Business Strategy
K-12 market is risky business for reasons you already know . The only sustainable growth path is to offer your knowledge , leadership and initiative or program packaged in a human body along with your products — or as a replacement for them . How would you go about developing and selling services in this evolving marketplace ? What are the implications for the way you promote and sell to school administrators ?
How to Competes with Free
I can attest to the challenge of building and sustaining a services business . I was successful marketing and selling computer hardware and software products to school administrators for over fifteen years . After that , and for 20 years , I have been successful selling business development services to managers of education companies . This was a tough shift for me . I had to rethink how to promote myself and my brand and to how to compete with dozens of consultants offering similar services to K-12 companies and willing to do so for much less than I was prepared to . Fast forward to 2017 . I still work very hard to refine what I do to attract and retain clients . This type of shift in strategy requires a change of mindset and is a slow process .
If tapping into the revenue and profit potential of learning services sounds attractive , then you must embrace and be ready for five key differences between a product business and a services business :
1 . Services are an Intangible Promise of Value . Buyers of services don ’ t know what they are going to end up with and that makes articulating the value of a service a challenge quite different than explaining the features and benefits of a product .
2 . People are the Product . When someone buys services from you or your representative , they ’ re putting their trust in a person . That person , along with his or her intellectual property and behavior , are the product . A human body is the packaging .
3 . You Can ’ t Ensure Consistency . No matter how much you try to control the quality of your service , it varies , and so will the experience your customers have . We all have good days and bad days . We all interact with other humans differently depending on a range of factors .
4 . It ’ s Tough to Manage Supply and Demand . Managing inventory of human capital is much more difficult than managing product inventory . There is no quick or easy way to ramp up staff when demand for your service increases and no easy way to ramp down when demand for your service shrinks .
5 . Brand and Positioning is Driven by Customer Experience . Brand awareness and branding for services is less about a memorable logo or cool advertising than it is about the consistency of human outreach . A service brand is created by the experience of how outsiders interact with your company .
The bottom line is , service organizations rely on human product . If you decide to offer services to grow your revenue and profits , you will have to reorganize your business and reset your priorities . You will need to change the way you do almost everything . There must be an intense customer orientation to minimize inconsistencies and performance defects in your delivery . You will have to have systems in place to monitor customer experience . Teamwork becomes an essential success factor . You must be sure your staff is on board , along with anyone else who comes in contact with your customers . If you have channel partners , they need to behave like one of your own — in essence , third parties who represent you in any way need to be “ internalized .” If you are not confident about that possibility , you may need to reconsider your channel strategy . In conclusion , I think we can all agree that we will continue to see free products and services being offered to educators , and we will continue to see shifts in the school buying environment
as well . These dynamics present you with an opportunity to also shift your business and your mindset . For sure , I ’ m not advocating that you abandon sales of your products and quickly reorient yourself to a new strategy like selling learning services . Products that educators pay for deliver real value . I don ’ t know your specific situation or how vulnerable you are to having your lifeblood drained by competition from free products . What I am quite sure , however , is that educators are slow to change and are very cautious and skeptical when considering a switch from one product to another , so inertia is on your side !
Spending time to consider business strategy is more essential than it has ever been for anyone managing a K-12 focused company . I can say confidently , as I look back on this trend over the past 15 years , managers who wait to respond to changes in the marketplace or don ’ t take these shifts seriously — all of us who suffer from some degree of paradigm blindness — could be piloting a sinking ship . That need not happen ! Embrace change and the chance to reinvent yourself ! n
GLEN McCANDLESS published and was editor of SellingToSchools . com ( STS ) for over 15 years and then he hosted STS Radio and moderated STS LinkedIn . Glen is president of Focus Marketing Inc ., a business development firm that specializes in the K-12 education market . Glen has 25 years of experience helping companies efficiently and ef ¬ fectively sell and market all kinds of products and services to K-12 buyers , with a specialty in technology products and ser ¬ vices . gmccandless @ educationmarketexperts . com .
8 essentials | fall 2017