PLAYBOOK FOR ED-TECH

SALES AND MARKETING

CONTENT

1. Introduction

2. What Industry Expert Have to Say 

3. Sales & Marketing Playbook

Avoid Lead Leakage with 100% Lead Capture

Track Student Behavior and Personalize Communication 

Lead Deduplication and Distribution 

Student Qualification, Segmentation and Prioritization 

Driving Sales Productivity Across Call Center & Field Sales Teams

A. Contact Center Management 

B. Field Agent Management and Mobile Application 

C. Consolidated Activity Overview- Smart Views

Customer Acquisition Through Nurturing

Track Up-sell/ Cross-sell Opportunities

Tracking Key Metrics

Intervene Wherever Necessary   

5. Conclusion

6.Resources

7. About LeadSquared

02 ..
INTRODUCTION

India has the world’s largest population of learners. About 500 million Indians are in the age bracket of 5-24

years who actively seek education. The education sector in India is estimated at over US$ 91.7 billion – proving

a promising future for educational institutions.

The reformed National Education Policy envisions to To fill the gap, schools, colleges, and universities
transform our nation into an equitable and vibrant indeed have started video lecture sessions. However,
knowledge society by providing high-quality educa- the authority for quality online education remains
tion to all which creates a great opportunity for all with Ed-Tech players. While Ed-Tech has leverage of
educational organizations. To support this fact, there technological capabilities, learners are swamped with
are about 4,450 registered Ed-Techs and 875 universi- advertisements, types of courses, and offers. Amidst
ties in India. However, in the backdrop of the COV- this, the players who have aligned their sales and
ID-19 pandemic, the dynamics of classroom educa- marketing strategies can leverage the opportunity to
tion is changing, and online education has leverage.  capture the untapped online education market. 
The impact of COVID-19 on classroom education is Based on our experiences with Ed-Tech leaders like
very high. According to the World Bank report, 190 BYJU’s and Vedantu, we have put together a
countries are facing partial or complete school “Playbook for Ed-Tech Sales and Marketing.” This
closures affecting the education of over 1.7 billion will help you create a strong sales and marketing
students. Education policymakers strive to ensure process to boost conversions and, at the same
that learning continues even from home.  time automate your Ed-Tech business. 

03 ..
WHAT INDUSTRY EXPERTS HAVE TO SAY

With changing time and processes, technology had to come in someday. Personaliza-

tion and flexibility are the major advantages in digital learning. It is here to stay and

will leave a long-lasting effect. People will start adopting to a hybrid model if not com-

pletely shift to an online  space. - Pravin Prakash, CPO, BYJU'S

When it comes to the performance of a salesperson before and after Covid, May

onwards, sales has seen almost 3x of what it was in 2019. Offline salespeople have start-

ed adapting to the online model and are saving out on the travelling time to convert

more prospects. Frequently staying connected with sales agents and providing them

with the right set of tools is helping them close deals faster.

- Pravin Prakash, CPO, BYJU'S

When it comes to the fight between the brand of an Ed-Tech or a college, Ed-Techs are

trying to build a brand image by providing end to end learning experience and colleges

and higher educational institutions are looking at upgrading their technology. There is

competition in the user/learner share but when it comes to a business model, Ed-Techs

are scalable. - Vibhu Bhushan, Co-founder, Gradeup

The Pandemic has just acted as a catalyst. Ed-Techs are spending more to establish a

sense of trust. The K12 segment is looking at live learning and balancing the co-curric-

ular and non-co-curriculars. - Utkarsh Lokesh, Co-Founder &

CEO, EdTechReview

The impact  on higher education will be slow and sluggish for the next 2-3 years.

Passive learning will be the source of delivering lectures. Larger Universities have

switched to online forms of their own but smaller organization are thinking of ways to

scale up. The cost of education might go down but depends on type of institution and

quality of education. - Utkarsh Lokesh, Co-Founder & CEO, EdTechReview

04 ..
SALES & MARKETING PLAYBOOK

While EdTech is growing rapidly there are 3 common issues they're currently struggling to deal with.

