Selling EdTech in the K-12 Market: Trends, Challenges, and Strategies

Alright. I am so excited. Kathy, we got the participants rolling in. Excellent. Happy Thursday. Hopefully, everybody got their little happy hour, discounted cups of coffee at Starbucks today. Nice. Awesome. We have a large group joining us today, so really excited to, be talking about this topic today, Kathy. Me too. I'm very excited. For those just trickling in, my name is Paige. I'm the head of relationship management here over at GovSpend and to have been consulting businesses from all flocks of AI, from pizza to software, from municipals to federal to state and local to education. And I couldn't think of a better person to talk about EdTech in k through twelve than my favorite friend here, Kathy. We've been we have known you for how many years now? It's been I think it's, like, eight years, Paige. Wow. Time flies. Time flies. It does. I know. And we're aging in reverse. I swear. Absolutely. Hopefully. Yes. Aging in reverse. I love that. Good. Thanks. I'm so excited to be here. Let me go ahead and share my screen to kick some things off today. AI. And here we go. Welcome, everybody. So who are we? What are we talking about? I just did my intro, but, Kathy, you wanna talk about your background? I mean, you are so well versed in creating winning SDR teams and have collaborated with so many businesses. Tell tell us tell viewers about you. Thanks, Paige. Yeah. So I have been in SaaS sales for about twenty something years. I have, I started off actually working in tech support for a SaaS software company, and, I quickly started upselling very naturally, that, I transitioned into a BDR role. So I've been a BDR pipeline generator. I've also been a closer, carried a carried a bag as they say, in sales. And the last eight or nine years I've been in EdTech, I've been really fortunate, Paige, to work for companies like FinalSight, Seesaw, and now the wonderful school status. I have built and led four teams. I worked for small, startups, large fortune, everywhere in the middle, but I love sales development, and I'm excited to to be here and talk with you. I'm also a crazy dog lover, and I live on the Connecticut shoreline, the bluefish capital of the world. I've Oh. Yes. I've never caught bluefish or but I put a fun fact in there. AI festival in the summer. So Awesome. Awesome. So so it sounds like for folks that have either been in the SaaS edtech world for a very long time or are just entering it, they're gonna gain a lot today. I'm I'm really excited to cover, obviously, our topic today of selling EdTech, specifically in the k through twelve market. We're gonna cover trends, challenges, strategies, all with the wonderful Kathy. And so in order to begin, I think the the most important question that I would love to hear from our viewers today and and use the chat, in the bottom of the webinar is what motivated you to join today? So go ahead and put in the chat what motivated you to join today. Was it to learn a new skill? Was it to, you know, put some more tools in your tool belt? What motivated you to join today in today's webinar? Oh, to learn from the best. Look at that. You like Julian. Alright. Smaller company transitioning from service to SaaS and building our BDR AI team. Oh, that's a good one. We got lots of tricks for you today. I like that. Oh, recently purchased Gust then. Different ways to connect, grow, and learn. Awesome. Lots of good stuff. New to public sector, want to learn pro tips. Everybody has an appetite to learn more, Kathy. Perfect. Continuous learning and improvement. I'm here for it, Paige. Awesome. Oh, I love the engagement from everybody today. We have a good group. Good energy. So progressing, you know, obviously, with all of that in mind, you know, what is our agenda today, Kathy? Definitely. We're gonna be talking about all the trends, the strategies, the challenges that are happening in the ed Tech market today. Very different from even a few years ago, Paige. So we've got some good topics to cover. And I think that brings us to my first question is, you know, why is it so important to understand the trends, challenges, and and strategies of selling EdTech into the k tool k through twelve market? Like, why why are we talking about it today? It's a huge market, Paige. It's evolving. It's growing. It's always changing. You're seeing consolidation of of companies and different roles popping up in EdTech and educators and school districts in the United States that need our help to help them achieve their goals, and it's a huge market, Paige. We're talking four hundred plus billion. There we go. Four hundred and thirty three billion dollars. In the next six years, and, you know, time's gonna fly really fast. So, I mean, I love being a part of this market. I'll also shout out and, you know, I think a lot of the people in this market are passionate about education. There's a lot of former educators that are part of EdTech. You know, I personally my mom taught elementary school for thirty years. I love making a positive impact in some way without actually being a teacher. Love love teacher. I don't have the patience. I don't have the patience, Paige, but they are I put them at the top with nurses. You know? So great, Mark. Hundred percent. I coach my son's baseball team, and and I one hour a week with twelve seven year olds, I'm good. So so we gotta support our teachers. I mean, there's plenty of money to go around. Yes. So so, Kathy, what's the scoop? What what are the trends that we're seeing in this market? One of the things, Paige, is that school districts overpurchased during the pandemic. I don't know. Did you, bulk buy any particular products, Paige, during the pandemic? Did you Yes. Yes. Amazon, you know, I should buy some stock in Amazon through the pandemic because they definitely got me. Yes. Costco, and so school districts were no different. They they they both purchased. And the thing about that is when they overpurchased, they they bought redundant tools, and they just spent a lot of money on, you know, things like communications platforms, but having multiple, and they didn't talk within speak really and communicate within the actual district of who was using what. And so they end up here, right, with purchasing too many tools. So Learn published AI Learn publishes great articles. So they published, recently, an average school district page over two thousand different EdTech tools in one school year. So that's what an average district would be using. And so they're really