August 13, 2013

Why You Need to Know How Selling to Schools Has Evolved

For companies developing products for the education industry, the greatest challenges have been distribution and finding the right person to market your product. To build a strong distribution system, you need to understand the definition of important K-12 channel partners:

  • Independent K-12 Sales Reps – Are representatives who sell to a particular geographic region and market only one or two products. They are responsible for building customer relationships and securing customers and retaining them.
  • Education Resellers – They represent businesses with a wider geographic region and have multiple sales representatives. Typically, they buy products from publishers and resell it to schools and education institutions.

Marketing to schools has evolved over the years:

  • Superintendents remained in their districts for years and were not required to justify their decisions.
  • With key people in the district changing jobs frequently, relationships that would earlier develop over the years now have a life span of months. 
  • Resellers’ relationships with top executive were enough to influence decisions. Today, buying decisions need to accounted and defended.
  • The process of decision making has evolved from traditional, relationship-based systems to a more formal and organized approach.

Without knowing how to sell to schools
It will be difficult to market your product 
Moreover, getting in touch with key people is essential


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