There is a lot of competition in the edtech market which means that your marketing is going to be essential to your success. Every company takes a slightly different path toward making sales to local schools. Some companies market their products specifically to teachers who have the autonomy to choose what they use in the classroom while others think bigger. Maybe your edtech company should plan on selling to schools or entire districts. How do you decide who to sell your edtech product to?

With several different options available, many edtech companies get hung up on this one marketing dilemma. However, there are a few ways to tell whether you are best suited to sell to one group over another. Take a look at this breakdown of when you should consider selling to teachers, schools, or districts.

Teachers

Are you relatively new on the market? Edtech companies who need more feedback about their product might want to start by selling to teachers. Because teachers are the ones who see the direct effects of the program, they can offer the best feedback to companies. It’s a great place to start collecting data and endorsements from a loyal group of people.

For many of the newer companies, this also makes sense financially. You will spend less time marketing to teachers in order to gain their business. While the final sales volume will be substantially lower than a district-wide purchase, you have less invested in the sales pitch. This can help you to be more efficient when it comes to covering your own costs.

Schools

Selling to a school is going to be a much more impressive feat than selling to teachers. You must be willing to do a lot more research in order to chase down the school officials who have the ability to make purchase decisions. Before you head into a meeting, you should already know what that school needs and how your product offers a solution. You will need a product that is a lot more scalable if you intend to sell it to an entire school.

Unlike teachers that are fairly easy to get in touch with, you will have to put a little more effort forth to reach these administrators. Make friends with the people who grant you access to them and refuse to leave voicemails with information on your product. If you’ve already sold to teachers, be sure to have some of the evidence and research available for these people to peruse.

Districts

Districts will be the most difficult group to sell to for an edtech company. Because the district is responsible for multiple schools, they often have an extremely varied set of needs. Your program must be scalable and flexible enough to fit all of them. The sales will be much bigger, but you will also invest far more time and money into receiving these sales.

One of the biggest hurdles that edtech companies are likely to face with district sales is presenting enough research. Districts don’t want to make a major investment in edtech that has only one self-funded research study accompanying it. Be sure to have a much wider scope of evidence to back up the efficacy of your new product before making a district sales pitch.

Choosing whether your edtech company should sell to teachers, schools, or districts can be a difficult decision. It will depend on what your company is equipped to do and how much time you are willing to invest in making a single sale. Think about what stage of business you are at right now and evaluate which group would be the best marketing option for you.