looking, Paige, to streamline solutions. If they can find a solution you know, one solution that covers multiple needs and challenges, they're gonna look at that. They are savvy AI. Just like you and I. They are probably taught, doing all of their research. They're on the Internet. They're looking at all different types of solutions. They're reading articles, and they're doing all this before they're ever even talking to a seller. So they're coming prepared. I feel that. I mean, as a parent, I I have students that are in Palm Beach County School District, and there's so many different parent engagement platforms. Like, we were using ClassDojo, and then we were using other formats. And then it's all these other new and engaging things, but I I definitely see the streamlining of solutions happening, not as a somebody who's who sells directly into k through twelve, but as a parent. Just see all of the different tools to communicate with teachers and communicate test scores and and all of that. And and even just this week, I'm sure a lot of the folks on today's call are very familiar with the FETC conference happening right now. Future EdTech, technology conference. Right. Teachers are going to those conferences to learn how to better use these tools and what new tools are coming about. Absolutely. They're all so they're really looking to reduce the number of applications and they're looking to Marie Kondo their software and solutions and services for the students and staff. They want to simplify AI. Right? Just like we do in our own lives. We're trying to simplify as much as possible and so another thing they're really looking to do is to improve student outcomes, and we're gonna talk about that in a little bit, Paige. But, you know, since the pandemic, a lot of learning loss, a lot of absenteeism, chronic absenteeism. And so, also, graduation rates are dipping in America. So how can they improve student outcomes? We know that when we're talking about funding, right, you know, things like absenteeism are important because districts are funded by enrollment often, and so there's that. And then they want a long term partner. These school districts in American schools, they're looking for someone who is an organization, a software company that is going to provide them not only the actual tool and the services, but they want a partner that keeps them updated on newest technology, best practices, provides excellent product support, and that's really where client success and technical support teams shine. And, you know, especially with teams like school status, GovSpend, who are known for their client success and client support. These are the things that school districts are really looking at this year. All about those partnerships and especially with EdTech tools and software and and new platforms, you know, you you have to focus on that that adoption. So Right. Definitely see a huge trend in customer success and and and implementation specialist at these tools to to really coincide with these trends that we're seeing. AI look all in one solutions that you're talking about streamlining. Yeah. So so with that being said, I would love to ask the the team the the viewers today, you know, even yourself at your company or in your industry, like, how many tools do you even use yourself day to day? Good question. Think about it. Put put it put ourselves in their perspective. Imagine how many tools teachers use, but I would love to hear if you can put in the chat at the bottom. You know? Is it oh my goodness. Five to seven? Three to four? Yeah. We're we're seeing a lot of tools. There's a lot of tools that we use day to day. Oh my goodness. Fifteen? Fifteen. I'm gonna have to learn more about those fifteen tools. Tools. Yes. Sounds like there's gonna be a trend soon on, you know, streamlining some of those solutions. Yeah. It's a lot. It's a lot. Imagine these teachers. Just ask them how many passwords they have to remember, Paige. The struggle is real. And, again, you can't use the same password for everything. That's a huge no no. I learned that from our IT. Right. And it shouldn't be password also. Awesome. So how do we you know, what are the challenges that they're experiencing with these trends? Yeah. So teacher retention is right up there at the top. And so, LEARN also published an article last spring that said America was shy a hundred and twenty thousand teachers. They were short a hundred and twenty were were short a hundred and twenty. That was last spring. And I know that number must have climbed. I I don't know about you, but I hear from a lot of teachers who wanna transition out. Right? And so teacher retention. I also heard a story about a teacher down south teaching a classroom, and then because they were so so short on teachers that they were actually teaching a Zoom classroom in another building at the same time. So teacher retention. How do we, help them stay engaged? Right? They're they're maybe burnt out, overworked, all these things. Right? And so how do we help them feel, content, happy, those types of things? So teacher retention is right up there. Absenteeism. Oh AI gosh. So America's suffering from chronic absenteeism in k through twelve. I think it's something like, the chronically absent students miss at least ten percent of school days. And if you're not Wow. If they're not in school, Paige, they're not learning. By the way, school status has a beautiful attention to attendance, software solution with wraparound services, print mail letters, get those parents engaged, wonderful. Learning loss. So AI I said, Paige, if they're if those kids are not in school, whether it's due to economics, anxiety, language barriers, whatever it is, they're not learning. And so what we're seeing in America is also the kids are not reading at grade level, and they're also not doing math at grade level. And so how do you progress them if they're struggling like this? They also have a lot of AI, social emotional needs. This is a big challenge for, parents, school systems, anxiety about going to school, bullies, social media, you know, all those things that play into the student's social emotional needs. Then we've got family engagement. And so all the different challenges with that, teachers, you know, trying to reach out and and, maybe with translation and pay single parents or, you know, what is the family situation? Are are they hearing from the school district via text, phone call, email, newsletter? How are they communicate communicated to, and is the messaging positive and engaging? And are they