Essentials Magazine Essentials Spring 2018 | Page 15

EDchannel Distribution
Examples of state purchasing consortium which can
become a great revenue generation channel:
KNOWN AS FULL NAME BUY BOARDS BuyBoard
Cooperative
Purchasing TX Based,
operates nationwide https://www.buyboard.com/Home.aspx
TIPS The Interlocal
Purchasing
System TX Based,
operates nationwide https://www.buyboard.com/Home.aspx
REMC Regional
Educational
Media Center
Association of
Michigan Michigan http://www.remc.org/
AEA
PURCHASING Iowa Area
Education
Agencies
Purchasing
Cooperative Iowa http://www.aeapurchasing.org/
AEPA Association of
Educational
Purchasing
Agencies 26 states http://aepacoop.org/
NCPA National
Cooperative
Purchasing
Alliance 14,000+ members
(K-12, Higher Ed,
Private/Independent
Schools, Municipalities) http://www.ncpa.us/
providing these services at some re-
gional level, the concept is that it could
be more affordable. This evolved (in
some cases) into actual formal consor-
tiums which were developed specifi-
cally for volume-based purchasing. It
also evolved (in some cases) to regional
schools with special services that
could be delivered in a more cost-effi-
cient manner. Thus, even though you
might be discounting your solution to
sell through an ESA, you are able to
leverage their reach to districts, which
in many cases might be too small to
effectively sell one by one.
For example, how many districts can
afford to independently operate instruc-
tional facilities for severely impaired
students, which would typically comprise
AREA COVERED
WEBSITE
less than .5% of their student popula-
tion? Whereas a regional agency could
draw from multiple districts within a
county or region and have a full caseload
of such special needs students that war-
rant a full “brick and mortar” school, with
highly qualified staff and specific special
resources. Do not overlook the possibili-
ty that you can both sell THROUGH an
ESA, and (in some cases) TO an ESA.
Another example is state level
buying consortiums, which regularly
issue requests for proposals (RFPs) on
an array of commonly needed solu-
tions ranging from books to software
to hardware to toilet paper! Districts
purchase from these “blessed” lists and
save money. The consortium typically
pulls in a few percentage points to keep
their organizations going. Vendors can
reference the list in their sales and
marketing, and typically have an edge
over competitors who are not on the
“blessed” list. The biggest advantage
here is that you submit a response to
one bid that covers all member districts
and avoid subsequent bids which can be
time consumptive and risky.
What’s in a Name?
Not that the name really is any sort
of indicator as to an agency’s strength,
but it will certainly matter if your
sales team is unfamiliar with the types
of agencies in their sales territory. It
starts with understanding the agencies’
names and organizational structure.
See pages 16-17 for a cheat sheet.
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