Sales Advice By Market
Selling to Academic Specialty Schools
The problem with selling to academic specialty schools is that misguided efforts can threaten your entire business model. Don't forget that academic specialty schools aren't easy sales marks -- here's what you'll need to compete in today's market.
The world is an uncertain place for emerging businesses and businesses are constantly adapting their sales approaches to respond to market demands.
In any B2B industry, one of the major factors in long-term success is the ability to expand your customer base. The good news is that academic specialty schools can be found throughout the nation, but the trick is to acquire and retain new accounts.
Benefits of Networking
Networking enhances your sales capacity. In addition to raising your company's profile, it increases your credibility with academic specialty schools.
But more importantly, a strategy that emphasizes networking can be a lead generation machine. Sometimes the leads you generate through solid networking will be leads that you had never considered before.
Marketing Channels for Academic Specialty Schools
Even though companies market their products in many different ways, there is one truth that applies to all academic specialty school marketing strategies -- no single marketing channel is capable of delivering the sales volume that you would expect to see in a leading B2B seller.
Across the industry, multichannel marketing strategies are the norm, and may include direct mail, telemarketing, print ads, email campaigns and other online strategies.
Top sellers routinely purchase lead lists as a way to drive the sales process. High quality lead lists provide a large quantity of leads that are up-to-date and targeted to high-converting prospects. In our experience, Experian Business Services has the largest and most accurate database of academic specialty schools on the market.
Strategies for Selling to Academic Specialty Schools
Although there are exceptions, academic specialty schools are always interested in products that help them better serve their customers.
Cost is a constant concern, but if academic specialty schools believe a new product or line of products can substantially improve their customers' experience, the quality of your products may be more important than the price.
Businesses that sell to academic specialty schools need to also recognize the fact that academic specialty schools aren't necessarily the beneficiaries of their products, so strategies that focus on enhancing customer experiences are frequently well-received by buyers.
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