Everyone wants to win MAT deals and it's understandable - why sell to dozens of individual schools when you can win them all in one deal? Simples! Only there's a slight challenge along the way...MATs are messy beasts. They're rarely alike, even if they look like there are from the outside. And even when you think there's a good fit, there's some tricky questions you need to answer: Is the solution I'm selling a MAT wide priority? Who owns that responsibility at a Trust level? How do I reach...
4 days ago • 3 min read
"If we're going to fill their inboxes with messages, wouldn't it be nice for them to enjoy it?" Gary Vaynerchuk With the starting pistol about to fire on Back to School marketing campaigns, let me give you my top tips - things that have always worked for me over the years and get you on your way to tripling your cold email leads. Yesterday I randomly received a cold email meant for a school - I guess I'm on someone's prospect list now, but they're going to be disappointed. I only have one 20...
18 days ago • 2 min read
Build a mini tool to 10x your school leads this coming year The avalanche of Back to School marketing is about to be unleashed with schools inundated with hundreds of cold emails each week and dozens of free webinar invites. Standing out from the crowd in this busy busy channel is now very difficult so today I'm proposing something different. Not only really different, but also unexpected. Because if this lands for you, it could 10x your lead generation. 🚀 10x your school sales Sign up for...
24 days ago • 3 min read
Why every EdTech needs to have a B2C offering Last month I finished up a project supporting Chalkie AI to sell into MATs and US school districts and it really got me thinking on what the future of EdTech sales looks like. If you're not familiar with Chalkie AI, it generates curriculum aligned lesson presentations and activity sheets. It's an amazing platform which is why one of the reasons it's the fastest growing EdTech in Europe. Over the past 15 years, I've built 3 of my own EdTech...
30 days ago • 6 min read
Marketing Channels Ranked! 2025/26 Review It's been quite a while since I got the chance to share anything here. The last 6 months have been quite the rollercoaster and I've finally carved out the time to analyses the responses from 54 suppliers and publish my first Marketing State of Play report. Let's discuss some of the findings. -- Scroll down to skip the personal update -- Where have I been? I've been quietly building School SCR, solving compliance and safeguarding problems for MATs....
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Book a Meeting / Share this Newsletter / Connect on LinkedIn From Product Pitch to Strategic Value: How Suppliers Win MAT Engagement There have been some great responses to last week's call for feedback on selling to schools / MATs. If you haven't responded, do take 5 minutes and share your experiences anonymously. The more data we get, the more accurate the findings. I'll write these up and share them at the end of the month. A recurring theme that has come up is around how it’s getting much...
7 months ago • 5 min read
Book a Meeting / Share this Newsletter / Connect on LinkedIn The best performing marketing channels to sell to schools I spent ÂŁ1,500 on a 'MAT speed networking' event last term and it's been on my mind for some time. I won't name the company publicly (I'll tell you in a private convo if you really want to know) but I've known the founders of this company for years. I've given them free advice and guidance as they look to get into the SaaS world. They talk a strong game, focusing on...
7 months ago • 2 min read
Book a Meeting / Share this Newsletter / Connect on LinkedIn The buyer has moved. Has your pitch? I've been reading through the latest Kreston Report this week and one finding stood out more than anything else. 86% of Trusts are now fully centralised. Finance, estates, HR, IT, procurement. Decisions across all of these are being made at central Trust level. And nearly half of large MATs are now pooling their budgets too. It's a significant shift, and honestly, it has some pretty big...
7 months ago • 2 min read
Book a Meeting / Share this Newsletter / Connect on LinkedIn My favourite AI tool for selling to MATs It's been a whirlwind week, from pitching at investment dinners in London through to onboarding new MATs at School SCR. Busy, but very good. Getting down to London is nice and I got to catch up with some fellow EdTech owners / founders. We got to trading sales and marketing tips - what is and isn't working. AI tools came up - everyone is using one of Chat, Claude, of Gemini these days, but...
7 months ago • 1 min read