UK schools spend around £85 billion EVERY YEAR!  The education market is a dynamic, innovative sector that loves new technology and ideas which have a genuine impact on young people’s lives.  So why are schools so difficult to sell to?   How many of these frustrations have you felt:

​​

• If there are 30,000+ schools in the UK alone, why aren’t more of them buying my product?
• The market’s completely saturated; there are tons of competitors with lower-priced products and the big companies take all the market share
• If schools only knew about my company they’d definitely buy – the product sells itself
• The schools who use my product think it’s good, why don’t the others understand?
• Why am I not further ahead by now?  What am I missing?

​

My guess is you may have felt most of the above as almost everyone selling into education does!

The truth of it is, selling to schools is VERY different to business and consumer selling.  Schools are under enormous pressure to perform from the government and parents alike while, at the same time, managing a complex and usually dwindling budget.

Add to that the fact that they are being sold to by everyone and receive literally hundreds of pieces of sales literature (emails, letters, brochures, phone calls) every week.  Your message will really need to resonate to cut through all the noise.

To successfully sell to schools you need to have the following:

• A value proposition which genuinely articulates what problem it is you’re going to help that school solve. No wishy-washy language here – get straight to the point.
• A good idea of exactly which schools, and which people within those schools, are your ideal customers. Trying a scattergun approach such as a national telesales or email campaign is unlikely to work – you’re simply throwing money away.
• A compelling reason for schools to talk to you. What are you providing them with which is of value to them?  Why should they give up their time to talk to you?

There are more tips in my blog 3 mistakes nearly everyone makes when selling to schools.  It’s not easy cracking the education market but it’s a genuinely innovative and rewarding market when you do  ?

Following on from my last post on the importance of Product Partners and how they help software organisations increase revenue, I was asked what to do once you’ve identified a potential software partner.  How do you make that partnership work?

There are no hard and fast rules and every Product Partnership will be different.  However, here’s my checklist for getting a successful partnership off the ground:

1. Business Alignment

You need to define a strategic mutual vision of success for the parties involved outlining how each can leverage the strengths of the other.  You have to be brutal here though and include looking at how any partnership might adversely affect your business in the future.

2. Business Planning & Governance

A business plan that clearly states missions, objectives and revenue goals is essential, and must be reviewed at set time intervals to make sure this strategy remains relevant and in line with your company’s priorities.

 3. Contracts

Contracts should be put in place to agree the type of relationship, responsibilities, mutual risks, rewards, payments, service level agreements, branding guidelines and rules of engagement.

 4. Technical Interoperability

Customers need to feel confident about the commitment of both companies behind their joint solution, so you’ll need to work with your Partners to ensure and communicate that both products and/or services work seamlessly together.

5. Executive Engagement

Senior Executives within partner companies are key influencers so it is imperative they are on board with the partnership vision and regularly communicate the overall alliance goals.

6. Marketing

Strategic consistent communications, internally and externally, will need to be conveyed throughout the alliances. Your partnership should create a joint Value Proposition unique to customers which will be promoted through marketing content.

7. Sales & Compensation

When working with Partners, each party involved will need to determine who in the sales teams gets rewarded and how they get compensated.  Your sales teams need to be well-versed on the collaboration with a consistent message; they need to be equipped with the necessary tools to effectively verbalise and demonstrate the partnership.

For many software companies there is a real challenge in continuing to develop the software to keep pace with changes in their sector. To be successful you need a business strategy that makes sure you meet the needs of customers in your target market . . . and it’s here where Product Partners play a crucial role.

Product Partners are different to straightforward channel resellers who include your software in a portfolio of other solutions to sell to their target market. Instead, Product Partners have created software of their own which adds value to your existing solution. They can help you to offer a functionally-rich solution, create better revenue opportunities, position your company as the strongest supplier, and create new active and passive income streams.

There are four main different types of software Product Partner, all of which need to be carefully managed to make the business successful:

1.      Advocate partners – this is where you would recommend a partner product and company to your customers in return for remuneration, but would remain in control of the sale from proposal through to closing. It’s a low-touch partnership to add value to your solution.

