You get about five minutes

Stella James · 2026-10-30T08:10:48.936Z

I was the buyer on a sales call recently. I'd reached out myself, warm and ready to be sold to, and the rep opened with "I've had a look and I think I've got the gist." Then he talked for fifteen minutes about things I was already doing. One question would have told him that. You get about five minutes at the start to make someone want to keep talking. The pitch isn't a separate thing you deploy after discovery. It gets built out of what they tell you. Before your next call, try to answer these five: 1. What kind of organisation is this really, and who holds the money? 2. What have they already bought that does some of what you do? 3. What have they said publicly about this year's priorities (development plan, newsletter, governors' papers)? 4. Who's on the call, and what does their year look like? 5. What's the one thing you genuinely don't know, and will ask early? Bonus tip: job adverts are the honest ones. A school tells a careers page what it's struggling with far more plainly than it tells a supplier. This is exactly what we work through in Level 3, The Discovery Call. Your turn: which of the five do you skip most often? Tell me below. Full story on the blog: https://seventhsibling.co.uk/selling-into-education-the-fifteen-minutes-that-lost-the-deal/

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