The insights from a recent Ed-Tech Leadership Collective Briefing paint a clear picture: the traditional playbook for marketing to school districts is obsolete. Today’s educational leaders are navigating a perfect storm of tightening budgets, expiring stimulus funds, and an unprecedented volume of vendor outreach.
The Briefing, co-hosted by Tech & Learning, featured two speakers from T&L’s EdExec Summit, taking place in Chicago on September 10-11. The discussion offered a sneak peek into the kinds of conversations expected to take place at this event for education executives.
Collin Earnst, Founder and Managing Partner at the Ed-tech Leadership Collective, spoke with Trina Reeves (Director of STEM and Innovation at Clayton County Schools, GA) and Joe Ayala (Director of Information Technology at Santa Clara USD, CA), to hear their candid feedback to education companies looking to market to them.
Below are the insights education companies can use to evolve their marketing and sales strategies and build lasting partnerships with schools.
The New Era of Budget Scrutiny and ROI
The days of easily accessible ESSER funds are gone. Districts are now managing the realities of inflation, cost escalators, and, in many cases, staff reductions.
Consequently, the scrutiny placed on spending has never been higher. Superintendents and school boards are demanding concrete proof of a product’s Return on Investment (ROI).
“One thing that is being asked more than ever is, ‘Is your product actually making a difference?’” Ayala said. “From the superintendent level to the board members, I’ve been asked more about ROI than I have in my entire career over the last six months.”
Trina Reaves echoed this reality, noting that shifting leadership brings intense new focus on metrics. Sharing a recent conversation with her new superintendent, she detailed his strict mandate: “’I want to see the data, I want to see usage. I want to compare it to scores, how the students are performing.’ He says if it’s not making a difference, it’s going to go.”
To market effectively in this environment, vendors must proactively assist district leaders in proving this value. Enter conversations armed with data, usage metrics, and a clear understanding of the district’s specific strategic plan and needs. Don’t put the burden of justifying a product’s cost on the district.
Cutting Through the Vendor Noise
District leaders are inundated with sales pitches. With some administrators receiving upward of 200 calls per day and countless emails, the push for a “quick win” or an immediate long-term contract can permanently damage a relationship.
“I’ve actually fired quite a few vendors,” said Ayala. “If they went really hard on the first sale, I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ll give you one sale, but we’re not going to form a partnership. You got that one PO from me, but you’re not going to get any more POs.’”
To break through the noise, education companies must pivot to a value-first, relationship-based approach:
Prioritize face-to-face interactions: In-person events are often the best way to cultivate relationships with customers. “I’ll try to make like 15 minutes when I can,” said Ayala, “but face-to-face in person meetups work best. And when I see you at a conference, don’t go straight into sales.”
▶Go slow to go fast: Building a genuine partnership can sometimes take years. Rushing a district into a long-term commitment before they have secured funding or proven the concept through a pilot will likely burn bridges.
▶Show up without an ask: Support district events, attend regional STEM collaboratives, and send check-in emails that offer value rather than a sales pitch.
▶Respect the chain of command: If an initial pilot or conversation is moving slowly, do not bypass your primary contact to pitch directly to the superintendent or principal. This is a surefire way to get blacklisted.
When you do earn that trust, the loyalty is profound. “Once you’re my partner, we’re partners and 10 toes down for you all the time,” Reaves said. “When I think of something, I’m calling you. When I need something, I’m calling you.”
Flexibility in Pricing and Implementation
Rigidity in software licensing is a major friction point for modern districts. If a tool is primarily utilized by a specific subset of teachers, vendors should not force a district-wide site license.
“There is no way I should pay for 5,000 licenses, and only 100 kids are using it,” Reaves said. “If those 100 kids are doing great but we’re spending $2 million, that’s a problem.”
When budgets are tight, vendors who adapt their pricing and packaging to match actual usage will retain clients. Furthermore, successful implementation requires ongoing PD. Because teacher turnover is high, Reaves suggests packaging PD deeply into the adoption rather than treating it as a massive, recurring separate line item that eats into a district’s limited PD budget.
Standardizing and Sharing Meaningful Data
You cannot prove ROI without accurate data, yet many edtech platforms make data extraction unnecessarily difficult. Beautiful, high-level presentation dashboards are nice, but district IT leaders need raw, exportable data to integrate with their own internal systems.
“I think the next iteration of edtech is developing some data standards of reporting data back,” said Ayala. “One easy thing that you do is make sure the usage data is easily exported.”
Vendors must collaborate with districts to define what constitutes an “active user.” Is it one login per month, or five interactive sessions per week? By establishing shared metrics and making data sharing agreements seamless, vendors empower district leaders to confidently defend the product to their school boards.
The Ed-Tech Vendor Playbook: Do’s and Don’ts
|
Strategy |
What to Do (The Partnership Approach) |
What to Avoid (The Quick-Win Approach) |
|---|---|---|
|
Initial Outreach |
Send brief, personalized emails offering value or a quick meetup at an upcoming conference. |
Cold-calling outside lines or pushing for a 60-minute demo on the first contact. |
|
Sales Pitching |
Start small with pilot programs to prove efficacy and build internal champions. |
Pushing for multiyear, district-wide contracts when funding isn’t clearly established. |
|
Data Sharing |
Provide easily exportable, raw usage data and collaborate on defining active user metrics. |
Trapping data inside proprietary admin panels that require manual screenshotting. |
|
Account Management |
Pair a field representative for relationship-building with an internal rep to handle more administrative tasks such as quotes and PO processing. |
Avoid abrupt account handoffs after closing a sale. Transferring a district account to a new representative disrupts the trust established during the sales process. Consistent, relationship-based account management is the foundation of long-term retention. |
The Bottom Line
Marketing to K-12 educators today requires empathy, patience, and a willingness to adapt. Vendors who listen to a district’s financial constraints, respect their time, and prioritize slow, authentic relationship-building will ultimately thrive.
As the conversation with Reaves and Ayala makes clear: once you prove your value and earn the title of a true “partner,” district leaders will advocate fiercely for your continued presence in their schools.
FIND THE EDEXEC SUMMIT AGENDA HERE
To build a winning strategy for the post-stimulus education market, join us at Tech & Learning’s EdExec Summit on September 10-11 in Chicago. Featuring tailored tracks for every functional leader, each session is co-facilitated by a district buyer—providing exclusive, direct insights to help you craft an actionable business plan.