receiving it? Are they able to communicate back? I know you you had mentioned earlier parent adoption also. And so Yeah. If I mean, why would the district spend money on all of these tools to have family engagement and communication from the teacher to the parent and then Right. Not have that adoption. So not only are some of those challenges that, you know, I experienced as a parent, but also some of the the companies that we consult and work with here at GovSpend is AI it's not the school district challenges. Sometimes it's the parent challenges that they are experiencing of the tools that they chose to use. They while they may be great, you know, what are what are the adoption of the end users of those tools that were arming the district and Right. Students? Paige, we also assume everybody has Internet access today, and we assume everybody has an AI, and they don't. They don't. They don't have access to an app or the Internet, and so how are they receiving messages? And that's a big challenge for school systems today. And I know school safety is also just, unfortunately, the topic that is the world we live in. Right? And I know you're familiar with Alyssa's law. Yeah. So so a lot of legislative mandates and and new federal laws are being passed where, you know, we have events, like, unfortunately, since it's around the corner, but Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, we're we're hopping around that anniversary and a huge push is Alyssa's law, which mandates that school districts, public school districts across the nation, more and more states are adopting this federal law where they're requiring certain tools, certain safety tools within the classroom such as a silent panic button, having the capability. And so I know Texas just recently passed earlier this year, and a few other states are in the process of passing that, along with many other, you know, legislative mandates. Maybe grant money, best grant to help with EdTech tools or improving the you know, schools thrive where they are funded, and so creating new grants are are and obtaining those grants or even being aware of those new grants is a huge challenge. Sometimes these agencies, these school districts don't even know that there are other resources and other funds to obtain through these new grants that are forming. Right. I think the the final point here too, Paige, is time. The educators and this isn't just teachers. Right? This is the people in the office, the administrators. Nobody has enough time in the day to handle everything and to you know, there's oh, they're never going home with their, desk clean, I'll say. They so if they're these are the challenges in the marketplace. These are the challenges of our customers, our clients, our prospects. If we can help them with any of these things, you know, that's that's a plus. And if if you, are, you know, part of an organization that addresses these and you're covering needs and pains and not just the wants, then that's a leg up too. Right? Is how can we help these educators in America today? Absolutely. So that brings me to my next question. I'm curious. I'm curious. How about you? Yeah. How many I would love to know for our attendees today, on the webinar. Are there any teachers or retired teachers on the call today that are either currently transitioning or previously transitioned into EdTech sales or any educators? Go ahead and put it in the chat. We have a former ELA teacher. Nice. We're seeing you know, because of these challenges. I mean, even down here at Palm Beach County, I'm gonna bring up the flu and COVID again. It's it's coming in full swing. Full swing. My son had, you know, seven people out in his class yesterday, and some of the teachers are gonna have to conglomerate their classrooms. And now we're getting thirty kids in a classroom. Talk about learning loss there where you don't even have enough seats in the classroom when you have to do that, when teachers are out sick and we can't find substitutes. And I will say from a selling point of view, these transitioning T shirts, they really have a leg up on talking the talk. Right? They understand the layout, the infrastructure, who does what in a school system. They understand the language. It is it's a real it's a leg up for people who have moved from teaching into sales. So, Kathy, we've talked about, you know, the trends that we're seeing in the market with EdTech sales in k through twelve, the challenges that the k through twelve school districts are experiencing. You know, for those folks that are either transitioning or just entering into a sales and marketing role to sales ed tech to k through twelve, how can we better align our sales and marketing efforts to those challenges and and really align better? Mhmm. And so the thing to understand we talked about a little bit before, Paige, was that the the school districts, if you're talking with them, they've probably already done all their research. They're they're already in buying mode. And what you wanna do is really you know, Paige, we talk about in sales and and many of the sales orgs I've been in, we talk about what's the best cold call opener? How do we write an email that really gets through? Should we do video prospecting, and does LinkedIn even matter to school districts? It does. But it's really not that. Before you can even tackle your actual prospecting skill set, you've gotta think about listening. This is something I try to work on just for AI page. So actively listening because you cannot begin to sell to anyone no matter if it's a pizza, a hamburger, or EdTech tool, if you don't fully understand, the challenges and the goals and the pains and the needs of these school districts and the different personas that live within the school districts. You know, the thing to know is that people are motivated by pain or gain, and if you don't understand what their pains are or how they're measured, if you're not actively listening and and asking deeper questions AI you're a journalist, Right? And not just the yes or no questions and of these districts. If you're really listening to what they're struggling with, then you're gonna better align to what they're looking for to achieve their goals. And so I would say active listening, really, in any kind of relationship is a key. Taking the time to understand where they're coming from, asking the deeper questions. Then once you have an understanding and AI the way, this should be a conversation within a team. You should be talking with others that are talking with school districts