The following is a copy of a message that I send out 10-15 times a week, with some minor tweaks, to well-intended vendor marketing and sales reps. I try to communicate with vendor reps in a respectful yet direct way. I mainly try to (1) educate vendor reps on the process and their likely prospects of selling a product/service to KY K-12 versus not responding at all to vendor reps (I suspect complete silence is the usual approach used), (2) not falsely leading them on with vague generalities because I don't have the courage to give them the real answer and (3) not just give a quick “no thank you" without any explanation. I find most of the sales reps are appreciative that I took the time to respond to them and that I used this type of approach to educate them on how bids/contracts and acquisitions occur in KY K-12, so they are not wasting their time or our time. Hope this info and the following helps educate you.
Dear tech vendor xyz,
Lots of good folks like yourself contact me each day wanting to meet with me or my staff about EdTech products/services that the sales staff is passionate about. I'm sure your EdTech product or service does some awesome things. My brother was in sales, so I know you're just trying to make a living and meet aggressive sales quotas. However I'm telling you the same thing that I tell all other vendors and sales reps that want to meet with me or our EdTech staff in the KY Dept of Education (KDE); Out of courtesy/respect of people's time, there is no need for time/energy/travel to be spent by the folks that work for that vendor or the folks in our office for an introductory/EdTech product demonstration meeting unless there is a true need, a legal purchasing mechanism for the EdTech services/products being sold and a funding source that can be used to pay for that EdTech product/service. Until a vendor can identify a legal purchasing mechanism (i.e., a KY state contract) that can be used to purchase the EdTech service/product from and the cost of that EdTech product/service on that contract, then it doesn't make sense to spend time considering the need for or getting excited about or getting familiar with the EdTech products/services of that vendor/provider. Are your products or services on an existing KY state contract? We don't use or recognize NASPO or GSA type of contracts, for a variety of good reasons. Only exclusively use KY state contracts.
Please keep in mind that KDE can't acquire, endorse, encourage or require KDE staff or KY K-12 school districts to buy a certain vendor's EdTech product or service, if that vendor is not on a KY state contract. The well-intended sales staff of EdTech vendors that are not on a KY state contract, sometimes don't understand how the state government acquisition process works for KY K-12, so they usually want to meet with KDE leaders/staff for one of four reasons:
- Hoping that their organization's EdTech products/services can just be added to an existing state contract by convincing someone at KDE to add it. KDE can't add a new vendor's EdTech products/services to an existing contract after it has been officially awarded after a competitive bid process.
- Hoping one of those KDE leaders has the decision-making authority to buy their EdTech product/service without having to use existing state contracts or go through a bidding process. KDE must use existing contracts for EdTech products/services.
- Hoping to get an endorsement from KDE, so the EdTech vendor can use that endorsement when marketing their EdTech products/services to others in KY K-12. KDE can't endorse a vendor's EdTech product/service until it is on an existing KY state contract.
To get on a KY K-12 EdTech state contract, the type of EdTech product/service must be desired, and if desired, it always has to go through a competitive bid process. Like a Kentucky Derby horse race, every EdTech vendor has to get their horse to the starting gate before the race begins (i.e., bid response due date). From that competition, there may be one or more EdTech products/service providers selected. There is no adding of a horse during the race or to the winner's circle after the final official results of the race. Wanting their EdTech product/service to be added to “the list" of vendors on an existing KY K-12 EdTech state contract, after that horse race has ended, is by far the most common misunderstanding that EdTech sales reps have of KY K-12 in KY state government. Over the past 30 years, we've never done, nor do we intend to use the sole source method to acquire EdTech products and services for KDE or KY K-12 school districts. If that EdTech product or service is needed/required, then it either must be on an existing KY state contract or it must go through a fair and open competitive bid.
(In certain situations where we don't have nor intend to have a KY K-12 product standard for that product/service, I also send this following paragraph.) There is good news though. The type of product/service that you are marketing is (a) optional for KY school districts to use/not use, (b) purchased directly at the school level with school level funds and (c) does not have to go through a competitive bid process at the state level. There are other vendors out there that sell this type of product and it's not our intention to do a state level type of bid that would require all districts to use this type of product and we don't have the state funds allocated to buy this type of product for all school districts. The KY Dept of Education can't endorse one product for districts to use, especially if it hasn't gone through a state level competitive bid process. So, your best option is to market your product directly to KY school districts. Districts have bidding and purchasing guidelines contract (e.g., model procurement code) that they must follow for EdTech items that are not on a KY state contract. The district's CIO/EdTech leader and/or financial staff can answer your questions about those district procurement processes/requirements. Good luck with the districts.
Over the past 32 years with the KY Dept of Education (KDE), it's incredibly rare that I or any of my KY K-12 Office of Education Technology (OET) staff have met with tech vendors of any type, even those vendors on a KY state contract. I never meet with a tech vendor to brief them on our strategic priorities/hot projects since they can get that and should get that without meeting with me or any of our staff (see link below about how you can do that yourself). There are two exceptions for me or my staff to meet with a specific tech vendor: (1) a specific pressing need and an initial/ongoing funding source has been identified for that need then we use an existing KY state contact or do a specific RFP/contract award if there isn't an existing KY state contract for that specific need… and then we then have close communications with that specific vendor during that original implementation of that service in each of our 171 districts and (2) we have a major service issue with an existing service that we have deployed in all our 171 districts. I get 10-15 requests a week to meet with vendor reps. If I agreed to meet with each vendor rep that wants to meet with me that's all I would do each day for the entire day. And if I met with one vendor rep, I would be obligated to meet with them all.
These are my words of intended helpful advice to you and any other sales staff. I hope it's taken with my well-meaning intentions.
Take care.
David Couch
Associate Commissioner, KY K-12 EdTech Leader & Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Office of Education Technology (OET)
Office of Education Technology
300 Sower Blvd., 4th Floor
Frankfort, KY 40601
(502) 564-2020