Event Recording: Selling to Schools Training Day 2026
Available for a limited time, this recording captures BESA’s Selling to Schools Training Day 2026 - a must-attend event designed to give you the tools, insights, and strategies to successfully sell to schools in today’s evolving educational landscape.
This immersive training day consists of short but impactful presentations and workshops, each packed with practical advice that you can immediately apply to enhance your selling-to-schools strategy!
- Gain Practical Insights – Learn the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in the education sector.
- Develop Actionable Strategies – Discover effective sales and marketing techniques that drive results.
- Learn from Experts – Hear success stories from BESA members who have excelled in selling to schools.
Agenda Highlights (as captured in the recording):
- How Schools & MATs Choose Suppliers: Gain a clear, practical understanding of who truly shapes buying decisions across schools and multi‑academy trusts. This session demystifies the differences between MAT‑led and school‑led procurement and explains why supplier propositions that reduce risk consistently outperform those positioned as “nice to have.”
- Split Streams: Sales & Marketing: Watch the stream most relevant to your role, or catch up on both. Discover how to open meaningful MAT‑level conversations, articulate value beyond price, and navigate common objections like “we already have a supplier”, and explore the content formats and messages school leaders genuinely pay attention to, and learn how to balance MAT‑focused versus school‑focused storytelling, case studies and peer‑led messaging.
- Understanding How Schools Make Purchasing Decisions: A deep dive into the decision‑making processes used within schools and trusts, including what has changed in the wake of the Procurement Act 2024. This session includes practical tender and RFP advice, plus the opportunity to pre‑submit questions for tailored responses.
- What We’d Stop, Start & Double Down on in 2026: A forward‑looking, cross‑functional discussion on how budgets will be allocated in the year ahead, what behaviours from suppliers build trust (or undermine it), and how sales and marketing teams can better align their strategies to reflect MAT priorities and shifting sector pressures.
Timings included in the recording:
10:00am - Welcome from the Chair
10:15am - How Schools & MATs Choose Suppliers (and Why Most Pitches Miss the Mark)
11:00am - Sales Stream: Key Elements for a Schools Sales Strategy for UK Schools & Colleges
11:00am - Marketing Stream: What School Leaders Actually Read, Click & Trust
1:30pm - What We’d Stop, Start & Double Down on in 2026
2:15pm - Sales Stream: From Product Pitch to Partnership Conversation
2:15pm - Marketing Stream: Designing Campaigns That Support Sales (Not Just Awareness)
3:45pm - Wrap-Up & Action Planning