edtechstartup

COO

Contributor

Fire Starter

Selling to schools - Do's and Don'ts?

Anyone with experience from selling edtech to schools and districts?

We are a Norwegian startup, and now we need to learn to sell to US schools!

We are product-led with great user growth in the US and lots of sales experience from Norway.

Any great advice?

Any states to avoid? Any tips and tricks? When do they usually buy?

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35 comments

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CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

@BmajoR👀

BmajoR

Arsonist

Account Executive

honey bb

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

I had a lot of success selling EdTech. Go for the district, not the school.

More likely to be able to approve the budgets and larger deal sizes. You'll do a lot of chasing at the school level.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

We never targeted schools - too busy and the deals are too small.

Districts, COEs - yes. Better still if you had Chicago, NY or Los Angeles to sell to.

edtechstartup

Contributor

COO

This is a nice strategy, in Norway we mostly sell directly to "states". Who would you normally start to contact?

edtechstartup

Contributor

COO

This is great advice, thanks a lot! Do you have any experience selling premium on self serve products to the districts? We have X teachers in your district using our product etc?

GDO

Politicker

BDM

high schools or uni/college?

edtechstartup

Contributor

COO

elementary and high schools

GingerBarbarian

Opinionated

Lead Sales

Each school district can operate in different ways. In most states, Board of Education members are elected and joined simply to feel like they are important decisions ision makers. They are often really plugged into the school gossip chain. Those may be who you want to start with. They may be who you want to start with.

edtechstartup

Contributor

COO

Thanks, this is great advice. So you mean to start to set up a meeting with someone in the board of education?

GingerBarbarian

Opinionated

Lead Sales

Even if it is not a meeting at first, they are a great resource for information on WHO you need to have a meeting with and what is important to them

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

I think I saw @Sunbunny31say they worked there once

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Thanks, Kosta.

Not sure what you're selling, but in general:
-US Schools buy on cycles - they typically have an annual budget, and will purchase off that money. Much of that money is use or lose, so there are last minute purchases of things they may find useful at that time.
-Educational materials are also often purchased through a cooperative - so you'll need to research those and which districts/regions use them.
-Many districts have purchasing processes - and many will engage with you to help you figure out how they buy. There's often a bid process.
-Grants may be important here. Some districts or schools get specific grants for purchases. Search to see if your product fits into a category that schools are looking to acquire.

Be advised of programs that the US Department of Education as well as each State have in mind. Guidelines and measurements are based on those programs, and schools are more likely to invest in things that align to those programs, as they are most likely to be fundable.

My experience is 20+ years ago, so I'm most likely forgetting some important things, but hopefully this gives you enough to get started with.

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

I am not from this background, but this somehow brings a lot of perspective to selling to schools! Thanks !

edtechstartup

Contributor

COO

Thanks a lot, this was great!

punishedlad

Tycoon

Business Development Team Lead

I'm currently selling edtech, and a lot of what you said still holds true. I'm part of a team that focuses on in-person interactions which has boosted our annual revenue by over 4 million in 2022 with a team of 12 people (and growing).

Not sure the in-person aspect will apply if you're based in Norway.

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

This is also dependent upon which region of the U.S.A. you are selling to. for example, DMs in the northwest are primarily going to be the superintendents. Whereas a highly populated area like say Orange County in Orlando Florida, you will be dealing with the district, not the individual schools.

edtechstartup

Contributor

COO

This is interesting, thanks a lot!
I thought the superintendents where the managers of the districts, what have I gotten wrong her?

edtechstartup

Contributor

COO

This is awesome! Let me know if you would have time for a 20 min call sometime. I would love to hear more about what you have done!

punishedlad

Tycoon

Business Development Team Lead

@antiASKHOLEnot sure what you mean here. @edtechstartupis right, supers manage districts. Not individual schools. The super is going to be the decision maker 9 times out of 10 regardless of where you are. The only exceptions are when it's a large enough district to have a CTO (you'll run into this in northern Illinois and other large metros). But even then, the super usually has to sign off on it.

Board approval is another thing you'll have to navigate.

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

in the midwest or rather in Michigan and Ohio, superintendents manage individual schools. I sold to them myself, the boards didn't have a say in it at all.

punishedlad

Tycoon

Business Development Team Lead

Brother, I live in Michigan and sell to Michigan schools currently. I go through the superintendent for *district wide* adoption. I have had to have board approval multiple times.

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

Well, I am sharing my experience of which is different than yours I guess. Tomato-tomato

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

I'm also originally from Michigan btw. so fist bump to you on that one brother.

Lambda

Tycoon

Sales Consultant

pretty comprehensive breakdown <3
Only thing I might add is that if they school itself doesn't have the budget, look to the state department, those budget contacts can always add a zero if the product is valuable and you position it that way

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

But you might also have a county Office of Education. For example, nearby is the Sonoma County Office Of Education, or SCOE. They may buy for the entire county OR you might be talking to the Superintendent of different districts - and there are a surprising number of those districts. Some are high school only, some are USDs covering all ages and schools, both primary and secondary. It's a patchwork, all across the nation. Can make it very interesting!

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I'd say that what you want to do at the state level is learn what they're working on. Every state has a different philosophy for their schools and how they plan to meet the requirements set down by the US Department of Education. CA DOE is going to be different than TX DOE, which will be different than PA DOE etc. So finding out what's important at the state level will definitely help when discussing how your edtech will help meet those goals when talking to districts or each county.

edtechstartup

Contributor

COO

This is awesome @punishedlad ! Let me know if you would have time for a 20 min call sometime. I would love to hear more about what you have done!

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Who even buys at schools?

ilovemondays

Executive

Senior Account Executive

In Brazil it is usually the principal, but most schools, both private and public, have an Executive Director and an Educational Director. You are usually speaking to the latter alone, with full authority, when it comes to educational products.

If the school's big enough, IT will have its own Director (2000+ students), whom you must win first.

Selling software is best done through the high level execs, selling books and other materials, to the teachers in charge of Coordinating each discipline (Math, Bio, P.E., Chem, Phys, etc...). There is one such head for each discipline (subject) in every school here.

If you're selling high ticket stuff, go to the National Manager when selling to private education, go to the State Secretary of Education when selling to public education (bids will be involved in the latter).

BmajoR

Arsonist

Account Executive

Are you selling to K12 or higher ed?

edtechstartup

Contributor

COO

K12

BmajoR

Arsonist

Account Executive

Familiarize yourself with each states laws, especially around privacy. New York for example has this thing called Ed Law 2D around privacy compliance and it's a pain in the ass to deal with.

100% focus on districts only, or consortiums are even better.

Use tools like GovSpend and free reporting to track financials and gain some insight into spending habits.

Most schools FY starts July 1 and they finalize their budgets by April-May at the latest, typically by March. So, you need to be having long term conversations and playing around their FY. If you miss their budget and they don't have grant money, you're stuck waiting till the next cycle.

As for targets, start with academic affairs and IT - they tend to run the show regarding edtech purchases.

Oh and if your product is cloud based, make sure to use US servers. I've yet to come across K12 that allows non US based servers.

edtechstartup

Contributor

COO

Thanks a lot!

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Told you @BmajoRis the guru 🔥

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edtechstartup

Selling to schools - Do's and Don'ts?

35 comments

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