Education Market: Score High With Your Knowledge

Editor's Note: In the fourth of this 5-part series, find out how you can leverage your knowledge to gain business in the education sector. Parts I, II and III dealt with the health care, financial and government markets.

John G. Reich, CFC, launched APTCO-Document & Business Product Solutions, in Mebane, N.C., in 1996. The distributorship offers a variety of products, including forms, office supplies and advertising specialties. Approximately 60 percent of the company's annual sales come from customers in the education market, including universities, community colleges and school boards. Reich discusses various opportunities:

1. There's a demand for a variety of products. Each department in a university is like a small city with a need for a variety of print-related products. Reich provides traditional forms, cut sheets, receipt books, shipping labels, labels used for housekeeping, and hazardous material tags. Each department has different requirements and presents a new sales opportunity for distributors.

2. Forms are still in demand. The product may have changed from a multipart, snapout or continuous form to a laser-printed form, but its demand remains strong, Reich says. "Within forms, the demand has declined in one area [continuous forms], but then sales have increased in another area [laser and ink jet forms]," he says. Many of the departments also are replacing tractor feed forms printers, he says.

3. Promotional products gain popularity. Some departments have been ordering promotional products for years, but Reich has seen an increased demand campus-wide. "They like to give things away to students, not just the ones who are already attending, but also to prospective ones," he says. "Also, they like promotional products that have some life."

4. Bidding problems? No sweat. Some universities have bidding processes, but don't let that discourage you. Although Reich placed his company's name on a university's bid list, he "wanted to see if there was any other way that I could go and talk directly to the end user [department]." Reich found "most of the departments were pretty receptive," he says. "I did a job for one and got referred to another department. After a while, the university's purchasing department saw my quotes and I started getting requests directly from purchasing for specific items, reorders and also new items. If purchasing needed a price on a new item, it would include me in a request for quote." Each university operates differently. Some privately-owned universities don't have a bidding process. "If they know you and trust your judgment, a lot of times you don't have to compete with other distributors and manufacturers," Reich says. "It takes a little while, but it pays off."

5. Don't forget schools. Some areas may not have a university or college, but they always have schools. Reich says schools have booster clubs, which need forms as well as promotional products for fund-raising.

Benefits:
1. Customers pay in a timely manner. Universities, colleges and schools pay on time. "After I get the job, they pay without a problem," Reich says.

2. You never stop learning. Universities are usually the first to jump on the bandwagon of adopting new technology compared to customers in other industries, Reich says. "That helps me keep abreast of some of the new things in the industry. If there's a new type of form, I get a request from them first. If there's a new scanner, they tell me."

3. Early adopters make great motivators. "By providing a university with a new product, I can go to other customers and show them how the university is using it and how they can use it, too," Reich says. One university Reich worked with was an early adopter of a security feature on checks. But other customers were hesitant about using the feature. Once Reich showed how effective it was for the university, others began adopting it, too.

Next week, opportunities in the retail market.


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