Selling to Schools
Education Industry Days
February 20, 2014
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INTRODUCTION
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Session Summary
• This session will help participants understand the ins and outs
of selling into the K-12 Education market.
• The session will be oriented toward:
– New/emerging entrepreneurs in the early stages of their company’s
development
– New education sales executives looking to gain more knowledge of
how to successfully sell to K-12 customers.
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• Introduction
Session Overview
– Summary of session
– Learning objectives
• Overview of the landscape of K-12
– Key initiatives in K-12
• Building a Sales Strategy
– Average Deal Size
– K-12 Sales Cycle
– Buying Seasons
– Decision-makers
• Sales Models and Sales Team Structure
– Direct, Indirect/Channel, Independent Sales Models
– Inside, Outside/Field, Hybrid Sales Team Structures
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• Sales Metrics
Session Overview
– What are metrics
– Metrics by example
• Selling: The Details
– 2 Keys to Successfully Sell into Schools
– Identifying Your Decision-Makers
– ROI for Education
– Articulating Your Value Proposition
– Feature Selling vs. Solution Selling
– Using Funding
• What to Look for When Hiring K-12 Sales Talent
– What are the key traits to look for in K-12 Sales Talent
– How to uncover if your candidate has these traits
• Group Activity and Take Home Activity
• Wrap Up
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Learning Objectives
• By the end of this session, participants will learn:
– What types of sales strategies, sales models, and sales team
structures exist in the K-12 and what to consider when building your
sales plan.
– How to build sales metrics to measure your performance.
– How to identify your K-12 decision-makers and articulate your value
proposition in order to close sales.
– How to use funding to sell.
– What to look for when hiring Education sales talent.
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The Renaissance Network
• Focused on building sales, marketing, and
leadership teams for Education and
Technology companies over 17 years.
• We act as a trusted advisor for the US
Education market to help our clients build an
effective sales and hiring strategy to penetrate
the market.
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Some of Our Partnerships
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K-12 EDUCATION MARKET:
AN OVERVIEW
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Why is there an Education Market?
In order to understand how to sell into the K-12 Education
market, we must first understand why the market exists.
• How do I know I am receiving the best education?
• How do I know my children are being adequately
educated?
• How do I know if my teachers are teaching in the best
way for their students?
To successfully sell into the education space, we have to
ensure that these questions are being answered!
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US K-12 Students and Teachers
50.1M public
students
5.2M private
school
students
55.3M
elementary
and
secondary
students
Taught by 3.3M elementary and secondary teachers
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US Education Market Quick Facts
Federal
State
Local
$591 Billion in K-12
Spending
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Key Growth Directed Sub-Markets
ESL/ELL
STEM
Early
Childhood
Career
Readiness
College
Readiness
Assessment
Special
Education
PD
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Technology, Technology, Technology
• Technology is at the core of many
school initiatives including:
– Hardware
– Software
– Online teacher training
– Wireless infrastructure
• 75% of districts report stable or
increasing technology budgets for the
2013-2014 school year
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Common Core
• With 46 states + DC adopting CCSS,
a majority of districts will drive
towards purchasing new materials
or products to help facilitate shifts
to a standards-based education
model.
– 68% of districts plan to purchase
new products for the 2014-2015
school year, a product of this shift.
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BUILDING YOUR SALES STRATEGY
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Your Sales Strategy is Fundamental to
Your Company’s Success
• Having the right sales strategy
in place is fundamental to:
–Revenue growth
–Impacting student achievement
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Your Sales Strategy is Fundamental to
Your Company’s Success
• It’s a disruptive, relatively new
market with a ton of
competition…
–Your sales team must be able:
• Capture market share from the
competition
• Bring on net new customers and
retain business
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Average K-12 Deal Size
• The average Deal Size, or average
dollar amount, in K-12 can range
from a few hundred dollars to
millions of dollars.
–Largely dependent on price point
and pricing structure.
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How Your Deal Size Impacts Your Sale
• The amount of $ your product typically will impact:
– Who to sell to
– When to sell
– Complete sales process
• Some States trigger an RFP for product needs which
will result in a sale over a specific $ amount
• Typically proposals must be in during the Spring
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K-12 Sales Cycle
• The Sales Cycle is largely dependent
upon the deal size of your products
and the products themselves.
–The larger and more complex the
deal, the longer the sales cycle.
–Range: 2 weeks to 2 years (for major
initiatives)
–Typical: 6-9 months
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Typical Buying Seasons in K-12
• The Buying Season is largely dependent
upon the school calendar year and your
product.