2.      Strategic partners – these are high-value relationships between your company and the Partner, working together for common goals and revenue-share incentives and aligned around the same values and messaging.   This involves working in true collaboration and allows your business to position itself as a leading supplier in a given deal.

3.      Technical partners – partners who pay a fee to pass information between their product and your product, but their product does not feature within your portfolio. This can represent a separate but active revenue stream for your company.

4.      Referral partners – you would pass leads to Partner companies in exchange for commission remuneration, either per lead or per sale, and allow them to lead the sale through to closure. This is more of a passive income partnership where you are allowing partner companies to capitalize on your customer base in exchange for % revenue.

Whichever Product Partner strategy you go for (and it can easily be a combination of all four) it’s important to keep the main goal of any partnership in mind; both sides must get value from the relationship.

Selling is difficult.  It’s not enough to talk about your product and hope your prospect will buy – there’s always a lot more going on than that.

Here are my top 3 painful truths you need to get your head around when it comes to selling:

Painful truth #1: Nothing is “too expensive”.   It’s more likely your potential customer doesn’t see your thing as having the value you think it does.

Have a look at your Value Proposition; it should be a clear statement of the value your product will deliver and should be the main reason your potential client will buy from you.  Is your Value Proposition clear?

Painful truth #2: When your customer tells you their reason for not buying, it’s not a good idea to believe it.  I’m not saying that people wilfully go all out to lie to you, it’s just that it’s always worth exploring further as there might be a win-win situation you’re both missing.  It’s up to you to find out the REAL reason and address it – don’t expect people to lay themselves bare.

Painful truth #3: “I’ll think about it” means ‘No’.  As does “Send me a proposal”. You need to get to the reasons behind the decision process to be able to influence that sale.  Walking away with a promise of either of the above puts it out of your hands completely.

Many organisations would claim to be Customer-focused and, indeed, hold it up as their USP and a reason to do business with them. In truth, to say you’re focused on your customers should really come as standard. Keeping customers happy and giving them the products and services they need is basic business common sense.

However, being just Customer-focused is the old way of doing things; to be truly successful you need to start being Customer-centric – an entirely different approach.

Customer-focused organisations

Customer-focused organisations address customer needs as a way of addressing business goals. They look at how they can get more business by creating a product or service that is ‘better’ than the competitors (and in the software industry this often means ‘has more functionality’) or is cheaper than the competitors. The reasons for being Customer-focused are about maximising revenue and this often comes across as a bit self-serving.

Customer-centric organisations

Customer-centric organisations aren’t just responding to customer needs. They spend time properly understanding their needs and creating a strategy that brings long-term mutual benefits. And they do all of this while delivering a great product to the customer and creating an easy and positive experience for their customers to buy. The revenue which results from this approach is a result of the degree to which their customers have been satisfied.

Customer-focused organisations make decisions that superficially address customer expectations, driven by their desire for improved profit performance. Customer-centric organisations make meaningful changes in order to address their customer’s expectations.

And it’s the Customer-centric approach that results in increased engagement, support, loyalty – and essentially profits – from a happy, expanding customer base.

This post is about the question I am undoubtedly asked the most by large and small businesses alike: how do I reach the right person?  Everyone wants to be able to get an audience with the elusive ‘decision maker’ and it still remains one of the most difficult challenges facing growing businesses.

The reality is that, within education, the actual name of whichever person you are trying to contact (be that an Assistant Head at the local secondary school or an Assistant Director of Children’s Services at a local authority) is usually quite easy to find.  The real question is not how to ‘reach’ them, but how to engage with them.  These are my top tips for engaging the right person to help drive your business.

Do your research

Due to the nature of the education landscape, contact names within schools, academies and local government can almost always be found either with a bit of online research or by putting in a phone call to the relevant organisation.  A lot of info can be gleaned from DfE lists (although I would double-check the details as this goes out of date quickly) and there are lots of companies who will provide data for you.  Spending time on getting the right contact details will not only increase your success rate, but also present a professional and credible image for your company.

