Any SDRs selling to school districts, possibly in Ed Tech? Would love to pick your brain ๐ง
What have you found to be prime calling hours?
Any advice for getting past gatekeeper the easiest?
ChocolateThunda
SDRs selling to schools
8
Yup, I used to cold call into universities in my previous BDR role. Mainly to speak to admissions counselors, job fair organizers alumni relations to essentially to essentially sell our service for job placement for recent grads/rising seniors.ย
Think similar to handshake. We were at Ed tech job placement solution. The hardest part was getting around the misconception that I was trying to find student private info(emails, numbers) etc.
ย My goal was to get on the phone with the relevant poc, learn about job placement numbers for the students post graduation and pitch how we can help them bump those numbers up, increase salary for their students and essentially white label our software so they get all the credit for their success and we get their $.ย
Think similar to handshake. We were at Ed tech job placement solution. The hardest part was getting around the misconception that I was trying to find student private info(emails, numbers) etc.
ย My goal was to get on the phone with the relevant poc, learn about job placement numbers for the students post graduation and pitch how we can help them bump those numbers up, increase salary for their students and essentially white label our software so they get all the credit for their success and we get their $.ย
Tough vertical forsure. I'd say the SDR fundamentals are true regardless of industry. Product knowledge and their challenges so you can have educated conversations over cold calls
Not sure about best time for your industry but there are a lot of discussion on the same topic (search it in bravado) both on gatekeepers and best time to call.
Able to send a URL of an example? Digging through and canโt find much
About a billion years ago I sold to school districts. Theyโre open regular business hours, and no more. Best time to catch them is the same as any other business, just understand they will not stay late. Business is cyclical, and they have use or lose budgets, so you should become very familiar with their funding structures as well as their grants. They should literally have people whose job it is to evaluate tech specifically for their districts, and those people are generally open to at least taking your call. Itโs been so long I donโt remember what the giant books we used to use to determine the district compositions and contact info were called, but the company I worked for has invested in that info so we could work our territories. I hope you have similar support and info. Hope this helps.
Heyyyyyy thatโs me!!!
I call 10-12 and like 12-2
Remember, you can call fairly early 9-10 because school starts at like 8am
Anything after 3pm is sometimes hard unless they are in IT
For getting past gate keeper Iโll mention like โsubjectโ and then another software they are using or something thatโs high priority
Hey this is BOB, can you connect me to XYZ
Who is this?
Hey this is MARY calling about eg. district data
I call 10-12 and like 12-2
Remember, you can call fairly early 9-10 because school starts at like 8am
Anything after 3pm is sometimes hard unless they are in IT
For getting past gate keeper Iโll mention like โsubjectโ and then another software they are using or something thatโs high priority
Hey this is BOB, can you connect me to XYZ
Who is this?
Hey this is MARY calling about eg. district data
I sold to universities for 2 years.
Find the best calling hours by looking up their classes. If they teach a lecture from 10-10:50 and another lecture from 1-1:50, assume that they'll be in their office from 11-1.
If you call them and they don't have students in office, you have a chance.
Also Fridays are good because students are already checked out for the weekend so nobody comes to office hours.
Find the best calling hours by looking up their classes. If they teach a lecture from 10-10:50 and another lecture from 1-1:50, assume that they'll be in their office from 11-1.
If you call them and they don't have students in office, you have a chance.
Also Fridays are good because students are already checked out for the weekend so nobody comes to office hours.
I was full cycle sales, selling to school boards (and some schools) across the Midwestern US and Western Canada.
Are you calling individual schools only, or school boards/district offices? The latter are much more business-like, so more of the usual rules apply. Definitely keep the school hours in mind, and if you're territory based then learn about local issues/initiatives/sports. I'm a K-State guy now, despite being in Canada and never really paying attention to NCAA athletics (Go Wildcats!)
Be friendly and know your stuff, don't try and tricks.
Pro Tip - 85% of school administrators are named Debbie.
Are you calling individual schools only, or school boards/district offices? The latter are much more business-like, so more of the usual rules apply. Definitely keep the school hours in mind, and if you're territory based then learn about local issues/initiatives/sports. I'm a K-State guy now, despite being in Canada and never really paying attention to NCAA athletics (Go Wildcats!)
Be friendly and know your stuff, don't try and tricks.
Pro Tip - 85% of school administrators are named Debbie.
I used to sell to charter school orgs and public school districts. The admin assistants/gatekeeper know so much information, use them!! Getting creative with invoicing/payment is key. Talk about your other customers in the area. Understand what triggers an RFP or if it needs to be approved by the board!
Good luck
Good luck
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