How to Sell to Niche Markets
Selling to Engineering Schools
Most engineering schools have lean financials and demanding schedules. Product offerings, cost and service are all important considerations – so businesses that sell to engineering schools need to demand excellence from their team.
Selling is one of the hardest tasks you'll ever undertake. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that new customer acquisitions in this industry is a lofty ambition that demands diligence and respect.
Young businesses need to develop a comprehensive sales plan that leverages the lessons that have been learned by the most successful players in the industry.
How to Find Engineering School Leads
Leads are the foundation of successful selling. The first step in lead generation is to analyze the local market. From there, you can broaden your net to include the yellow pages, Internet searches and trade listings.
The names of engineering schools you obtain through your own efforts need to be qualified through personal contact and other qualification techniques.
But the most dependable source of qualified sales leads is often a third-party lead list provider. If you're in the market for high quality lead lists, we recommend Experian Business Services to our business partners. Experian has a reputation for providing accurate and filtered lead lists that can be used for direct mail and other marketing efforts directed toward engineering schools.
How to Evaluate Sales Staff
Frequent employee evaluations are a must for companies that sell in this industry. Businesses that achieve significant market share hire quality candidates and routinely evaluate them against performance goals and benchmarks.
Although annual reviews may be enough for other business units, sales units should be evaluated quarterly with monthly or weekly reviews of sales totals. Training, coaching and sales incentives can be useful for improving performance and revenues. In some instances, it may be appropriate to team underperforming sales reps with reps that have more experience selling to engineering schools.
Know the Competition
Companies who sell to engineering schools face a fiercely competitive sales environment.
Although it may not seem like it, there are many other businesses selling products that are similar to yours. As a result, engineering schools are bombarded with promotional messaging and tend to be very knowledgeable about their buying options.
By researching the competition, you gain the ability to create an effective value proposition. Although there are many ways to research your competitors, discussions with engineering schools themselves may be the best source of information.
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