2010 Spending – Your Readiness

Dec 22, 2009

By: LeiLani Cauthen, VP Sales, Publisher, Converge

The tidal wave of spending in education is just now hitting nationwide.  There are some really innovative requests already being made of vendors, and some fast-moving deals.  

At each of the twelve cities we visited recently with our Stimulus Know-How series, we were surprised by the innovations, the desire to work collaboratively, and the inertia.  It takes a lot to move the mountain, but it is happening.  In each State we sought out the “Stim Czar” and interviewed them for custom reports handed out to all attendees and sponsors, and in many of the cities those Czars spoke at the event.  Most States received almost triple their Title 1 allocation in this year.  This is an enormous amount of money, and the number of other grants and impact in State budgets is just now being grappled with down at the district and university levels.

What we also found in our first six cities was that the vendor community was not really ready for the Stim reality.  They still aren’t, and if the 2009-2010 fiscal winds itself up like any other year I’ve known in education spend, a huge bulk of this year, the biggest Stim year, will land March through June.  In fact, this opportunity is so large that most vendors are bringing their own confusion in, worried about “applicability to their product” and the odd bits they’ve heard in the general media.  Or they tired of waiting a whole three months over the summer and gave up.  Some vendors are coming to the party with their usual offerings, and getting floored by the sheer scope of reach hitting them for bigger, faster, coordinated-with-the-other-vendors ideas.  Packaged, priced and fully loaded.

Now is not the time to be queasy.  A main sales lesson is:  “you can’t get what you don’t ask for.”  My friends laugh about this little sales-tip saying of mine, but it’s never been truer.

The whole ocean has risen and there is funding here for everyone, with a  few caveats.

• Your readiness needs to first of all know the objectives and not just the funding sources.  These two items are not always linked in the 1,000+ page document, so you need some savvy.
• Your readiness needs to have a better understanding of the funding without some of the general statements you may have heard and the mainstream media mish-mash,  but the real truth.
• Your readiness needs to be bigger than yourself. Partner up my fine friends, get a big vision, codify it, set it on the airwaves and go forth in packs.
• You’re readiness should investigate the actual money sources that could fit and offer grant language to streamline the process.
• You’re readiness needs to take into account increasing accountability and transparency needs of education.
• Get your new-found readiness in writing and get it out with adequate marketing reach.
• You’re readiness is the readiness of the nation, the fight we’re all fighting to prepare our kids and our country for the next level of greatness.

Ready? Set. Go.