aware of the negative.

How to win the heart of a contractor?

For the sake of justice, we will give an example from another point of view:

• “One client“ bought ”another site (both my friends and former partners of each other) and instructed us to help with the re-registration of the domain - prepare letters for the registrars, instruct them, nothing complicated, in general. Only because of the employment and the tracks between friends, the process dragged on for a year (!). The seller of the domain is not eager to transfer it. On convoked between them, our employees spent 20 times more paid time. And today was the apogee, the seller writes to our manager: I propose a deal, I am going to the registrar, and you make the changes to my site. Lol, in short "

Dear customers! I urge not to use the good attitude of contractors. After all, you would be at least “unpleasant” (and at the most unprofitable), if your employees were driven to death by unpaid requests? Understand them: digital-business is built on the sale of staff time. Their “theft” is not prosecuted, but this is from the “Win-Lose” series - “my hut is on the edge”. Do not be offended if then the "pendulum" will strike in your direction.

And then there are other parties - partners, contractors, employees:

• “I worked in this organization - disgusting! We are customers as soon as they are paid to the blacklist, if, as they said, ***** ***** - they are, bored with calls, and why are they bored ?? but because they did not do anything ... the collective changed every 3 months; the salary was not issued !!! By the way, this firm is no longer legally ... he has all the money., cleared, by splitting it in many accounts ... "

No comments. This is either a very angry employee, or the story is much larger than the psychological attitudes, and there is hardly one culprit here.

• “Scam. I wrote them texts on a piece of rubles, and wrote on time, despite the temperature under 39 !!! Approved, all is well, they say. Then they paid. Either they re-register their bookkeeping or even this, the lass manager is sick, then some sort of crap, which, in principle, shouldn't interest me. ”

And there are many, many other stories (some of which may be fictional / high in subjectivity but still thought-provoking), full of horrors in the “shouldn't interest me”, “work while you’re alive”, “return me my blood "And so on.

Expectations

This will be the shortest paragraph: create a common conceptual framework, not stint on the details.

Subtext

There is a vocabulary - it's just a set of letters. And there is a sense - it can be much wider and more complex than letters. And it is not always endured "on a silver platter." Learn to read between the lines. Sometimes opponents unconsciously push us to very important conclusions:

• “We need a website that all competitors will envy” = “Do not ask me right away about the budget, this is not the primary factor for me” .
• "We are focused on tasks of a different type" = "Let's not lose our and your time - do not torment us with persuasion to" work ". Try to communicate better with other performers . ”
• "We need as cheap as possible." = "Do not get involved in this fight if you do not win by price . "

but on the other hand

But always keep in mind that someone extracts from the words the wrong meanings. Or right, but those that you would not want to "shoot".

• "We will be very glad to cooperate with you" = "Help, we have an acute shortage of work . "
• "I need to consult" = "Torture edits and we will ask to do another free iteration . "
• “I really want to work with you” = “They don’t take anywhere else, I am looking for funds to pay for the loan, and just a new line in the resume” .

How to avoid it? Think before you voice something, 3 steps forward.

Let us consider an example of a specific dialogue:

1. The client immediately showed that he was incompetent in matters of selecting traffic channels. This is normal.
2. I expected to find out the price, the answer (objective, of course) on the need for SEO, and at the same time get some impression on the adequacy of the customer.
3. Bottom line: they loaded the brief with filling (guess how much it was filled), “vparili” everything, about which there were doubts, and threw in the target (the setting - as a gift, and the advertising budget?).

Obviously, you need to contact the ENT - problems with hearing, the parties do not hear each other.

Criteria

Evaluating, we often incorrectly prioritize.

The artist may have a disgusting own site, few reviews, delays in responses. But besides, they make a very cool product (respectively: high demand → constant overload → no time for your marketing).

Being in the client's place , I would pay attention to the following:

• The model of work (study the mat. Part on the example of categories in ratings; for example, if you are dancing with managers, then you will not be able to use “production”) - many projects fail because there is no understanding of this difference.
• Average grade of work for the last year.
• How are the processes from the inside (if correctly asked, the customer will show everything and tell in the office).
• Objectively weaknesses (it is important that the performer honestly called them himself).

Well, to personally communicate with those who have already worked with this candidate, never hurts. And this does not replace the usual monitoring of reviews.

And performers need to learn to look "deeper." Not everyone who comes, say, for promotion in organic search, just wants to buy monthly reports with beautiful numbers. Someone just needs to "make competitors" for certain indicators. And someone - to conduct an experiment to compare with other sources of traffic (yes, the low LTV can grow legs from here).

Errors

Learn to distinguish them from mistakes. Even with automated measurement of indicators in factory production, deviations of ± 2% are sometimes allowed. What to say about the human factor with us. A delay of 5 minutes, an extra pixel, a shortage of 0.5 hours in the report — for large-scale works, such figures have little value. If both sides focus on small things, they will lose in really important factors.

"No" stereotypes

Immediately explain with an example. Articles and books teach performers to postpone the sound price at the latest stage. This is presented as a universal rule, although in fact it is not always useful. Therefore, the following dialogues are obtained:

- “How much does this service cost you?”

“Well, it depends on your requirements.”

- “We, as everyone, call the approximate cost”

- "Do you want a template or custom design?"

- [Mentally to myself: “How should I know, I'm not a professional. How much more will they torment me here? ” ] “ I don’t know, let it be an individual one ”

- “And with the basket + online payment we will do or just a directory + feedback form?”

- “Uh, everything is clear. We will call you back"

There is no sadder story in the world than the story of a frustrated client.

Artist, I appeal to you: would you endure this torture yourself if you were in its place? In the contracts, after all, write “the side of the Customer” with a capital letter (and someone even ignores the rules of the Russian language, when, communicating electronically, writes “You”), then why is this disrespect? Of course, the product is complex, this is B2B, here the comparison with displaying price tags in retail is not applicable. But you cannot escape the fate: if you are afraid of “scaring with the price”, you will do it after the presentation of the decision.

Therefore, the call-to-action is as follows: do not use thoughtlessly all-patterned advice (even the ones I have just mentioned). In sales, project management, etc. , you can answer general questions ala "How?" Only by listing 100,500 sub-items "If / In the case of ..." . This is the beauty of our sphere - there are always many alternative approaches.