It may be frustrating you to no end: you’re doing tons of outreach to school administrators and teachers.

And what happens?

Nothing. Crickets.

You wonder what’s wrong. You have a great product. It’s supposed to solve all kinds of challenges that you are sure schools are having.

Yet, no one is interested in you or your product.

Think back to a time when you were pissed off or miserable about something, and you happened to see your neighbor next door.

He probably said, “Hey, how are you?”

And you responded with, “Good, thanks.”

We’ve all done this before.

Even though school administrators and teachers obviously have big problems, they aren’t talking to YOU about it.

Why not?

Because they don’t trust you.

I mean, think about it. You’re not going to confide in someone you don’t know about your problems because he doesn’t know you or your situation well enough.

His advice would be useless.

Likewise, teachers don’t confide in you about their burning pains because you haven’t shown that you understand what they’re going through.

On top of that, you obviously have a motive.

If they take the time to talk to you about their challenges, you’re just going to try to sell them something.

How do you get around that objection, especially when there are dozens of other edtech companies also trying to get their attention?

Know your prospective customers better than they know themselves. Understand their problems as if you have the same problems. Articulate it better than they can.

You don’t even have to talk about a solution. Just describe their problems in great detail, and they can’t help but think, “Yes! He understands what I’m going through!”

Then — and only then — will you build enough trust that they will listen to your advice.

If you’re not sure where to begin, here’s what you do:

Create a buyer persona for each of the people in your target market, e.g. teacher, principal, and parent.

These buyer personas are your IDEAL customers. Describe in specific detail:

• Who these people are
• Demographics (e.g. age, income level)
• Demeanor and how they prefer to communicate
• What their goals are
• Their top challenges
• How YOU can help solve those challenges
• Quotes from real people
• The most common objections they have to buying a product
• Your marketing message
• Your elevator pitch

If you go through this exercise, you will know your customer better than she knows herself.

Then she will talk to you all day long.

If you’re stuck, come check out my website for some example buyer personas!