and hearing what's, what's the word on the street about their challenges. Right? And they're different. They're different from based on size of school district page, area of the country. Right? Like, you were talking about COVID in in Florida. Right? And so these are all different needs, and they're not all gonna be cookie cutter. So you really wanna listen to what the prospect is saying. Segmenting. So once you understand the issues, how can you segment a list? Can you, create a list in your territory, based on the data, you know, the demographics, the segment, by the ideal customer profile? Here's a hint. If you don't know your ideal customer profile, take a look at who's purchased from you over the last year or two, maybe even just the last year, and average out some of those things. Who was the persona you were talking with? What size of the school or district were you working with that, you know, purchased and became a wonderful client. So you really wanna look at narrowing down your scope of when you're prospecting and and really start to think about segmenting. So that brings us page to reaching out, doing your research, invest your time. So this is where a tool like GovSpend can be useful. Right? So have they Absolutely. AI? So have they signed a contract recently? Who are the key people at the district? What have they purchased? You know? So you'd also don't waste your time talking with someone, you know, that Absolutely. Purchased last month. However the whole list? Oh, go continue. Sorry. Oh, I was gonna say, however, even if they recently purchased, maybe you're checking in in two to three months. Because do they have that awesome client support? It's not just the tool or remember. So do they have the client success and support, from the company, like school status offers, right, and gov spend offers? And so reaching really doing your research, have you been on the district website? Have you looked at the events that are happening for that state, the laws, the news articles, Google alerts. Right? So do your research and be relevant before you reach out. Personalize and relevance, are really important. By the way, people aren't also reading long emails. You've gotta be different. You have to be different. You have to be different. AI even see in GovSpend all the time how they spend millions. School districts and not just school districts, but all government agencies. You have to remember their emails and contact information are public. Anybody can go to their website and find that contact information. So it's all about that personalization and being different to penetrate through those inboxes Right. To to be identifiable in a cluttered inbox. But even more importantly, I think that there's a really good question in here, Kathy. It's what if you are trying to get a product into the market? So it sounds like, Brandon, this is something that's new, and you have kind of an idea of who that customer should be and who you wanna target. What would be best practices in getting a AI? I think not trail, but trial or pilot with a tool. Oh, that's a good question. I feel like you really wanna narrow down a couple of districts that hopefully you already have a relationship with. And and AI I say that, I don't mean as a business. Maybe you attended school in that district, and that's your in. You know some people. You know the superintendent. How you know, who who's your friendly district that you can get in with and and introduce yourself and your company and and offer a pilot too. So I would be looking at districts that myself or, like, my children have attended. These are the things I'm thinking about, how I how can you be personal when you're inviting them. The other thing is is when I was talking about email, I just don't know if that's really gonna cut it these days. I feel like you've gotta do something different. So reaching out maybe with a video, a Drift, right, or a LinkedIn because we know what was it the average? This this was a stat. I feel like it could have been HubSpot page. When every people are on average, they receive a hundred emails a day or something like that. Oh, yes. Think about it at night. I don't know if you I'm looking through on my phone at all my emails, and I'm just looking at the it's usually like a store that I really like. You know? The other delete, delete, delete. So how are you gonna get their attention and be different? Yeah. What's some of these strategies? But, like, how what would be a good example? Like, what are some examples that we can pro arm our viewers today of how to implement some of the things that we're talking about today? Yeah. I think if email if you are gonna going to do email, which I think everybody does, you gotta cover your bases. Right? What's that subject line? Is it short? Is it two words? I think Outreach published, the sales engagement platform, published an article about two words subject lines. The other thing that I like, which is almost like a little known I feel like it's little known and little used. If you have the LinkedIn app on your phone, you can send a voice or video message to your prospect. So that's pretty different. Right? Because I don't know. I get a lot of emails in mails in mails as they call it, and they're usually just written out. But every now and then, someone leaves me a voice, and, you know, I listen to everyone because I'm curious. Like, who is this person leaving me a voice mail? It's just different. And then custom videos. Years ago, I started using custom videos a few teams back page, and I will tell you, they have free tools. So Drift is one of them. Right? And so you can download and and plug that into your desktop. I will tell you I made this I tell my new teams this because they can laugh at me. I made the mistake of creating a video. My first ever video page, it was twenty minutes long. Like, I don't know. I was practically doing a demo on this video. No. No. You're just putting a name with a face. This should be under one minute introductory, who you are, you you know, and and introducing yourself. And then I know you and I both, Beth, have talked about, in previous organizations I've worked with, we've used, like, Sendoso. Right? So gifting. And so that could or a coffee card or a what about a nice book with a handwritten note? I mean, that would stand out to me. Nobody does snail mail anymore. Right? So if you send me a book that I'm interested in about sales development with a little note, that might get my attention. Have you tried the coffee cards? I so back in my day in