Experienced marketing managers know that they need the timely notice of contract RFPs provided by K-12Leads and its competitors. In most cases, the cost of identifying qualified leads is so far below their expected value and the cost of doing it in-house that the only real decisions are how many and which services to purchase.
They also understand that their marketing research efforts cannot end with this “low hanging fruit.” Sales staff should make a special effort to pursue schools:
• As they receive disbursements from special funding streams,
• When they are eligible to apply for relevant grant RFPs, or
• If it is clear that they could improve performance with the organization’s offerings.
At the same time, without information on academic performance and demography, knowledge of upcoming grant RFPs and funding releases have little value to sales representatives. At least as important, armed with such information, sales reps can identify targets and prioritize efforts even if they know nothing about grant RFPs or funding releases.
This information won’t assure an effective sales campaign. Marketing data doesn’t close deals - that takes people. But an effective sales force is far more efficient with good intelligence.
This posting draws on information sources in California to deminstrate how marketing staffs can acquire information on school status and school indicators for free, manipulate it quickly, and provide it to sales representatives in a usable form. K-12Leads & Youth Service Markets Report lists and links clients to these sources for every state.
Academic Performance
Accountability Progress Reporting (APR). California’s integrated accountability system that reports both the state Academic Performance Index (API), and the federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and Program Improvement (PI) for schools, districts, counties and state.
Programmatic Finance
Ed-Data provides county and district level data of General Fund expenditures according to the instructional program
they support, such as regular K-12 education, Special Education, etc....
Student Demography
Ed-Data also offers demographic data on the student population of each school, district and county, with statewide totals and links to additional data or explanations.
Charter Schools
Interactive Charter School Map. View location, grade level, site type, charter school Web site and the California Department of Education Web site directed to the schools’ detailed
information.
Next: Pulling the data together.