We asked a chair of governors how schools really decide what to spend on

If you’re selling educational products to schools, you’re in the right spot. Just like suppliers have marketing budgets, schools have set amounts they can spend throughout the year. The question is, how can YOU get a slice of THEIR budgets? Meet Michael.

If you’re you’re keen to sail through the school spending process and win new business, this guide’s for you.

1. The big question – do schools actually have money to spend?

“Absolutely. The amount can vary from school to school, however, all schools have a budget at the start of each year which is determined by the National Funding Formula or NFF. And soon the Direct National Funding Formula, an updated formula. This budget is allocated to specific areas of school life, with staffing costs usually being a large proportion of this.

However, monies are always allocated to other areas such as IT, teaching resources, departmental spend and so on. Even beyond this, budgets can be reallocated as the year progresses, for example, supply teacher spend may be lower than expected which means the school can use that budget for other areas.“

2. What’s your role on school spending?

“The Governing Board have a responsibility to ensure responsible and effective management of the school’s finances. The Business Manager and, or the Head Teacher will meet regularly to check financial forecasts and, in state schools, they’ll typically run their spending plan by their finance partner in the local authority.

Our responsibility as governors is to approve spend on items over pre-determined levels and approve the school spending plan six times per year. We don’t usually research suppliers ourselves, but we’re given the information ahead of finance meetings, along with a narrative.

Our role isn’t to choose the supplier, but to ask critical questions, ensure the school has fully thought it through and made best use of financial resources, and then approve – or not.”

3. How does the procurement process work and when can suppliers expect to get paid?

“The procurement process differs from school to school. It depends on how quickly the school wants the product or service, and the speed of the decision-making process. In many schools, departments have purchasing power at an individual level. Beyond that, school-wide purchases over a certain value need to be approved by Governing Boards – this value may vary from £5,000 to £20,000 and up. In this case, it would usually be expected that the school has gone out to 3 suppliers and demonstrated that good due diligence has been done.

Typically, suppliers will be paid as per the payment terms in a school’s Purchase Order (PO) – which is often 30 days. However, suppliers may negotiate their own payment terms, perhaps where a product or service is being delivered in stages.”

4. My product is worth £25,000 – how can I ensure I win the tender?

“Remember this is big money for a school, and the smaller the school the more of an investment this is.

Take time to speak to the school, get to know them and their context, their pain points, what they need from the project, and so on. Personalise the proposal to them and remember that it’ll also be read by Governing Boards who want it simplifying. You could perhaps include a video narration of the proposal to support the explanation of your product or service.”

5. How can suppliers selling educational products to schools beat their competitors? And what’s the biggest mistake they make?

“In my many years of governance, it’s rare that cheapest wins. Schools want value, and suppliers selling educational products should focus on giving the best outcomes for the school – not the cheapest price.

Most proposals I see are professional and give clarity. However, there is little creativity in the process of offering schools a proposal to match their needs

Many proposals are delivered by email, or in a basic Microsoft Word document. This does the job but it doesn’t ‘excite’. Suppliers who perhaps offer a better visual experience, a more interactive proposal, inclusion of video content etc. are more likely to succeed. And focus heavily on reliance and customer service – schools value this.”

6. Should suppliers include Chairs of Governors in their mailing lists?

“I don’t personally receive email marketing campaigns from education suppliers as I don’t have a school email address. Anything for me tends to go to the Head Teacher and we discuss it separately. However, some Chairs of Governors do have email addresses and there are certainly some things that are worth promoting to them.

For example, governance training, anything related to school development, support around staff development, services that link to staff wellbeing and more.

Chairs of Governors won’t respond to emails about specific department-level products, but they might share school-wide information with other senior leaders.”

7. What’s your top advice for suppliers selling educational products to schools this year?

“Demonstrate that you’ve taken the time to understand the school’s context and needs, answer all of their questions and thoroughly solve the problems they’re facing.

Ask them if other stakeholders in the school will also need to see the information and consider how they’d prefer to view your proposal. Although price matters, schools are heavily focused on reliability, effective customer service, impact and outcomes.

The most important people in a school are the pupils, so all school purchasing decisions are focused on ‘how will this help our learners?’. Suppliers selling educational products to schools need to remember this, and ensure it reflects in their products, services, marketing content and approach.”