– Needs Assessment: Spring through mid-Fall
– Purchasing Decisions: Fall through Spring
• For more complex sales, you typically start 9+
months out
• Sales activities must be completed all year
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Key Decision-makers in K-12
Federal
State
Federal Purchase for all (or some) States, Districts, and
Schools by Federal Department of Education
State Purchase for all Districts and Schools by
State Department of Education
District
District-wide (a conglomerate of 2 or more schools
within a region) by a superintendent, chief technology
officer, chief curriculum officer, school board
School
Individual School purchase by a principal, head of
curriculum, PD coach
Classroom
Individual classroom purchase by a teacher
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Piloting Your Product: What Start-ups
Should Know
• Launch test cases with pilot
programs at least a year out of
driving sales
– Collect “success data” to use as
testimonial evidence when
officially selling your product
• Free pilots can be a double-edged
sword:
– Many districts won’t want to buy
what they had before for free
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SALES MODELS AND
SALES TEAM STRUCTURE
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Sales Models and Structure
When considering building a sales
team, your:
–deal size,
–sales cycle,
–and your decision makers
all factor into the sales model and the
sales team structure you will need to
be successful.
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Sales Models: Direct Sales
• Employees of your company
• Compensation: base salary +
commissions
– Base salary: roughly 60% of total earnings
– Commissions: 40% of total earnings,
often based on quota attainment
• Ideally uncapped to reward for overperformance
• Percentages paid on revenue can vary
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Sales Models: Indirect or Channel Sales
• Selling through a dealer/reseller partnership
– Dealer will have a team of sales executives
– You may need a channel manager who is an employee of
your organization to manage the partnership
– Many products will be represented by the dealer
• Compensation (paid by dealer):
– Base salary: 70-75% of total earnings
– Commissions: typically flat $ amounts based on concrete
goals
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Sales Models: Independent Sales
Representatives
• Individuals who represent
multiple organizations and
products without being employed
by any particular organization
• Compensation:
– Base Salary: none
– Commissions: 100% of a rep’s income
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Comparing Sales Models
Direct
• Can closely
monitor activity
levels
• Can closely control
over how products
are represented
• Can quickly
address challenges
and
underperformance
• Costs more
Channel
• Larger sales
footprint
• May have costs of
channel manager
• No guarantee of
success
• Channel may sell
competing
products
Independent
• No upfront costs
• Need strong
training and
internal support
for success
• May sell
competing
products
• No guarantee of
success
* You can build a hybrid sales model.
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Sales Team Structure: Inside Sales Teams
• One or more individuals will sell
your product(s) over the phone,
email, video conference, and
webinar from your headquarters.
–Typically most effective for selling
smaller price-point deals which
are less complex and do not
require consultation face-to-face.
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Sales Team Structure: Outside or Field
Sales Teams
• One or more individuals who
travel to their customers to sell.
• Typically, field sales
representatives will work out of a
home office and live within their
assigned territory.
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Sales Team Structure: Hybrid Inside and
Outside Team
• Inside team: responsible for smaller
deals, lead generation of large deals
to the field team, and account
management.
• Field team: works closely with an
inside sales representative on larger,
more complex deals which require
face-to-face consultation
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SALES METRICS
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Sales Metrics
• A collection of individual and
organizational performance
indicators which allow you to
break down what (and how
many) sales activities are
necessary to meet your yearly
revenue goals.
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Creating Your Own Sales Metrics
• Based on your annual financial
goal, you can determine what
activities (phone calls,
meetings, proposals) must be
performed to meet your goals.
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Sales Metrics: Example
STEP 1
What is your annual financial goal?
$700,000
Step 2
Divide by 4 to get your quarterly goal
$175,000
Divide by 12 go get your monthly goal
$58.333.33
STEP 3
What is your AVERAGE DEAL SIZE?
$4,000
STEP 4
Determine the number of OPPORTUNITIES you need to CLOSE to achieve your monthly goals.
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STEP 5
What is your CLOSING RATIO as a percent of PROPOSALS SUBMITTED?
35%
STEP 6
How many PROPOSALS do you need to submit to close one deal?
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STEP 7
How many meetings does it take to generate one proposal?
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How many meetings does it take in order to achieve your ideal number of PROPOSALS?
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How many PHONE CALLS does it take to generate one MEETINGS?
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How many PHONE CALLS do you need to have in order to achieve your ideal number of MEETINGS?
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STEP 8
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SALES PROCESS
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A Long and Arduous Process
• Selling into schools can be a long and
frustrating process.
– Why?
• Because you are asking teachers, administrators, and
students to change habits and alter their past method
of performance– this can cause great stress on an
organization
• To have your product purchased and
implemented, you need buy in from many
decision-makers.
