Shoot for the moon

When making a recommendation always ask for twice as much as you think the customer will buy. There are several reasons for doing this. First this gives you some room to negotiate. If the customer wants to cut back on the proposal, you can do so and still give them a program that will work. Once you quote a price, this becomes the "set point." This will position you smaller program as a "savings" in the customer's mind. Think about the late night info-mercials that say "you would expect to pay $100, many have paid $75...", this is exactly what they are doing. Selling "big" also protects you from leaving money on the table. Research has found that most sales people under-estimate what their customers are willing to pay. A bigger ad will give the customer dominance and a bigger space to tell their story. I believe that more advertisers are lost because they were undersold than were lost because their rep sold them too much. Larger program produce bigger more noticeable responses. You'll be surprised how many customer will respond with a "YES!" when you recommend an aggressive program.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks

Jim Busch