The Departure
January is budget season. Finance teams are combing through every line item, and "AI tools" is a category that draws questions. I've seen too many sales pros and SME owners lose access to the tools driving their results - not because they weren't valuable, but because nobody could explain why. Today I'm giving you the framework to make your case in under 15 minutes.
The Co-Pilot
Tool: Claude
The Use Case: Generate a concrete ROI summary for any AI tool that translates time savings into dollar value your finance team understands.
The Prompt: "I need to justify the cost of [AI TOOL NAME] to my finance team. The tool costs $[MONTHLY COST]/month.
Here's how I use it:
[TASK 1 - e.g., prospect research, 10 times per week, saves ~15 min each]
[TASK 2 - e.g., email drafting, 20 times per week, saves ~8 min each]
[TASK 3 - e.g., meeting prep, 5 times per week, saves ~12 min each]
My loaded hourly rate (salary + benefits + overhead) is approximately $[RATE or estimate $75 for most roles].
Calculate:
Total monthly time saved (in hours)
Dollar value of that time
Monthly ROI percentage
Annual cost vs. annual value
Then write a 3-sentence executive summary I can paste into an email to my manager or finance team. Keep the language simple - no AI jargon."
The Upgrade
Topic: Building Your AI ROI Case in 15 Minutes
Audit your actual usage - Open your AI tool and list the 3-4 tasks you use it for most. Estimate the frequency (per week) and time saved per task. Be conservative - underselling beats overselling when finance is involved.
Run the numbers - Plug your data into the Co-Pilot prompt above. If you don't know your loaded hourly rate, use $75 as a baseline for professional roles. The output gives you hard numbers and a ready-to-send summary.
Send before Friday - Budget decisions are happening now. A short email with specific ROI data lands differently than a vague request to "keep the subscription." Get it in front of your manager this week while the window is open.
The Landing
Your task today: Pick one AI tool you'd hate to lose. Track how you use it for the next 24 hours. Tomorrow, run the numbers and send that email. January decisions stick for the whole year - make sure yours go your way.
Safe Travels,
Marcellus