Sales Tips
Selling to High Schools
As the market recovers, high schools are slowly emerging from the market slowdown and are starting to reinvest. Product quality, cost and dependable service are all important considerations – so businesses that sell to high schools need to demand excellence from their team.
As it turns out, high schools play by the same rules as any other type of business; they respond to businesses that offer solid, affordable products.
If your sales strategies lack horsepower, your entire revenue stream could be in jeopardy. Here are a few simple strategies you can count on to deliver results.
Direct Marketing Strategies
Direct marketing is an effective way to sell to high schools. The benefit of direct marketing is that it is an efficient method reaching qualified prospects with targeted messaging. From a selling perspective, direct marketing establishes a platform for relationships with high schools that can benefit from your products or services.
The tricky part about direct marketing is lead generation. Since finding leads is time-consuming and difficult, we recommend using lead lists supplied by established third-party vendors. Over the years we've found that Experian is one of the best in the business with a reputation for supplying consistently reliable lists of high schools that produce high conversion rates.
Industry Developments
Inevitably, high schools are constantly adapting to the marketplace. Companies that sell to high schools need to evolve with their customers to meet changing consumer needs. B2B businesses that take a lackadaisical approach to industry developments are at a significant disadvantage, especially in this industry.
Subscriptions to trade journals and networking are essential for staying on top of industry news and developments.
How to Evaluate Sales Staff
Periodic staff assessment is essential for companies that sell in this industry. Businesses that achieve significant market share recruit the cream of the crop 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 high schools.
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