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2 Keys to Successfully Sell into Schools
• Your company’s ability to build and leverage
customer relationships.
• Your company’s ability to articulate your value
proposition in terms of student, teacher, or
school success.
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Building Relationships: Identifying Your
Decision-maker
• To build and leverage the right relationships
you must identify your key decision-makers:
– These will be both the person who will sign your
contract and the end users of your products.
– Therefore you must sell both from the top down
and the bottom up.
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Every Cause Needs a Champion
• Usually your product’s champion will be a
respected teacher/administrator who will
motivate others to buy into your product’s use
• Once you sell, use your product’s champion
(either a teacher or a higher-level official), for
testimonial evidence to help you sell.
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THERE IS NO “ROI” in K-12
• ROI is vastly different in the Education space in
comparison to other industries.
• In fact, using ROI terminology may turn off
your K-12 Customer.
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What is the K-12 Equivalent of ROI?
• K-12 decision-makers are reluctant to invest in
products unless:
– They believe the product will have a clear, positive
impact on the classroom
– They believe the product will increase student
achievement
– They believe the product will provide relief to
teachers which will positively impact student
performance
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Articulating Your Value Proposition
• Your ability to articulate your value
proposition (why your customer should chose
your product) in terms of student, teacher, or
school success is fundamental to close a sale.
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Feature Selling vs. Solution Selling
• Don’t sell technology and its functions
– Schools don’t exist for the purpose of using
technology
• Don’t sell the table of contents of your
textbook
– Instead, point to clear positive solutions teaching
your content can provide
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Solution Selling: A How To
• Know the landscape of your customer’s school very
specifically
– What is its mission?
– What are its key initiatives?
– What are the biggest challenges?
• Ask your customer consultative questions to uncover your
customer’s struggles before you mention your product.
• Then align your product to a concrete solution which you
can offer your customer based on the specific challenges or
initiatives in the school.
– Point to the positive outcomes that your product provides.
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If price point is an objection, point to
funding!
• There is a growing trend that funding (both at federal and
state level) is used for specific initiatives in school.
• Know what funding your customer has, what it must be
used for, and align your product to the funding.
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WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN HIRING
K-12 SALES TALENT
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What to look for when you are hiring for
K-12 Sales Talent
• Experience selling into K-12 (rather than HiEd or other
markets)
• Experience selling similar deal sizes to yours
• Experience selling within a similar sales cycle to yours
• Key contacts and decision makers which are the same as
yours
• Knowledge of funding opportunities
• Knowledge of key initiatives within schools in his/her
territory
• A solution selling approach vs. feature sales approach
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Additional Hiring Tips
• If you have an open or underperforming territory, don’t wait
to fix it!
– Lost sales and lost pipeline will set you back.
• When you start to hire, move quickly and efficiently- the
shorter your timeline to hire the shorter your timeline to
sales impact.
• Don’t always hire from within your own network
– The top candidate is the one selling to your customers for someone
else.
• Have a structured hiring and interview process
– Use behavioral-based interview questions specific to K-12
– Use a customized sales assessment
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GROUP ACTIVITY
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Value Proposition Mad Libs
For (target K-12 customer), who has
(customer need) , (product name) is
a (market category) that (one key
benefit) that can cause
(student/administrator/educator
outcome).
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Articulating Your Value Proposition
• Form groups of four to six (4-6).
• Within your group, nominate a sales person to target and pitch
his/her value proposition mad lib to a series of key customers.
• The other members of the group will choose from the following
roles:
–
–
–
–
–
Teacher
Administrator,
Chief Technology officer
Curriculum Director
Principal/Superintendent
• The sales person must ask appropriate questions to their group
members to uncover what are the key issues for each decision-maker.
• The sales person must then pitch their product as it relates to the
decision maker they are targeting customizing their mad lib.
• As a group, develop the core objections for the product being
pitched; work with the sales person to rebut objections.
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Wrapping Up
– Building the right sales strategy is fundamental to your success;
choose the sales model and team structure that will align to your
growth goals.
– Sales Metrics: build them specifically so they align to your revenue
goals
– Target the appropriate decision-maker for your product and use
product champions to help you get through the door.
– Align key funding or other initiatives to successfully close sales.
– Sell solutions not products: schools don’t exist for your product; they
exist to provide strong education and your products must be a
solution to the core challenges which impact education.
– When building your sales team, make sure you uncover the right
type of sales talent for your needs.
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Q&A
Contact Information:
Lisa Sacchetti, CEO
The Renaissance Network, Inc.
Sales Team Expansion Specialists for Education and Technology
lisas@ren-network.com
617-796-9210
www.ren-network.com
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