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A candidate can be an excellent salesperson and still underestimate how schools buy.
There may be several users, influencers and decision makers.
Budget can sit in different places.
A teacher can love the product without having authority to buy it.
A headteacher can support it while finance asks for more evidence.
A trust may want consistency across several schools.
IT and data protection can become part of the deal.
That is why school selling knowledge can be valuable.
A simple interview question can reveal a lot.
Give the candidate a realistic product and ask: who might be involved in buying this?
A strong answer should go beyond headteacher.
Depending on the product, they may mention curriculum leaders, teachers, school business professionals, trust leadership, finance, IT, data protection and procurement.Then ask which person they would approach first and why.
You are testing whether they understand influence, not whether they can recite job titles.
School procurement changes with the value and nature of the purchase.
Current Department for Education guidance makes clear that schools may use approved frameworks, quotes or formal buying processes depending on the spend and circumstances.
Data protection also matters when EdTech processes pupil, parent or staff data.
Your salesperson does not need to be a procurement lawyer.
They do need enough awareness to know when a deal has moved beyond one enthusiastic user and into a wider buying process.
If the candidate has sold to schools before, ask them to walk through one deal from first contact to signed contract.
Who opened the door?
Who cared most about the problem?
Who held budget?
What almost stopped the deal?
How long did it take?
What happened after the sale?
Listen for the difference between having school contacts and understanding how a school decision gets made.
An existing network can help someone start conversations.
It is not a permanent sales strategy.
Contacts move roles. Priorities change. Products serve different needs.
A good hire should be able to build new relationships, not only call people they already know.
If your job description says must have a strong network of school leaders, ask what problem you are trying to solve.
If the answer is we need pipeline quickly, there may be better ways to assess that.
Former educators can bring huge value to school facing sales.
They understand workload, language, classroom reality and the difference between a product demo and implementation.
But not every teacher wants or will enjoy a target driven sales role.
Test motivation, resilience, commercial judgement and comfort asking for a decision.
The strongest transition hires understand that credibility opens the conversation. It does not close the deal for them.
Give the candidate a fictional product with an annual contract value and a target customer.
For example, a £15,000 product for a multi academy trust with twelve schools.
Ask them to talk through the first ninety days.
How would they identify the right accounts?
Who would they contact?
What would they need to learn?
How would they create a business case?
What risks could slow procurement?
How would they involve customer success or implementation?
The exercise should show thinking, not theatre.
The best school salespeople combine context with commercial structure.
They understand educators without becoming afraid to challenge.
They respect procurement without using it as an excuse for a weak pipeline.
They know that trust matters, but so do qualification and follow up.
That balance is what RecruitHer looks for when helping EdTech companies hire school facing commercial talent.
Strong school salespeople understand multiple stakeholders, budgets, procurement, data protection and implementation, while still bringing disciplined discovery, qualification and follow up.
No. A network can help open early conversations, but the stronger long term capability is being able to create new relationships and build pipeline repeatedly.
Ask them to map the buying group for a realistic school or trust sale, walk through a previous deal and explain how they would approach a practical first 90 day scenario.
Emilia Kruszewska is an EdTech recruiter and headhunter at RecruitHer, working with EdTech companies on commercial and leadership hiring.
Department for Education, Buying for schools
Department for Education, Procuring educational technology and data protection
