I'm a few weeks into a new gig as a Regional AE in K-12 EdTech SaaS (company is amazing so far).
Formerly I worked in EdTech SaaS selling software that covers a different school subject. I started as an AM, did very well in New, Renewal and Expansion sales. From there, they put me into a Hybrid AE/AM role where I was responsible for ALL sales in my territory, both New and Renewal. I crushed that, but the majority of my goal was still Renewal (I blew my New numbers out, but that's in part because I maximized when customers got on the hook and am a good closer).
In my new role, I have a heavily weighted New goal since a colleague handles most of the Renewal stuff. I feel a lot more need to prospect than I did before, and that seems to be a pretty universal piece of advice, but unlike many Enterprise-type roles EdTech is much more based around Relationship Selling. Simply smashing out tons emails and dials to "play the numbers game" in hopes you get some sort of engagement isn't very effective when you are selling to Educators, and it does not jive with my style either.
Some additional context: my company has about 10% of market share, but the marketplace isn't too flooded, and our brand is known and respected. We are not the cheapest product, but as far as quality/teaching methodology goes we are on a different level than any competitor at the moment. Basically if I can get someone into a meeting and they are open to change, the product will sell itself. I'd say our biggest hurdle/competitor is status quo and administrators handling teachers with kid gloves and being scared to implement sweeping changes for fear of losing teachers or just having them be uncooperative or unwilling to implement the software properly.
I'm curious if any of you migrated from an AM to an AE role and what adjustments you made (or wish you made) to be successful!
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