In this era of budget constraints, school districts want to make sure that they are stretching their dollar by only spending monies on edtech products that give them the most bang for their buck, and have been proven to work. Edtech has been around for over three decades, and school districts are pros at differentiating good products from bad ones. Because of this, edtech companies that are looking to sell to schools must be on their “A” games.

If you want to be successful, you must be ready to answer some tough questions. And if you don’t have the right answer to these questions, your meeting could end in disaster. In this article, I will share 40 questions that edtech companies should know the answer to before they attempt to sell to schools.

1. How long does it take the average educator to learn how to use and implement your product?
2. Has your product been validated?
3. Is your product or service effective? What research-based evidence to you have to back up your claims?
4. Is your product totally necessary? What purpose does it serve in the classroom?
5. How do you safeguard student data? Do you share this data with third parties?
6. What lengths have you gone to ensure that your product does not cause digital addiction?
7. How does your product make an educator’s lives easier?
8. Can teachers easily share data with other stakeholders?
9. How does your product track time on task?
10. Why should we choose your product over similar, less expensive or free options?
11. What is your price point?
12. How big is your company?
13. Are you financially solvent?
14. What percentage of your users/customers do you retain each year?
15. Why did these users/customers leave?
16. What does your typical user/customer look like?
17. How many users/customers do you have right now?
18. What positive feedback do you get about your product?
19. What negative feedback do you get about your product?
20. How do you use the positive and negative feedback that you receive?
21. Three years from now, what will your company look like?
22. How will your product help students learn?
23. Can students use this product to collaborate with each other?
24. What type of professional development and support do you provide? Is there an additional cost?
25. Do you offer on-site training?
26. Are the developers of your product in the education field, or are they primarily techies?
27. Where teachers an integral part of the creation of your product?
28. Can teachers or students use your product at home?
29. What will motivate students to become excited about using this product?
30. Will your product integrate with our SIS?
31. Will your product integrate with Google Classroom?
32. Will your product integrate with our digital grade books?
33. Where are your content creators based?
34. How does your product align with local, state, and national standards?
35. What supports does it provide for ESL students?
36. What supports does it provide for special education students?
37. What supports does it provide for gifted students?
38. What supports does it provide for low-achievers?
39. Does your product support interoperability?
40. Do we need to purchase anything else to increase the products efficacy or potential?

Did I miss any?