Selling to Schools Training Day 2025

Agenda

10:00am
Introduction from the Chair Carrie-Ann Gibson, International Education Manager, Everway (formerly Texthelp)

10:15am
Using BESA insights to inform your sales and marketing activities
Julia Garvey, Deputy Director General, BESA.
As a sales and marketing professional, you need to understand school priorities and where the money is. You need to know how market forces are affecting your sales prospects and make adjustments accordingly. BESA publishes a number of reports and tools that can help guide your sales and marketing activity. Here we talk you through the current data using a sample product to demo use. We also point you in the direction of other sources of information and support

11:00am
Preparing to sell – identifying pain points, product/market fit, and pricing strategies to best position your product or service
Do you really know how schools will use your product and the problems they want it to solve? This session will provide you with a roadmap to unpack the real and perceived problems your product solves, giving you the knowledge and insights, you need to start building a messaging framework that sells, as well as looking at pricing strategies.

11:45am
Comfort break

11:55am
Interactive Workshops – You have the choice to participate in either workshop on the day. Speakers will talk through a case study or demonstration. You will be able to apply the skills you’ve learned in this session later on in the day. Delegates are encouraged to have their cameras on and be involved in group discussions.

1. Anatomy of a killer sales presentation Richard Ainley, CRO, Nucleus Learning – Craft compelling, targeted pitches that engage the audience, communicate your product benefits, and create desire

2. Digital Marketing Strategies for the Education Sector & Engaging Influencers – Olivia Tanner, Digital Marketing Strategist, Bookmachine – Best practices for using digital channels to reach schools and educators, including killer social media in the post X era, email campaigns that get noticed, and using influencers to build awareness.

12:40am
Regroup & Recap

12:45am
Lunch

1:15pm
Welcome back from Chair & Introduction to the Afternoon Activities

1:15pm
Understanding how schools make purchasing decisions chaired by Carrie-Ann Gibson, International Education Manager, Everway (formerly Texthelp)

Panellists:

• Dave Smith, Director of Procurement and Trust-Wide Projects, Osborne Co-operative Academy Trust
• Lana Stoyles, Head of Business Transformation, Nexus MAT 
• Michelle Tarten, Cluster Procurement Manager, United Learning Academy Trust

Understanding and responding to each school or trust is more important than ever before and suppliers who best fit the unique requirements and circumstances of the schools are more likely to be viewed favourably while there are factors that can cause suppliers to be deselected from shortlisting. This session aims to provide examples of how purchasing decisions are arrived at along with factors that have given suppliers the edge.

2:00pm
Interactive Breakout Rooms – You will be automatically assigned to participate in small groups to work together
A pack of information will be sent in advance to delegates and some groups will be asked to create a short 5-minute presentation, while others will need to present a marketing plan. In each case you will need to decide the key messages and USPs to focus on, possibly the pricing strategies as well.

3:00pm
Regroup and share – lessons learned and actionable next steps
Groups will presents their findings and will get live feedback from the Chair of the event.

3:45pm
Closing remarks from the Chair