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!