Strategize Around the Need of Institutional Decision Makers

• You think SIC-based databases adequately define institutions?
• Does sales volume determine the buying power in schools?

Schools and institutions are different from businesses. Schools need to be targeted not by their sales volume, but by wealth score, grade level or subject. Before developing an institutional marketing strategy, B2B marketers need to understand the basic difference between institutions and businesses.

Guidelines to build strategies specific to institutional decision makers

• Revolve Around Your Customer’s Mission – Institutions make purchase decision based on their missions. Therefore creating your marketing message around their mission will help in resonating with their needs.
• Keep an Eye on Fiscal Year-End Dates – Marketers can capitalize on the ‘use it or lose it’ budget system in institutions. Three months before the fiscal year end is the golden moment for marketers to gain from ‘clean-up’ spending that usually takes place in institutions. Keep in mind the typical fiscal year end dates of institutions, June 30th, September 30th and December 31st.
• Segment Your Customer Base – To identify the results of your marketing efforts, identify individual institutions by categorizing your customer base into actionable segments.

How to identify decision makers in institutions

Compared to business structures, institutions have a different decision making process and various job titles. Contacts of decision makers are not easily found on response databases or on purchase orders. Buying decisions are most often made by experience and highly-trained front line staff such as office mangers, professors, teachers and local administrators.

You need to consider the difference in marketing to businesses and institutions.

All you have to worry about is creating a relevant marketing strategy.

We will take care of finding the right institutional decision maker.

Access Our K12 Databases of Decision Makers in the Education Industry