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3 Steps to Building Relationships with Educators

November 14, 2019

By: Leah Rodgers

When it comes to reaching out to school contacts to inspire interest in your product, your message should never be one-size-fits-all. Starting off on the right foot with a school begins with becoming familiar with their setting. Fortunately, public information is at your fingertips online. Before you cut and paste your basic selling points and hit “send,” take the time to research your target school or district. Here are three steps to make sure your first conversation is strong enough to put you on the road to not just a deal, but an ongoing relationship.

 

building relationships with educators

 

Identifying Your Outreach Contacts 

Your outreach decisions should be based on the size of the district and the state rules revolving around budget and curriculum. Luckily, school budgets and board meeting notes are both public. Use this information to strategically identify which districts to approach.

From there, you can focus your search to determine who exactly you should be contacting. Depending on the situation, you might need to speak with a principal or curriculum director. In other cases, you might need to speak to a group of decision-makers, such as technology staff members and the director of professional development.

This requires you to understand which educators will actually use your product and how they’ll use it. If it’s an app or an online tool, for example, the technology director will need to be involved in any decision-making to ensure that your product is compatible with their LMS and other existing tools.

 

Understanding District Needs and Challenges

Again, use the public information available to you online to learn why specific schools and districts might need your product. Are their standardized test scores lacking? Are they experiencing student behavioral issues? Are they having trouble with student or educator engagement?

Knowing their needs will allow you to enter into that first conversation confident that your product is the right fit. This will help build trust and, ultimately, a stronger relationship.

 

Knowing Where Your Product Fits

If you’re speaking with your school contact and they seem interested in implementing your product, you should get familiar with the flow of operations. It will depend on if your product is meant for a single teacher, one classroom, or the entire district. This is the time consider questions such as: How will they have to deal with licensing fees and a smooth set-up?

The ideal situation is that one educator buys in and experiences student growth—whether that be in test scores or student engagement—then more educators get interested, which could lead to a school- or district-wide implementation. With time, establishing a relationship with your initial contact may turn into an expansive partnership. But as with so many other goals we set in education, it all starts with doing your homework.

 

Thanks for sharing!

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