Lead Leakage: 80% of the leads  never reach the sales team - despite the large number of leads coming in,

many of them get dropped. - Marketing Sherpa

Sales Regimentation: Sales reps do not have clear understanding of leads and miss out on addressing leads

due to improper prioritization and distribution.

Improper Lead Nurturing: 73% of companies have no process for nurturing and engaging with leads

after the marketing process is complete. - Marketing Sherpa

Avoid Lead Leakage with 100% Lead Capture:

As per the Organization for Economic Co-operation remotely. There are about 1.5 billion learners across

and Development (OECD), disruption in schooling the globe – indicating the flourishing market for

due to the pandemic would cause skill loss, leading to Ed-Techs.

a 1.5% drop in global economic output for the rest of However, organizations need to market their offer-

the century. The suspension of traditional classroom ings efficiently. It is possible through an omnichan-

education, however, has created a huge opportunity nel approach for engaging with learners and using a

for online education. Ed-Techs possess the required centralized system for lead management.  

technology and resources to resume education

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There can be multiple channels for lead generation Ads, Facebook, Chat tools) and aggregator integra-

such as Facebook, Instagram, Shiksha.com, etc. But tions (Shiksha.com, Collegeduniya), you can collect

logging-in to each of these platforms can be very leads from all the available channels into a central

time consuming and will only delay responses. You system. LeadSquared  Education CRM provides

can also expect missing out leads in the process. 100% lead capture efficiency with zero lead leakage

A smart approach would be to use sales and market- through contact forms on microsites, landing pages,

ing CRM. With social media integrations (Google  social media, and aggregator websites. 

Track Student Behavior and Personalize Communication:

According to a Blue Research Study, 57% of marketers agree that lead nurturing is the most crucial aspect of closing

a customer. Hence, it is necessary to have the right marketing strategy. It includes providing relevant, useful infor-

mation that your customers would see as a value and outlining how your service comes in to save the day. 

An effective marketing automation system helps could nurture the leads effectively. The  end to end

personalize marketing campaigns based on pros- marketing solution in LeadSquared’s education CRM

pects' information.  Email marketing, an old-school can map out the entire customer journey - starting

yet, one of the most effective methods of communi- with lead capture to closure. It tracks every move of

cation, can help establish meaningful relations with the prospect on your property viz. digital ads, market-

leads. With marketing automation in place, you can places, websites, socials, and chats - giving your sales

create email templates and drip campaigns, which reps the context necessary to close the deal.

Personalize Communication

Automation Save Publish

Messaging
Trigger Communication
Email
[LeadName] here are your offers!
Text
Whatsapp
Facebook
Retargeting
Google Remarketing
Self-serve Portal
Phone Call

You can initiate personalized communication might buy your competitor’s product. Thus, you need

through Emails, SMS, Phone calls, and WhatsApp. to be very efficient with the turn-around-time. Ideal-

But, if you don’t reach out to a prospect in time, ly, reaching out to the student as soon as their inquiry

there’s a high chance that your potential customer   comes in increases the likelihood of conversion. 

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But how to identify the prospects' intensions? follow their every move on your website.

The    website tracking  feature in  LeadSquared’s  A user tracking information is absolutely essential to

education CRM allows you to engage with students strike a meaningful conversation with leads. You can

through the content that suits their interests. You can draw the following insights: 

Track web activities: Track the lead's intent on the website through pages they view, CTAs clicked, videos

viewed, and more.

Track the time spent on website: Figure out how engaging your content is by tracking the time spent on each

page and analyzing the bounce rate. 

Track the effective pages and content  : Track link clicks and understand if the content encourages the

visitor to take an action.

Track sources: Distinguish whether the leads are coming from social media, search queries (organic traffic),

digital ads, marketplaces, or other channels.

Based on the lead's activities, you can send an imme- product. At the same time, the education CRM

diate response via email, SMS, or WhatsApp. This is a can trigger notifications to the sales reps

great way to engage with the lead through automa- describing the activity. This will ensure that the

tion until sales reps reach out to them. For example, agents are always informed. You can monitor all

if a lead views the pricing page, you can send an these actions through  the LeadSquared Smart

email describing current offers running on the Views dashboard.

