Teaching Your AE’s How Much to Ask For

We’re often asked, “How do you determine how much you should ask a client for?”  We were asked that by one of our clients recently, and I wrote him this email: 

There are a lot of ways we try to get to the "ask" number.  Let me outline a few:

1.     Analyze what the client tells us is not working during the Diagnosis

2.     Call.  Clients are quick to cancel things they don't believe in if they have

3.     A compelling idea supported by success stories. (During this step we’re also looking at where money is being spent that IS working.)

4.     What is the cost of doing nothing?  For example, an eye doctor had just built a $4M surgery center.  Almost as soon as it opened, he learned of changes in Medicare reimbursement for his #1 procedure, which REQUIRED his volume level to go up.  His total budget the previous year was $40K.  We asked for $125K since if he did nothing he was in big trouble.

5.     Is there an economic equation?  Alcohol rehab has 35 beds.  The average fee is $8000 for a month.  Occupancy rates are 65%.  10 unsold beds per month = $80,000 in lost revenue opportunity.  They'd spend a ton to get that.

6.     Are they in a lot of glasses?  Are we one of them?  It's all working or it’s all not working.  They're not sure.  We would consolidate to 2-4 glasses and see what the $$ might be.

7.     Do they have a big dream or a big problem on the horizon?  What’s it worth to deal with that?

8.     And then there are two biggies:

a.     Our personal comfort zone.  I'll bet you and I regularly ask for more than our newer reps will!!

b.    Our personal level of belief.  Do we believe in the power of our product to make a difference in their business?

Hope this answers your question!

I'm done with Lance and others who dont take responsibility for their actions!

Okay, I’m headed to the soapbox. Sorry.

I want nothing to do with Lance Armstrong. Not only did he lie for 15 years, but he vehemently trashed anybody who suggested that he might not be clean from drugs. Trashed them. The wife of a teammate was called a “harridan with a vendetta.” Former teammate Floyd Landis was accused of harassment.

His denials were so intense that Nike even used them in ads. “This is my body and I can do whatever I want to it,” he says in the commercial—inspirational at the time but hollowly ironic now. “I can push it, and study it, tweak it, listen to it,” he continues. “Everybody wants to know what I’m on? I’m on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?”

And in his interview with Oprah this week, all he could do was talk about how the system made him do it. I’ll bet when he was in third grade he said, “The dog ate my homework.”

So what really bothers me about Lance? It’s his failure to accept personal responsibility for his actions. Lance Armstrong took every drug. You and I didn’t have any vote in that. It wasn’t the system, it was his own lack of integrity. And it negates every single thing he did, even what seemed to be his heroic comeback from testicular cancer.

I have a pet peeve about this. I’ve watched AE’s over the years who never believe anything is their fault. It’s the company they work for… the account list they have… the buyers they call on… the economy we’re in… the birth sign they were born under. They fail to take personal responsibility. It seems to be an epidemic in our country.

I believe in the old motto, “If it is to be, it’s up to me.” So, I salute people who take personal responsibility for their lives.

In Jack Canfield’s amazing book, The Success Principles, he says the number one principle is to take 100% responsibility for your life.

So, am I sad that Lance is going to lose millions? Absolutely not. He did it to himself.