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Let's just say you were able to agree on price and the clients feel good about it. Their body is communicating to. Yes, the tone of voice matches what they say. What else might hold them back from working with you? Well, now we entered the second part, but you've got. You've already done a lot of really good work. So first of all, congratulations on that. You were able to speak about the price. You seem to have agreement. You've confirmed it with them that everybody's good moving. If you don't know what I'm talking about, refer back to the episode where I talk about how long it should take for you to close a client. All right, back to the episode. So thus far, all signs point to, yes, you're getting the giant glowing green light. What else could screw up the deal for you? Well, number one, you have to realize that right now you're kind of on a trial date, if you will. You're on an interview process. They're trying to imagine what it's going to be to like to work with you. So even if you have a great portfolio, the price feels right. They're interviewing the person more than they're interviewing the work itself. At this point, if the call goes this way, I wonder what it's going to be like at peak compatibility as. As it starts to degrade over time, what it's going to be like to work with you. So I'll just tell you some of the things from, from, if I were the buyer, my point of view so that you can take that into consideration, Number one, is the person asking good, deep, thoughtful questions. If they're not asking me the questions I think they should be asking, I start to get a little bit nervous, like they're going to just treat me like every single other person. And it could very well be that you're going to do the exact same thing. That's going to be great. But I don't want to feel like I'm just cattle and that you're just hurting me through the corral and you're going to slaughter me. You know that I'm just a number, a financial number to you. So asking great questions. And here's the important part, listening to what is said. And how do I know you're listening? Because you're confirming to me what you heard. You're checking in with me. It's called playing back what I heard. So you can say like, okay, let's see if I got this right. Allow me to summarize. And then you summarize. And did I miss anything. Was that correct? And if they gave you the yes, you got that right. You can continue on. Now here's the second part. It's a little bit more advanced, but you can do this, because I believe in you, is to ask a good follow up question. So instead of moving through a series of questions that seem not connected to each other, if they said something like, you know, the last time we worked with someone, it failed. And you asked them, well, what's your favorite color? That was what we would call like a non sequitur. It's a non sequence. This is not related to that. So if they give you a piece of information, like the last time we did this with someone else, it failed. You have a duty to follow up with them and say, tell me more about that experience. Who did you work with? What were the circumstances and how did it fail for you? And then you can just listen and they're going to give you more valuable information. This is all them telling you, if you would like to work with me, please make sure you don't do this. And you always do that. But if you don't ask that question, you don't get this valuable information and you're just wasting the opportunity. This is where you inadvertently open the door for someone like me, who's a better listener than you, to swoop in and say, oh, yes, oh, I totally feel your pain. What was that like? Tell me what's going on, what would you like to avoid? And then they're going to feel that thing that we call rapport. We're building rapport. We're in sync and we're starting to see the world from the same point of view. So if you're able to build rapport, that starts to lead to feelings of likability. And ultimately, if you deliver on what you say, feelings of trust. And we already know this, people hire who they know, who they like and who they trust. So that's what you need to be doing. Other things that you could do accidentally, number one, you can have a little of the, the diarrhea of the mouth where you talk a little bit too much, you're too excited about the project. It starts to make me as the buyer feel like you're desperate or you're lonely and you just need to talk to someone. And I don't want to get on the phone with you to say, hey, can we make the logo bigger? And you want to have a whole story with me. Like, I need someone who respects my time and treats it with that respect, right? So you're not going to waste my time. Every time I hear from you, every time I respond to you, I know it's for something that's moving the ball forward or making good progress. Number three, never do this. Never interrupt the client. Mythought. We do this because you know what we've been taught. If we're in rapport, I should be able to, what, complete your sentence. And if that works for you, keep doing that. But that's a very risky gamble that you're making, that you're going to be able to guess. It's much better for you to wait for them to finish and say, oh, that went a different direction. Oh, you surprised me there. Oh, we're thinking exactly the same thing. Before you finish, I was thinking yellow cats, too. It's wonderful that we're all talking the same language. In fact, there's this yellow cat that you might like, and then now we can build further rapport. So whatever you do, as a pet peeve of mine, do not interrupt. Here's a problem, though. You're thinking this. You're like, yeah, Chris, but