Weigh the service options

By the end of this task, you will be able to turn a customer objection into a comparison your manager can decide from, with every assumption behind it named and testable.

Your situation

Lidia Holloway said it in the room, in front of the VP who signs: "We've had two bad Decembers. I'm being asked to pay to fix something that should already work." She was talking about Peak Season Planning, priced at $9,500 in your proposal.

Lynne Robbins took it. She promised an answer inside two weeks, which means she needs one from you inside one.

There are three live options: bundle it into the recovery work at no charge, hold the price as proposed, or defer it to next peak. Each costs something different, and each rests on an assumption about a pattern repeating.

Files you'll use

How to read the prompts

Each prompt below is one block you can copy whole. The # lines are labels, not instructions — they mark where the prompt stops setting the goal and starts giving the context, the sources, and the expectations. Copying them along with the prompt does no harm.

Those four moves, in that order, are what makes a prompt work. Use the same shape when you write your own.

Steps

1. Open Excel and attach the service catalogue and the national performance workbook.

2. Build the comparison.

   goal

   Build me an options comparison for the peak season service the customer pushed back on.

   context

   At the March review their procurement manager said she is being asked to pay to fix something that should already work. My sales manager promised an answer inside two weeks. The three live options are to bundle it into the recovery work at no charge, to hold the price as proposed, or to defer it to next peak.

   sources

   Use the service catalogue, the twelve months of national performance, and the meeting transcript.

   expectations

   One row per option, with what it costs us, what it costs them, what it fixes, and what it leaves unfixed. Mark every figure that is a projection rather than an actual.

3. Now make the reasoning visible. An options table with hidden assumptions is a guess in a suit.

   goal

   Make the assumptions under this comparison explicit.

   context

   Two of these options rest on the November and December pattern repeating, and one rests on a volume band we have not reached yet.

   sources

   The comparison and the performance data behind it.

   expectations

   List each assumption, what it would take to test it, and how the recommendation changes if it turns out to be wrong. Say which single assumption carries the most weight.

4. Turn the objection back on your own recommendation before your manager does.

   goal

   Argue against my recommendation using the customer’s own words.

   context

   Their procurement manager is procedural, checks what she can, and already said this out loud in front of the VP who signs.

   sources

   The comparison and the transcript.

   expectations

   The three strongest objections she can raise, in the language she used. For each, the answer I can support with evidence, and where I have no answer yet.

5. Move to Word and write the note Lynne actually reads.

   goal

   Turn this into a one-page decision note for my sales manager.

   context

   Lynne Robbins owes the customer an answer inside two weeks and will make the call herself. She wants the decision, not the analysis.

   sources

   The comparison and the assumptions.

   expectations

   The recommendation in the first sentence. Then the options in one line each, the assumption it rests on, the risk of being wrong, and what I need her to decide. Under one page.

6. Save the note. Task 10 uses the same evidence to look forward instead of back.

Check your work

• The recommendation is in the first sentence, not the last.
• Every figure is marked as an actual or a projection.
• Each option names the assumption it depends on.
• The strongest objection appears in the note, with your answer to it.
• There is one decision asked of Lynne, not three.

Stretch prompts

Starting out — get the shape:

Compare three options for a service the customer says they
should not have to pay for: include it free, hold the price,
or defer it. One line each on cost, benefit and risk.

Comfortable — find the breaking point:

At what point does bundling this service free stop being
worth it to us? Give me the volume, the margin and the number
of accounts where the answer flips, and say which of those I
can actually check.

Confident — argue the other side:

Write the case for holding the price, as our finance lead
would make it to Lynne Robbins. Then tell me which part of
that case my recommendation does not answer.