In this case we sold and delivered a $12,000 human resources audit which uncovered issues the corporation needed to fix. Then we proposed placing Eleanor, a CareerLab consultant, inside the client company. The corporate client was confused by our pricing.
He thought we planned to charge $244,000 for the coming year. I sent him a brief e-mail to explain. We won the business and Eleanor worked in-house at these rates for more than a year. The first e-mail below is from the client, the second is my reply.
From: Nelson Jowers [mailto:n.jowers@att.net]
Sent: August 16, 20-- 10:20 AM
To: wsfrank@careerlab.com
Subject: Proposal
Bill,
Thanks so much for your thoughts this morning. We think you are right on.
I'm sorry but I'm confused on the proposal for Eleanor's working in house. You suggested that this is a $125,000/ yr. type of position, which I agree with. $125,000/12mo=$10,416/mo for full time. Shouldn't the part time (20hr/wk) be closer to $5,000-6,000/mo
or
$125,000/2080hrs=$60/hr. 2080hr./12mo=173hrs/2 (i.e.20hrs/wk)=87hrs/mo@$60/hr=$5,220/mo
At $12,000/month for half time, this is a $244,000/yr. reimbursement.
Please clarify.
Nelson
Nelson,
We didn't mean to confuse you with fees and pricing.
The rate we are suggesting, $12,000/month, is the same fee you paid for the audit, for a similar effort. (Eleanor's usual rate for the same work is $15,000, so we have applied a discount.)
Although Eleanor will be on site 20 hours per week, she will probably work many more hours than 20. This kind of engagement doesn't stop when you walk out the door. We live with it.
We are proposing a three-month engagement ($36,000), during which we re-evaluate your needs and priorities. It could be that after two months we are ready to recruit your full-time Director of Human Resources.
We did not intend that you should pay us $244,000 per year. Let's keep talking until we find something that works for everyone.
Thanks,
:B