some of my clients ramble on. They have diarrhea in the mouth. And now I'm starting to get stressed out because the time limit is shrinking, and I don't know what to do. Here's what you do as you're speaking to you, and you can do this in person. You could do this on zoom. It all works the same way. You just go like this. We've been trained to know that politely. I'm saying, when you get a chance, I have something I need to say. And you just do this and you put your hand down. Don't keep it up, because that's super distracting and it's super annoying. Like, they can't see it. So if you do this and they give you a little look, put your hand down. As you continue to talk. You can just. You can. Oh. Oh. You just gesture with hand so you allow them to recognize that you need them to pause, and they will stop when it's appropriate for them. So let them land there. Let them land the plane where they need to land and say, okay, I realize. And you admit this. I realize the last question I asked might have taken us off track, so I want to take us back on track. Okay? And as much as I appreciate all the extra information right now, I got to make sure we talk about the core problem before we move on to something else. So let me circle back. Let me rephrase the question. You need to take ownership of this, because if you say you actually started, like, drifting, you're going on a tangent. I don't understand you. You're making an accusation, and that's not a way to begin a client relationship. Those are a couple of things you need to look out for. And the last thing is, when it comes to your own expertise, you can shoot yourself in the foot by saying too much of the wrong things. Number one, it's not. I know it's going to be controversial for some of you, but if you bore me with the details, like how the watch is made, I start to like, eyes glazed over. I'm like, I don't really need to know all that stuff. Why do you feel compelled to tell me this? So then I start thinking, I wonder if this is the right person. I wonder if they're covering up, overcompensating for something else they might not know anything about. And I start to get nervous. So what I want from a vendor is to tell me exactly what I need to know to the point in which I need to know and stop before it becomes too much. That's kind of it. And there's a. There's a great way that you can phrase this. You can say something like, when I talk to clients like you, it's almost always one of two things. It's either this or that. Sometimes it's something else, but usually it's one of these two things. Are we close? And you kind of get them reined in a little bit. Okay. So the other thing that you can do is when you literally don't know what you're talking about and you're starting to make up stuff. So there's nothing I can do for you there except for to say, go back to school. Get some training, get some coaching. Because I. I can only help people who are really good at what they do. Okay, here's a pro tip for you. I know you've been taught this many, many times, a good firm handshake and make good eye contact. And that's generally good advice for social gatherings. But when it comes to a prospect or client conversation with a vendor, I need to know from the client side that you are understanding what I'm saying. What I'm saying matters to you. And the number one best thing for you to do is to actively take notes. And so some people get a little weird about this. They're like, well, Chris, they don't. I'm not looking their eyes. Maybe they think I'm checking my iPhone or I'm doodling or whatever. So what you would do is at the beginning of the call to say to them, what you say matters to me. It's why I'm going to be taking notes. So there could be good stretches of time. I'm not even looking at you because I'm writing notes down. I promise you, I'm not checking my stock portfolio. Taking notes is the way that you demonstrate to the other person that what they say is important. Kind of like what you would imagine someone who is waiting tables to do. You know those people who are like master memory people, and they're like, oh, what's your order? What's your order? I'm always worried you're going to mix this up. You're going to bring it to the wrong person, and you're going to do the way we've asked. It always makes me nervous. So they're trying to demonstrate their ability to recall things and how important you are, but it makes you really nervous unless you know ahead of time. This is how the restaurant does it. And they only hire people with these mega memories. The best way is just to rip out a notepad and they write down your order. And when you see that, you feel relieved. You know what's even better? Let me make sure I got your order right. You had the Cokes and this and the burgers and the fries, but no sesame seed on X, Y, Z. And you're like, yes, you're amazing. Now, that might feel like too much for you to do, but I promise you, it puts the patrons at ease when you do that. So let them know ahead of time, you'll be taking notes. And if you don't make eye contact, that it's because you're taking the notes. And that way you don't feel that weird. Like, I need to explain this to you. And here's a bonus bonus thing. Say that from time to time. It might take a second for you to respond, because it. Because you need time to process what it's being said. So this alleviates the need to just quickly bounce off the block, jump off the block and just start saying things without really thinking things through. And if you make an intentional habit of taking a pause every time they say something, they'll just get used to this cadence. Like, you're a deep thinker, you're processing. You're not one to rush out answers for answering sake.