Lead Deduplication & Distribution:

A CRM is only as good as its data. Lead deduplication the sales team for follow-up. 

increases the productivity of your agents by ensuring It is most likely that a prospect must have inquired

they only work on unique leads. From the prospects' about the course they are looking for with other

perspective, deduplication also improves the organizations as well. Therefore calling a lead

customer experience by reducing the chances of within 5 minutes of inquiry increases their proba-

redundant communication that might otherwise bility of enrolling in your course by nine times. 

come across as spam. LeadSquared's Education CRM Immediately contacting prospects is a pressing chal-

handles deduplication by merging, deleting, and lenge with Ed-Techs. Concerns like language,

updating leads based on business rules. After filtering location, priorities, sales rep's availability, etc. come

the data, the system automatically assigns the lead to into the picture once the leads start coming in. 

For instance, Ajay, a student from 1st year of college in Kolkata, wants to learn Bengali literature. He is more

comfortable speaking in Bengali than in any other language. Based on Ajay's persona, a CRM system can auto-

matically assign an agent to reach out to him. The mapping between the lead and the sales rep and lead distribu-

tion will depend on the following parameters:

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In case, the agent is unavailable or if there is a

delay in reaching out to the prospect, the CRM

system maintains a log. This transparent mecha- Course - English Course - French
Course - French Course - German

nism ensures that the lead is passed on to another

agent as soon as possible. LeadSquared education  De-duplication criteria

CRM also solves the problem of overloading your

Course - English
Course - French Course - German

agents with leads at any given point of time. With

Applicant Attributes Agent Attributes

a capping logic, it assigns an appropriate number Course Type

of leads to the sales reps and distributes leads

equally among the team. With the right mix of

lead and agent attributes, you can reduce the

turn-around time and increase the chances of

conversion.

Lead Qualification, Segmentation, and Prioritization:

In high-velocity sales businesses like Ed-Techs, lead Now that you're able to differentiate between a high

inquiries flood in every day and it is impossible to call and a low priority lead, you can plan the outreach

every lead. So how would you distinguish the ‘Sales schedule accordingly. However, you would surely

Ready’ leads from others? A sales-ready lead is one want to reach out to the priority lead first. There-

that is actively engaged with you. The  Lead scoring  fore, the system needs to be efficient enough to

feature in LeadSquared's education CRM plays an distinguish between a sales-ready lead and the

important role here. You can assign scores based on generic ones. All you need to do is define the right

the lead’s involvement in your offerings. When a set of parameters and criteria for lead scoring such

prospect frequently checks your emails, spends time as course interested in, the number of previous

on your website, or interacts with your content, it interactions, pre-screening results, and location

means – they have a higher chance of conversion.  preferences to name some. 

Leads Quality Score Qualified

8/10

3/10

9/10

08 ..
Once you've identified the priority leads, you can differ for both the categories of leads. Agents/Sales

segment them into different buckets like stages, reps would try to educate prospects about your offer-

targets, opportunities, and more. This way, the sales ings whereas they'll have sales-centric conversations

reps can have an upper hand on what action to take (e.g. how your offering is better than competitors)

next.  with opportunities. 

For instance, a prospect (a lead with low involvement Lead Prioritization and scoring play an important role

but higher up in the sales funnel) may not have much in ensuring that the call center agents' and sales

idea of your offerings as compared to an opportunity agents’ productivity is maintained. Proper lead

(a lead with deeper involvement and towards the scoring and qualification ensure that the “Sales

bottom of the sales funnel). The communication will Ready” leads are segmented and given priority. 

