countingmyinterest

Account Executive

Politicker

Executive

Valued Contributor

Selling to higher Ed?

has anyone sold to higher Ed?

currently mulling over a new pro-serv offer for universities.

I'm anticipating longer sales cycles, more bureaucracy, but budget is guaranteed.

curious what tips you guys have

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29 comments

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braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Why do you assume budget is "guaranteed"?

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Budget is always there, until another department robs it. Usually on signing day.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Or they don't get a grant they were expecting.
Or their football team needs new equipment.

oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

I dunno about any of this. I've only sold to Mr Ed.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

🎶 A horse is a horse of course of course 🎶

countingmyinterest

Politicker

Account Executive

Yeah, budget isn't guaranteed per-say but money is there. Just need a sticky enough value prop.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

*per se
(corrected only because you'll be selling into higher ed and had best have the correct words)

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

How are you so certain as someone who hasn’t been in the seat?

countingmyinterest

Politicker

Account Executive

I'm optimistic but there are budget in higher ed for career development. plus i'm talking to other AE's who sold into higher ed and it's usually red tape that's the problem.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Let me be blunt: sell products to people who make as much or more than you would want to make. There’s very few folks in higher ed that would make you any money if you swapped seats.

So unless you’re selling infrastructure or spoofed SATs, pass and find another role that will have budget and bucks.

oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

Spoofed SATs - bahahahaha… wait. How much?

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

I knew this guy named Ed and he was always high. My roommate was the guy that sold to him.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Very long cycles, and most require a full RFP process with renewals needing a similar process. The good thing is that contracts are sticky and you can help write the renewal. The bad part, expanding is hard.

countingmyinterest

Politicker

Account Executive

Any ideas what the process looks like? Esp when selling to career services or alumni associations?

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

It depends how they have their budget allocated. If it’s independent , then you have a normal cycle. If it needs approvals, I can only pray for your soul and sweat equity on these deals. You have to go through an entire RFP process that would be anywhere from 6-24 months depending on need.

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

Yes and they will always have to get other pricing and scopes , but budget is usually there and higher ed typically is always spending at least some money

countingmyinterest

Politicker

Account Executive

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. My first course of action is a pilot/proof of concept so trying to build out sales collateral/assets

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

Case studies and references will go a long way

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Get used to committees and RFPs.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

@BmajoR 👀🍿

BmajoR

Arsonist

Account Executive

I gave up that life. Now I sell my body.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Get ready for a strict process, so it's important to get in their early so you set the process/build the rfp

Retired Sales Professional

Never assume that anything in sales is guaranteed.

youngsmoky

Celebrated Contributor

Senior Account Executive

Super long sales cycle in my experience. Tons of bureaucracy going on behind the scenes that only some champions would bother to explain to you. And sometimes that stuff tanks your deal out of the blue.

Was selling to a university. Was probably about 6 months from the initial meeting to wrapping up the trial and sending over paperwork for the contract. I emailed and called my contact (who asked for the paperwork!) and didn’t get a response for 3 weeks. My head of support decided to send the contract to the person who signed the NDA.

A couple days later we got a long phone call explaining why they weren’t using us. They gave a few reasons but the biggest was that we “went above her head” for the contract. Months of work all gone because of one email.

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

What is higher ed ? Is that to schools and colleges ? I am a little lost.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Yes - not K-12.

GDO

Politicker

BDM

I heard from former colleagues timing is everything when it comes to busget

GDO

Politicker

BDM

I heard from former colleagues timing is everything when it comes to budget

Mothy

Politicker

Account Executive

Budget is always there, but typically accounted for months in advance, so timing is absolutely key.

A lot of these people don't think in business terms in my experience, so it can be more challenging than for example calling a VP of Sales, finding they have a problem with X, your product can help with that, and it is relatively smooth sailing.

Politics and bureaucracy are rife.

Sales cycles tend to be long due to the budget piece and FY timing, but they can also be extremely short. Ours is on average 6-9 months, but we closed a couple deals last quarter in 2-3 weeks because of use it or lose it.

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countingmyinterest

Selling to higher Ed?

29 comments

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