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Do you have a sales plan for your K-12 business? Most managers say, "Yes" when asked this important question. But often those plans fall short of what is needed to drive sales and focus activity and investments. According to two K-12 industry experts, a solid education market sales plan has six components, not to be overlooked.
You make lots of promises about the ways your product will improve teaching and learning. Can you provide proof? School administrators want and need efficacy data to know if your claims are true. But is investing in effectiveness research a cost of doing business, or is it one of your best education marketing opportunities?
Win-loss analysis typically focuses on why you get a purchase order or you don't, and happens at the end of the sales process. But now, with a range of analytic tools and the power of CRM, we have the opportunity to take a much closer look across the entire range of conversions from inception to close.
It's the question we get most often: How do we get a senior district administrator to talk to us by phone or to respond to our email request to schedule a meeting? It's tough to do, especially when most inbound communications is considered "Spam." Knowing what to say when you do get that meeting is also critical to your success. Do you need better connections with the “C” level of school districts?
Does your offer of a full refund result in bigger orders from school administrators? Will a money-back guarantee help you close deals for your high-ticket products and services? It’s a popular topic of discussion with education marketing and K-12 sales managers. 
How big is the market for your product(s)? What's your piece of the pie in your key market segments? What is the revenue and growth potential? How and where do you get reliable sales data for your strategic planning purposes or for raising capital to expand? These are questions all education marketing and school sales managers struggle with. Now, there's a new way of sizing the market you'll want to know about and connect to.
The popularity of commission-only independent reps for K-12 sales is on the rise. Many newcomers to the market, and some established companies as well, want to cut sales expenses. They view independent reps as a quick, low-cost way to generate revenue. But wait--before you sign up independent reps, be well advised--there's no free lunch! Be sure you know what YOU are signing up for!
Marketing to schools, especially for products with a long sales cycle, is a real challenge. Education sales managers need to speed up the process and, in some situations, the telephone is just the right tool. Is it right for you? Here’s valuable free advice from a veteran of K-12 telesales and telemarketing.Copyright 2012 Selling To Schools www.sellingtoschools.com
