Marketing services for schools

There was a time when schools were a division of the local authority. Any decisions, from photocopiers to supply staff were centrally controlled from a central budget. The opportunity to sell into a school was very limited. Even maintenance contracts or stationary supply was carried out centrally.

Marketing services for schools and academiesHowever, since the start of academy status, things have changed. Whatever your political views on how the school budgets have changed, it does open up a market that was once closed to all but a few big players. If you have a good solution that is valuable, useful and affordable to schools there are plenty of opportunities.

But how do you get through to this difficult market?

Here are 7 ideas for breaking through and selling into schools:

1. Create a product that is just for them

Schools may be run more like a business than ever before, but they are not businesses. They have their own priorities and morals. If you go to a school and speak like you would do to a business, you won’t get very far. Adapt and mould your product or service to suit the particular problems that schools face and you will get a lot further.

2. Time your marketing

Whilst a business is open all year round with the average employee taking four weeks off, a school is very different. Teachers have 13 weeks holiday a year and schools are closed for two weeks at Christmas and Easter. Plus, there is the extended six week summer holidays and half term breaks. If you have ever tried to make an appointment at a school, you will discover that ‘getting things finished before the holidays’ or ‘catching up after the holidays’ is a common phrase.

There is also the exam season and the shorter days. Add in that most teachers can’t be contacted by phone because they are teaching, it becomes clear just how hard it can be to speak to your prospect. So, focusing activity on specific times of the year (depending on your product) is a real deal breaker in education than almost any other sector.

3. Use the language

Whilst nobody likes being tied up in jargon, teaching – like every profession – has its fair share of abbreviations and phrases that only others ‘in the know’ understand. These phrases change all the time, so it’s a good idea to properly understand the language and the many abbreviations that get used in and around the staff room.

4. Problem areas

There are always areas that cause problems in schools. This can be related to funding, new qualifications, skills shortages in certain subject areas or a dozen different pitfalls. In order to sell your product to a school, you need to understand what problem you are potentially solving. Schools don’t really buy ‘nice to have’ products. They need to spend their budget effectively, so make it clear what specific problems you are solving for the school and then you will start the conversation.

5. Don’t hurry

The bigger the product or the more expensive it is, the longer you are likely to have to wait for the order. Many schools need to go through various stages to approve funds. Unless it is a small spend, it is likely to have to go through some type of filtering process. It’s not uncommon for a decision to take a term and the actual sale to take an academic year. This is only a problem if you imagine you will get a decision for your product the next day. That might happen, of course, but it’s a bad idea to bank on it.

6. Think long term

Once you sell into a school and do a good job, two things will happen. First of all, you are likely to lock out your competitors for at least as long as that member of staff remains. Secondly, that member of staff is likely to tell other local schools. Positive word of mouth is remarkably effective in schools, and because schools and specific departments get together on a regular basis, having a product that does what it says it will do is likely to spread quickly. On the other hand, a bad product will also get a reputation just as quickly.

7. Keep things simple

Finally, if you are selling into schools, you are selling into a group of people who are BUSY. They are rushing from classroom to classroom, from meeting to meeting. Whatever you are selling, spell out the benefits as clearly as you can and make you point on the cover of your brochure or the headline of your email.

You don’t have time for subtleties. You don’t have time for jokes and a slow build up. By that point, your marketing material will be in the bin. Instead, make it clear from the first sentence what it is you are selling and why it will save the school money / save them time / enhance their reputation. Don’t mess around and be coy. Bold simple statements about what the problem is (as you understand it) and how you can help are the best way to increase your sales. We are all busy, but teachers are often busy and under pressure so don’t waste their time or their intelligence.

If you are thinking of selling into a school environment and would like assistance in reaching this valuable marketplace and would like Marketing services for schools and academies , contact The Ideal Marketing Company about ways that we have used in the past to sell to schools.

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