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Internship runs three tiers — Starter, Growth, and Enterprise — with annual contract minimums.

Starter starts at $24,000/year. Includes one program, up to 500 active learners, and email-only support.

Growth is $48,000–$92,000/year depending on programs and learner count. Includes Slack support, dedicated CSM, and Career Launchpad add-on slot.

Enterprise begins at $120,000/year and scales with rollout. Includes multi-campus support, SOC 2 reporting, custom data residency, and quarterly business reviews.

Always anchor the conversation in placement velocity (cost-per-placement) before discussing list price. If they ask for discount, the lever is multi-year commitment, not unit price.

"We already have Handshake." Handshake is a job board — a discovery layer. Internship is project-based work integration. Both can coexist; we plug into the work-experience layer, not replace what they have. Lead with: "Handshake gets students applying. Internship gets them placed."

"We built this internally." Most internal portals are static. They don't adapt to employer demand or scale beyond a single career-services FTE. We've replaced 14 internal portals in the last 18 months — every time the trigger is the team turning over.

"Our budget is locked for this fiscal year." Surface the FY end date and propose a back-loaded contract — kicks off in their next budget cycle, but locks pricing now. Especially effective in March–May.

"How is this different from InternBridge / Practera / SkillsEngage?" The wedge is two things: (1) employer-side network density (50,000+ companies with active projects), and (2) outcomes data the provost can put in front of the board. Don't compare feature lists — pivot to outcome metrics fast.

"How long does implementation take?" Two weeks for a single-program rollout. Six weeks for multi-campus systems. We do not require IT integration to launch — it's web-only.

"What about FERPA / SOC 2?" We are FERPA-compliant by default. SOC 2 Type II is available on Growth and Enterprise. Data residency: US-East by default; EU and Canada residency on Enterprise.

"What's the typical ROI?" Customers see 40–60% reduction in cost-per-placement within two semesters. Provide the case study — Heritage State's renewal deck has the most defensible numbers.

"Can faculty integrate this into their courses?" Possible but the Capstone product is the better fit for faculty-led integration. Internship is operated by career services, not faculty.

"Can we white-label?" Co-branded portals: yes, on Growth and above. Full white-label with no Riipen mention: Enterprise only.

Handshake — "Internship sits downstream. They get students applying; we get them placed. Most of our customers run both."

InternBridge — Smaller. Stronger in regional markets in the Northeast. Their differentiator is faculty-built course modules, but their employer network is roughly 1/10 the size of ours.

Practera — UK-based. Strong in Australia and the UK. Compares well on assessment tooling, weaker on employer-side. They lose on employer-side density and outcomes reporting depth.

Symplicity — Legacy career-services suite. Comprehensive but built for the 2010s. They lose to us on UX and on the modern employer network.

Internal builds — The biggest "competitor". Hardest to displace mid-cycle. Catch them at FTE turnover or budget cycle reset.

Open with outcomes, not features:

1. "Walk me through what success looks like at the end of next academic year — what does the dashboard you take to the provost actually show?"

2. "Where do students fall through the cracks today? Between applying and getting placed?"

3. "What's the buying committee here — who's the economic buyer, and who'd be the day-to-day user?"

4. "What's blocking you from launching this in your next academic term?"

5. "Tell me about your fiscal cycle. When do budgets unlock for next year?"

6. "If you brought this to the board next quarter, what's the metric you'd need to show?"

Always confirm: economic buyer, champion, timeline driver, success metric. Without all four, the deal is wishful thinking.

Direct. Specific. Outcomes-first.

Use specific numbers wherever possible. "40-60% reduction in cost-per-placement" beats "great ROI" every time. Real customer names beat anonymized ones.

Never write in marketing voice. No "transform", no "leverage", no "synergize", no "unlock potential". Talk like a peer who has done this work for ten years.

Sentences should average 12–18 words. Rare longer sentences are fine for a single complex point. Never two long sentences in a row.

Match their formality. A provost gets full sentences and Mr./Ms. salutations. A career-services director gets first-name and short paragraphs.

Use questions to advance the deal. Statements close conversations. Questions open them.

Never use these phrases — they are flagged as failed style:

— "Reaching out" / "Just checking in" / "Touching base" — meaningless filler. — "We can transform / revolutionize / disrupt" — marketing voice. — "Best-in-class" — meaningless qualifier. — "Game-changer" / "next-generation" — same. — "Synergy" / "leverage" / "unlock" — corporate cliché.

Never imply we have features we don't: — No native LMS integration. We integrate via SSO + roster sync, not deep LMS embedding. — Not GDPR-certified for student data outside the EU residency tier. — Not a job board. If they describe us as one, correct gently.

Never: — Quote pricing in writing without explicit approval. — Promise feature timelines beyond the next two quarters. — Compare directly by name to Handshake in writing — verbal only.