sales, you know, you know, back in the day, my my shining star moments, you know, sometimes when you're selling a SaaS product or you're selling a resource tool that in order to curate interest, you have to get them on a demo. Like, what as soon as you get them on a demo and you know all about that agency or you know all about that vendor and you're gonna sell them once you get them on that demo, that's that's half the battle. But getting them to commit to time Mhmm. Like, we talked about it in not just in teachers, not in admin, but everywhere. There's just not enough time to do all of the things. So sometimes just being as simple as, hey. Here's a ten dollar Starbucks gift card or Dunkin'. Or sometimes what I would do is email certain individuals and say, hey. Are you a Dunkin' or Starbucks girly? Obviously, I wouldn't send that to a male, but Right. AI you like Starbucks or Dunkin', I'm happy to treat you to coffee for a fifteen minute quick coffee break. And rather than calling it a demo, AI it was an exploratory call. It was a virtual coffee break because I bought them coffee. And and especially for those folks that are not getting back to you, that's one way to definitely be different and be personalized. And maybe in that coffee card, you know, sometimes when you send a gift card for coffee, there's a little memo that you can put in there. Talk about a quick one liner value proposition using what Kathy talked about today. What is a pain that they have that you know that you can help with? Say, hey. Do you have fifteen minutes to talk about x, y, and z? And send them a coffee break. Yes. Absolutely. I I'll share a pet peeve I have on prospecting. Years ago years ago, just really be thoughtful about what you're saying in your messaging, right, in terms of you're you're messaging them because you wanna help them. You wanna be helpful. Helping is the new selling, and so be careful about your phrasing. My my teams will tell you that a a pet peeve of of mine is using the word love in a business email. Oh, Paige, I would love to sit down with you and show you the platform. AI. Right. Right. Or or, of course, Kathy, you would love to do this because it's comes it's self serving. Right? I would love to sit down with you and show you things. Right? It's it's self serving, and you're there to help them. And so how can you help them? And the other thing, Paige, is different CTAs. Instead of maybe, would you like to see a demo? Would you like a plat you know, to see the platform? I'd love to walk you through this. Right? Stay away from the love. But, I would say interest based CTAs. So call to actions. Does this interest you? Are you working on things like this? More softer in the beginning of your outreach would be probably a smart thing. Oh, so we have a question. So good point about the love. Right. What would be a good alternative? Like, what are some of the suggestions we have to swap out the love? Like, I know our team uses we I would appreciate the opportunity. Mhmm. Like, that's very formal, but if there was, you know, something else that you advise your team to do Yeah. How about that? You know, I like I also like, you know, the social proof a little bit, Paige. And so like you, near you. Okay? So working with school systems like yours in Chicago. And so does this you know, we're helping them with x, y, and z. Is this a challenge of yours, or is this topic interest you? So I think it's literally just very simple of, is this something you're thinking about working on? Is this a challenge of yours? Softer call to actions. We also have a suggestion in the chat that says we use the phrase, we'd welcome the chance to. Oh, I like that. That puts the accountability on them saying, like, are you somebody who gives chances? Right. Right. Or the right. Or the opportunity. We welcome the opportunity. I like that. And I still like the for a little bit of the formality of, sometimes also signing off with respectfully or, you know, warmly, little bit. Those are nice things. I think also AI read about, PS. PS, if you're in town, we're gonna be at ISTE on the fifteenth, or, PS, I'm gonna be hosting a webinar on the twelfth. Right? So I think the p s is sometimes are helpful too, Paige. I haven't tried that one. Oh, I'm gonna take that back to our team. Yeah. One of the things that I have to mention, and I know we talked about briefly, is is having mentors, having people and resources that we look up to. And I know as, I know we have a a wide variety of audience today, but someone like myself who's a a woman who looks up to other sales leaders that's in a heavily male dominated, industry, it's tough to find female sales leaders. And so one of the ones that I've been really loving and sharing internally and and people at GovSpend have been talking about is the wonderful Sarah Paredo, who is this cute little millennial SDR, talking about, just cold calling and just listening to her live do these cold calls. And the number one thing oh, we see? Everybody knows Sara on TikTok. TikTok. Right? Mhmm. One of the things that she does is it it's actually stepping away from the formality. It's actually being casual saying, hey. I know it's a Monday morning cold call. You're gonna hate me, but I promise if you give me two minutes, it'll be worth your while. Like, just getting ahead of it. And that way, it it you're already addressing the negative. Hey. This is the cold call. Or even just saying, hey. I'm calling on the back of the recommendation of the work that we have been doing with and then mentioning a sister company or a company that they might be partnering with. Right. Right. I think you've gotta be human. Whatever that's what's really gonna stand out. I think if you're human and you know, we're all just trying to get through the day sometimes. You know? But, you know, I would be remiss. You you mentioned, awesome salesperson. Like, I would be remiss if I didn't mention some great, other female sales leaders. You know, I've always looked at and followed, like, Trish Bertuzzi, Lori Richardson, Jill Conrad, Beck Holland. Like, there are so many wonderful female sales leaders, but, also, you know, there's some great guys out there. I was trained by John Barrows. You know? He's awesome. There's so many great thought leaders on LinkedIn, Sam Sales, Sam McKenna. Yeah. There's some good ones out there, and they're inspirational. You know? You take something away from these people. Absolutely. So which brings me to kind of, like, my last question is given your background on building winning SDR teams and developing