Approach your contacts in the right way

Much as we would like it to, cold-calling and traditional telesales campaigns rarely work when it comes to reaching high-level decision makers in the education market.  Ultimately the people you are trying to contact are unlikely to ever be in a position to answer the phone to an unknown outside organisation.  They are more likely to be busy with teaching and pastoral duties, dealing with parents and working with the SLT.  However, our research shows that these decision makers do make time to go through their email and open their addressed post so it’s likely that first contact made in this way is likely to have a greater impact.

Say something that’s relevant to them

All too often I see letter and email campaigns based around how good a company’s product or service is which implores the decision maker to find out more.  In reality, the way in which your solution works is never going to create engagement with the high level contact you’re trying to reach as, while its important to you, it’s unlikely to be important to them.  Think about what is on their mind, what’s keeping them awake at night.  For example, a school may be having a particular issue with truancy; as a result the Assistant Head may be looking for something which helps ensure that school is safeguarding children.

Ultimately, if your campaign shows that you understand what’s important to them and, better still, articulates how your solution will help with the issue (the ‘value proposition’ which I will cover in another post) then you have a far better chance of engaging with the right person and creating a meaningful relationship.

Good luck and be patient; it is possible to reach the magical ‘decision makers’ but it takes a bit of planning and a lot of effort!

Sarah

So you’ve created a product, be it a piece of technology, clever software or an invaluable service, and you’re pretty sure it’s something schools need and would love to buy.  But when you start contacting schools to tell them about your fabulous product by post, phone and email you get no response.  Where are you going wrong?

Selling to schools is VERY different to business and consumer selling.  Schools are under enormous pressure to perform from the government and parents alike while, at the same time, managing a complex and usually dwindling budget.  Here are the top 3 mistakes nearly everyone makes when selling to schools:

1. Schools are buildings – they don’t buy.

Companies tend to try and sell to schools generically as if it is the actual school that’s going to buy.  But schools are buildings, bricks and mortar, it’s the people inside who will have a need for your product.  Have you thought about who it is you need to target?  Will your product support teaching and learning and, if so, do you know which teachers to try and contact?  Is your product designed to save time and money in the office and, if so, do you know who the business manager is?  Thinking about your end user will help you reach the right person.

2. Decisions take time because there are lots of people involved

Salespeople often wonder why a school hasn’t purchased because they don’t take into account the decision-making process for schools; they almost always forecast the sale to close way too soon (if at all!).  In schools, it’s not unusual for the vast majority of purchasing decisions to go to a Governors meeting for discussion and approval and this may only happen once a month.  In addition, if a purchase is over a certain threshold then they usually need to speak to other suppliers and get quotes to be absolutely sure they’re getting best value.  This means the sales cycle can be quite long and is very competitive – you need to make sure your product offers real value!   In the case of really large purchases a full competitive tender will be required which can take months so you need to forecast carefully.

3. Never underestimate the power of peer-to-peer recommendations

Teachers, school leaders and support staff respect the opinions of their peers within the education industry.  If you can build a relationship with a team at a school and prove the value of your product or service then the introductions they can make for you could be priceless.  However, it works both ways so not making good on a promise or delivering something of low quality could lead to a dent in your reputation.  Either way, never underestimate the power of peer-to-peer recommendations, education networks are vital when selling to schools.

These are my top 3 common mistakes but there are many, many more!  What’s your biggest challenge when selling to schools?

All too often businesses embark on sales and marketing activity, both inbound and outbound, with one single goal – to reach and engage with the elusive ‘decision maker’.  And if you are lucky enough to reach and engage with an actual decision maker then that is a wonderful thing, but it’s unlikely to result in much of the way of business if you haven’t engaged with other people in the process.  Here are two good reasons why you should never obsess with the decision maker when you’re creating your sales and marketing strategy:

They’re not the person with the need

The person who can place an order may not be the person who has the ‘need’ you are trying to fulfil with your solution . . . meaning your marketing efforts are likely to fall on deaf ears.  For example, if your product or service helps businesses close sales more quickly, target those people who have the greatest need for this (e.g. sales managers).  If they are sold on what your product does then they will become your biggest asset when it comes to influencing decision makers.

