Selling to Education
K-12 facilities operations spend ~$60-80B/year nationally; MRO portion ~$8-12B annually. Higher Ed adds ~$4-6B in facilities-side MRO.
60-180 days for direct trial-to-PO; 180-360 for cooperative contract activation; 12-month-out planning for major supply contracts
$2K-$25K initial trial conversion; $25K-$250K annual recurring per district once approved-vendor status earned
Sub-segments inside Education
K-12 Public School Districts
1-50+ buildings, 500-50,000+ students per district
The largest MRO sub-segment by volume. Public funding = elected board = rigid budget cycle. Cooperative purchasing dominant.
Higher Education (Universities, Colleges, Community Colleges)
Multi-building campuses, often 1M-20M+ sq ft. Research universities: $1B+ deferred maintenance backlogs.
More decentralized than K-12. Often College of Engineering has its own facilities team. Auxiliary services (dining, housing) often privatized to Sodexo/Aramark.
Vocational & Trade Schools
Single-campus, 200-2000 students
Mix of K-12 and manufacturing patterns — they have shop classes that consume MRO like manufacturing facilities.
Private K-12 Schools
Single-campus, 100-1500 students
More like property management than public K-12 — independent boards, no cooperative purchasing constraint, faster decisions.
Key personas you'll meet
5 researched personas for Education. Each one carries its own vocabulary, pain-point ranking, and discovery question bank — used to make every brief persona-specific.