processes, SOPs, what are some suggestions that you have for our sales and marketing members on the webinar today to to start implementing these unique approaches? Yeah. I think, you know, we talked a little bit about being thoughtful, being brief. Right? But also just, you know, we're this is twenty twenty four. Use your tech stack. Right? And so some of that tech stack is free, and you've gotta find it. RocketReach or Hunter. Io, the sales engagement platforms like SalesLoft and Outreach, Lavender, the the video the free video tools like Drift and Vidyard. You've gotta really maximize and work smarter rather than sometimes harder in terms of the tools you use and how you send the message. The bulk of your time should be on research and create creating crafting the actual message in my personal opinion. The other thing is is, you know, as a leader of SDRs and BDRs, you know, if you have that gift of having an SDR or BDR on your team, collaborate with them, strategize with them. They're the ones who are, you know, doing the bulk activity of prospecting, and we'll have, an ear to the ground of what's happening out there and what's gonna be relevant to your prospects. So team selling, if you've got that gift, use it. And do not overlook all the awesome things you're marketing. If you're lucky to have a marketing partner team, use those things, Paige. Right? So if that's events, if that's, in person events, webinars, all the content that you know, the work they do on a case study or an ebook or a a simple blog because what you really wanna do is provide value to your prospect. And and in your humble and researched and relevant approach, what do you have, from marketing that you could share? Right? Don't share five things. Share one thing that is meaningful. Because, you know, the bottom line is is we you know, if you're an EdTech, part of you probably wants to really help students, empower students and educators. You wanna align with their goals, and you wanna help them with their outcomes, their effectiveness, their efficiency. Those are the things I think about, but, also, I'm a continuous improvement and learning junkie page. And so that if that's a, you know, webinar from Gong, even if I don't belong to Gong's world or universe, Marvel universe, right, or if that's, industry news, you know, EdSurge, district k twelve, eSchool news, tech leader, DA I mean, EdSurge podcast, built in is another different one. All these great newsletters to really stay up on what's happening in, in the school districts and in tech companies in the marketplace. So, I think those things can you know? What do they they used to say when I was in, grade school on Saturday morning cartoons, the more you know or something like that? The more you know. Yes. You know. With a shooting star or something. Absolutely. With the shooting star. Absolutely. But I think it's it's important that, you know, it's January twenty four. We're talking about, you know, what are ways that we can be different? What are ways that we can better improve ourselves? Things that stuck out to me this year, was what you prioritize shows up on your calendar. So if you're not making time to Mhmm. Research what grants and trends are coming up, attending our webinars, and and talking about relevant items that are gonna upscale and improve your approach to breaking those barriers. You know, one of the questions that we have is, what are some tips to get through spam filters? And I absolutely love this question because in GovSpin, I mentioned it earlier, I see hundreds of thousands, if not millions, being spent on spam filtering. So how do you get through those spam filters? I have a couple of tips, but I wanna hear from the queen herself. You know, what are some ways to get through those filters? I think, first of all, you've gotta really be careful about cleaning your data before you begin. So you know you've done your research. You've segmented your list, but did you clean your data on email addresses and making sure that those people are still, like, at the district or in the school system? There's also tools out there that I've used in the past, like NeverBounce, that can help you, make sure you get through a spam filter. I think you really just need to nail down the the actual email addresses. Be careful, but also the volume page. I know the volume that you send can affect your bounce rate or affect your send success. And so don't be one of those, salespeople, SDRs, BDRs who are say on a Monday morning, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna spray and pray. The days of spray and pray are long gone. Do not bulk sequence five thousand people and send out that email because Gmail will lock you down or whoever your email provider is will lock you down. So, those are my the top of my brain thoughts. What about you, Paige? So here at GovSpend, in in in my previous past, we use tons of tools and resources. And one of those things that they really highlight is exactly what you're saying. The the days of spray and pray are gone. But when you're using specific tools for email cadences, those cadences are designed to not send it at the exact same time to seven people within that org because you're gonna set off that barracuda spam filter or Yeah. AI cast or the other providers that that agency is paying for. If you send the same exact email at the exact same time to more than seven people or even more than three people, it's gonna be straight into the spam filter. So one of the ways to overcome that is, again, make sure you're not spraying, praying, and Yeah. Making sure that we're unique. Maybe it's doing our research and mentioning a specific contract that they just went into or coming up for expiration. Mhmm. Maybe it's a challenge that they're experiencing and you wanna talk to them about it just going along with what you're saying, Kathy, being personalized in that subject and being very quick and concise in our emails. That's really gonna help you get through those spam filters. Right. I think too, you know, I would rather see someone spend time on on crafting twelve individual smart emails, right, that are brief, ideally under fifty words. It's a challenge. See if you can do it. Right? And personal to page or personal to me. And I bet you you're gonna have a higher, conversation rate if you if you really focus and and and are dedicating yourself to, like, twelve custom emails or whatever that number is instead of sending two hundred out in a day. I bet you get more replies as long as you've got us good really good subject