Making decisions does not necessarily equal placing orders

Within most businesses there is rarely a single point of decision-making or a single budget holder.  Of course there will be somebody who physically places orders but they will do so based on the consensus of key stakeholders – ignore these at your peril.

A successful sales and marketing strategy needs to be built on clever targeting based on the answers to a few very simple questions.  Who are my stakeholders?  Where are they?  What do they need?  Understanding the answers to these questions can create all sorts of new opportunities for your business to engage with your customers.

If you’re reading this then I’m guessing you have a blog and are creating lots of content designed to interest and attract your target market over to your website.

However, it’s hard work coming up with ideas, and takes time to write a decent blog and share it across the relevant platforms.  It makes it all the more frustrating when, after all the blood, sweat and tears, no-one seems to be reacting to your blog.  It’s like nobody cares.

So what’s the one simple thing you can to generate more business from your blog?  Add a visual Call To Action.

A Call To Action is a clickable image which drives the reader to take additional action once they’ve read your blog.  They’re most traditionally associated with e-commerce (think the ‘buy now’ button you find on websites) but they should be used with all content marketing to drive the type of behaviour you want.

It’s important to think about what it is you’d like your readers to do after reading your blog post and this will depend on your type of business.  If your business offers services and consultancy then your Call To Action should encourage the reader to get in contact to discuss their requirements so you can make some recommendations on how to help.  If you sell software or solutions then perhaps your Call To Action could offer a free trial.

Once you’ve decided on your Call To Action all you need to do is create a nice visual image which clearly states your desired action and include it with every blog post.  Easy peasy eh??  Actually it is.  I created the Call To Action image below for my education consultancy using a powerpoint slide and a free stock photograph (if you’d like the template just get in touch and I’ll make it available).

Fancy a free 30-minute phone consultation?

The vast majority of my clients offer products and services, but visual Calls To Action such as the one above sound obvious but are often over-looked as a marketing tool.  The key is to make them clear, simple and highly visible; they’re fantastic for creating deeper engagement and make it easier for your potential customers to come to you.

Everyone knows that to look credible and professional your business should have a website.  However, when you’re first starting out it’s difficult to know what to include so I’ve created the list below of website essentials – things you MUST include from the beginning to get your business going:

 1. Overview of the product/service itself – this is an obvious one but it needs to be really clear from the outset what it is your product or service does and the benefits users can expect.  There also needs to be a very clear and easy way to make a purchase.

2. Contact details – how many times have you been on a website but can’t find a number to call them on for love nor money? You’ll need to include a company phone number and company email address to field any enquiries and make is as easy as possible for your customers to engage with you.  People prefer to call landline numbers but if you don’t have a business landline there are lots of companies who provide virtual landline numbers for a few quid per month.  You should also make sure that your website has links to your social media platforms so people can easily follow you; be sure to include your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other details across the website.

3. Customer stories/case studies – any feedback you get from the people using your product or experiencing your service is hugely valuable.  Try to capture as much in writing (or video/voice recording) as possible and request permission to use it on the website and marketing.  Peer recommendations are so important so you will want to use positive feedback as much as you can.

4. About Us – you use an area like this to provide some reassurance around the fact that this company knows what it’s doing!  It’s here where you can talk about your background and experience and position yourself as a leader in the field.  You can also add links to press and publications if you wish.

5. Blog – this is an area you should use to write about topics which are interesting to your target market, and then post links on social media and in email newsletters.  The objective here is to drive extra visitors to your website who may then buy.

6. A way of collecting contact information – once you’ve encouraged visitors to your site, you need to find a way of capturing their data so you can build a list of leads. You should include a sign up box for a newsletter and maybe offer a free resource such as an ebook in exchange for contact details.  There are all sorts of options using pop-up boxes so you should explore and find the one which works best for you.

There are lots of free website building resources out there so you can have a practise run on a variety of platforms; the main thing is to make sure the website gets across exactly what your customers need to hear.

Creating your first business and first website can be intimidating but if you follow the guidelines above you’ll include everything you need to launch.  Your website is a key element of your overall marketing strategy as it’s your shop window for potential customers – it’s worth spending time getting the content right.