line. And, you know, this is a tip that I used to use back in when I was in sales for not just k through twelve, but anybody. Maybe just take a look at their LinkedIn. Take a look at what their interests are. I know that our superintendent here in Palm Beach County is a huge Seminoles fan. So, of course, I'm gonna sprinkle in my subject line, go Knowles. And AI know she's gonna open it. Maybe even just being personal in that way, not personal to their challenges, but even just being personal into them, it really shows the effort. Not to make a joke or get off topic, but I had my dog groomer call me the other day and said, I noticed that you haven't been in here for a while. Why is that? And so I talked about my pains. I said, you know, whenever I call, it takes weeks and I need it this week. I I procrastinate AI my dog AI really gross and I need him to be shaved. And so then he's AI, okay. Okay. Well, you know, how about I get you in this week, you know, before the holidays come up and you you have to deal with that two week, and he validated my challenges. He heard me. He even asked me about what my thoughts were. I felt very validated, and I was like, you know what? I appreciate the hustle. Thank you for listening to me. Yes. You have my business. I will get you in. I even though my dog didn't even need a haircut, it hasn't been that long. I was like, you know what? Why not? Then and I think that his approach, even in the simplest way, it it meant a lot, and I felt very thoroughly validated. And what better way can you replicate that? Yes. I think it's like boutique emails. Right? Like, boutique. Right? You're That's a perfect way to describe it. Boutique emails. Boutique yeah. Boutique. AI that, Kathy. Boutique emails. I think maybe that could go on my book someday, Paige. We also have another question. It's, what about links links? When you're using links to maybe direct them to your list of webinars or links to more information Yeah. Any tips and tricks on when and when to use and when not to use links in emails? I think it's okay. It depends on your sequence, you know, and your cadence, how many emails you're gonna send in that sequence AI I think the sequence you really wanna think about I think it was outreach who said seventeen steps in thirty days. This was as of December is best practice. Seventeen steps in thirty days. Some that might be too much based on what your product in is and who your persona is. You know, you don't wanna be Pottery Barn. And so as far as the links are concerned by the way, those seventeen steps are not all seventeen emails, Paige, to clarify. Right? There are call you. I was just about to ask. I was like, please tell me that doesn't mean seventeen emails. Right. So there's call steps in there. There's probably some LinkedIn. Maybe there's a Drift video or something like that. But, I think I wouldn't put a link into every single email that you send. You know, maybe one out of four. I would I would share one link. Mhmm. And when you're entering those links, usually, you'll have the option. I know Google does a really good job at this AI creating a shortened link because sometimes the amount of characters in that link, could really throw off that spam filter. And rather than just pasting the link of w w d or h t t AI colon slash slash and then the link, always embedding it. AI the keyword and then entering it in there. That way they're not just looking at the raw link. It's a shortened link, and it says click here here in capital letters with it being linked. Yes. If my email signature has a link to schedule a meeting, does that count for this? Nah. No. I think that's just smart. Think alike, Kathy. Right. That's just smart. Yeah. Oh, we're getting lots of great questions. I guess, you know, that that brings us to my next point or our next point is we're here to help you. Mhmm. You know, if we're looking for more research and winning strategies, that's what Kathy and I love to talk about. If you will consult and collaborate, like, we want to know how we can help you. So here are some contact information. If you would like to reach out, connect, or just grow our network and partnership on LinkedIn, please connect with us. But I wanna open it up to more questions. And I see that we have a good one right here where it says, when taking a value based pricing approach. Oh. Oh. Boy. Buzzwords. How should someone consider the price they have determined for a product and any reservations that a potential customer school might bring up? What are some strategies to close a sale and consider with the aforementioned getting a pilot or trial. Oh. AI know, admittedly, Paige, closing is not my, you know, arena. I am in the opening of opportunities, opening new business. I've definitely, you know, been in sales a long time. I think the thing is is pricing should be and I I'd like to hear what you say, Paige, or you have to say about this. I think pricing should really that should be later on in your AI, like, or in your, pipeline. You should be talking about what their needs are, hearing about that. That should be a discovery should be a long conversation, maybe two or maybe two medium conversations. And then when you understand their pains, you can position, the value that your product is bringing, and that's the time, in my opinion, to bring in AI. But not until you've had full rich discovery, understood their pains, their motivators, their their goals, what they're trying to improve, their outcomes, where they wanna end up. Right? And then I think that's when you bring in the pricing. What do you think, Paige? I have to wholeheartedly agree. I think you hit the nail on the head there. If from my perspective as somebody who does value based pricing and takes the value based approach and does trials and does pilot programs. I think if you know you're in a good spot when you have asked all of the questions, you know your entire cast of characters, you know that school district's pain points, you know the amount of students and enrollments and teachers and who you're gonna be licensing and who's gonna be your power users and who are gonna be your light users. When you know all of that information, you'll be able to effectively, at the end, close that sale because you can say at the end, we have gotten to this price because you have this many power users, you have this many light users that's gonna require this amount of support and we are here to help you through that. This is gonna be the implementation process that we talked about. These are the people that are gonna need a little bit more hand holding. Here are the quarterly meetings we're gonna have. Here are the specific accessories that you're going to need to be most successful to accomplish your student outcomes or accomplish your teacher retention. Whatever that challenge that they're experiencing, that your product or service is fixing or providing a solution to, will more than defend what pricing that you provide and make them also feel validated and supported and heard. There's you know, nobody wants to be talking to somebody that just throws out a price without having all of that information in hand. So having that is really gonna arm you through that process and really help you seal the deal. And I couldn't have gotten to that point without my leaders that we are huge on value based, selling and, you know, cost to value. So you can't get there without discovery. Oh my gosh, Paige. Look at you, you sales expert. You I know. I'm sorry. I said I love it. You take the girl out of sales, but, you know, the skills are still there. You're you can't. Awesome. What email subject lines has been the most effective from your experience? I have a really funny one, AI. Have one. I have one. It's from years past. Years past page, but voice mail. I like voice mail? It was voice mail. Like, that got me so many opens. That's back in the day when I personally was, you know, prospecting, not leading a team, but voice mail AI I think it's you know, evokes curiosity. What about this voice mail? And I'm telling you, I think I had to Google ten times. Is it voice and mail or is it voice mail? You wanna be correct when you're reaching out to educators. But, yeah, voice mail. What about you? Me? So one of my favorite things, especially when I was an individual contributor, and this is an email that let's say you're working with the school district and you had a really good conversation and it's starting to fizzle out. Maybe that person got sick. You know, let's be hopeful salespeople. Maybe that person got sick or they have a family emergency and they're just not getting back to their their emails fast enough. But just a simple don't forget about me in the subject line and then just a smiley face keeping it simple just to bump it up to the top of their inbox. Yeah. And then you can, you know, do it hey. If you if it's been a while and you feel really good about this this conversation that you got going, just saying, did I do something wrong? Nobody wants to make anybody feel like they did something wrong, especially if they're just ignoring. So it's it's playing a little bit to the emotion Yeah. Side of sales, but it it definitely is effective at getting a response. It's I'm AI working on approval. No. No. No. It's in procurement. It's a very AI process. I'm so sorry. And so it it really gets if you wanna get a response back, just Yeah. Did I do something wrong? Yeah. I I like, you know, don't forget about me. It kinda pulls on the heartstrings a little bit. You know? And it's also humble. I think that's the other thing. Right? And so not being assumptive and and being humble in your approach is goes a long way. Mhmm. Well, we got a couple of more question. We'll take a couple of more questions. I know we have the hour blocked, but I really love this. Again, we have our contact information. If you wanna connect, collaborate Absolutely. Wanna do research and gov spend, happy to provide a free thirty minute demo and and just see what we have for you. Maybe we have an a segmented list to create for you. Lots of great exciting things. So a couple more questions. Do you have recommendation, resource, or additional tips using LinkedIn or Outreach sequences? I think we've we've mentioned quite a few. So when we send out the recording to this webinar, we'll also include the slide deck. And then at the very last slide, have some resources that that I know I personally use. Kathy has mentioned that she uses regularly to stay up to date, so we'll make sure that you have those resources. I would say too just quickly on LinkedIn page, you know, to stay away from the connect and sell. Right? And so it should be a personalized note and then building a relationship and sharing a helpful resource until you have a a substantial relationship before you even start asking for time. So so not stay away from connect and sell. I'll link them. Because that's probably one way they'll delete and unconnect, you know, or block. No. Yeah. Definitely not. And then we'll take one last one. Do you have tips, strategies, trainings on how to effectively address objection in sales process within the k through twelve market? Oh. We could do a whole hour of objection. AI. I could talk for days on that one, but I also have a couple of friends that we we are gonna be doing some more webinars whether that, you know, objection, the sales process is due to something going on in procurement. Maybe it's something with onboarding and implementation or something in that process where there are still unknowns that that that prospect has that needs to be uncovered. That's usually the objections, and they just don't know what they don't know and and alleviating that. But, again, we can talk an hour for that. And that goes back to to the importance of discovery. You know? So the richer your discovery, the less, I think, objections you'll have later on. Absolutely. Well, Kathy, I just have to say thank you so much for joining me and talking about an amazing topic that you are so knowledgeable about. I know I learned a lot and feel even more educated when talking to whether it's our clients that have k through twelve as their prospective market or supporting our school districts and and being that marketplace to connect and just see just so many great tips. I hope everybody also so, but most of I just wanna say thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you for I'm gonna do it, Paige. Thank you for having me on your on your webinar page. This has been so much fun, and I love talking EdTech. And so, definitely, if you're attending and you wanna reach out and connect on LinkedIn, please do. And, I'm excited to watch your next one, Paige. Awesome. I'll make sure that you're you're you're in the registration link. I'll send that over. Awesome. Well, thank you all, everybody. AI you all have a wonderful Thursday. Go, you know, book some more appointments, process some more, you know, school districts, become more knowledgeable, and just upscale. Get new twenty twenty four, new you. New you. Thank you. Alrighty. Take care, everybody. Bye, everybody.