Driving Sales Productivity Across Call Center & Field Sales Teams:

1 Contact Center Management:

A survey conducted by Blue Research Study reveals Integrating your CRM with a contact center manage-

that 56% of respondents have stopped doing business ment solution or an IVR solves this issue by helping

with a brand due to a poor customer service experi- your calling team get a 360-degree view of the

ence, and 47% of consumers took their business to lead/customer’s interests. Additionally, one would

the competitor. This number is enough of a reason to know the lead requirements even before calling them.

convince high volume sales-oriented organizations It helps the sales team deliver personalized service.

to implement a contact center solution.  Instead of purchasing a separate call center suite and

In the Ed-Tech industry, one cannot expect leads just another CRM suite, implementing an education CRM

from online sources. Inbound phone calls and multi- which comes with a call center integration makes the

ple other sources like marketplaces contribute to best choice for businesses that rely on call centers.

generating inquiries. It's easy to handle few calls but The progressive/predictive dialing or auto-dialing

juggling multiple calls at a time can lead to losing feature calls the high priority prospects automatically

opportunities.  and helps boost the conversion rate. 

2 Field Agent Management and Mobile Application:

For organizations with a large field sales team, man- that runs with or without the internet, one can have

aging them and tracking their daily progress can get complete visibility  of their field force's actions. It

very difficult. A field agent management system helps provides real-time reports on all field activities. The

them track the actions of the field team.  With  insights drawn with the help of the agent  manage-

LeadSquared’s advanced field-force automation app ment solution are as follows:

09 ..
 Plans your agents’ day for them. Right from the
Automated day planner number of meetings scheduled, the goals for the day,

and the best travel routes.

Based on the agent’s current location, the mobile app

Route recommendation
can identify nearby leads and inform the agent.

With the customer’s activity history. The app can

Give intelligent up/ cross-sell signals look for possible upsell or cross-sell opportunities
and recommend opportunities to your agent

Track calls and messages received on the mobile

Track agent activities
devices and analyze their overall productivity.

Restricting false entries by geo-fencing customer

locations. Agents would not be able to complete their

Geo-fencing agent tasks tasks or meetings if they are not in the correct

location. This ensures correct logs for accurate infor-

mation processing. 

One can draw complete geo reporting of all the meet-

ings and tasks by knowing the number of completed

Location history of teams
meetings, distance traveled, and even the locations of

every meeting.

3 Consolidated Activity Overview:

After the leads are distributed and assigned to other details through a single dashboard. It consists of
respective agents, sales reps can access their the entire lead journey starting from the time of lead
accounts, leads, opportunities, activities, tasks, and capture to final conversion. Key benefits:

It gives sales users a single work area for accessing accounts, leads, opportunities, activities, and tasks. 

It provides a better alternative to quick filters – One might add different buckets such as new leads added, leads

assigned to do, lead overdue, progress to doing, or other filters and view saved filters. 

It provides a lead count on each tab. 

It automatically refreshes and updates the lead information.

Agents can also receive daily reports for the views they create. If the manager wants to track the progress of an

agent, they will have complete transparency on new leads added, pending tasks for the day, sales tasks completed,

activities posted, etc. Driving conversions is a task-oriented process. Therefore, managers should be able to see the

overdue, completed, and upcoming tasks and take appropriate actions. You can get the consolidated activity infor-

mation with Smart View. A feature in LeadSquared 's education CRM

10 ..
 Customer Acquisition Through Nurturing:

A survey conducted by Blue Research study reveals Organizations often forget about the cold leads. How-

that 94% of consumers have discontinued communi- ever, it is important to build a connection with the

cations with a company because of irrelevant promo- inactive/cold leads to bring them back into the sales

tions or messages.  pipeline.  Organizations should tailor communica-

Therefore, it is important to be careful with your tions based on the prospect persona. With personal-

messaging. The sales pipeline consists of both - ized and valuable communication, you can establish a

potential customers to upsell/cross-sell products and positive relationship with the lead.

the inactive leads who don't seek your offerings at the Lead nurturing  is the process of building relation-

time. ships with leads.

On average, more than half of the leads you receive are not ready to purchase your offerings. Interestingly, influen-

tial companies are efficiently nurturing leads creating 50% more sales-ready leads. Here are three effective ways

of lead nurturing to keeping the communication going: 

Targeted content: provide content based on prospects' interests. 

Personalized emails: these have better open rates than generic ones.

Create multiple touchpoints: Even though email marketing is one of the most effective marketing forms, the

email response rate doesn’t top more than 24% as mentioned in a survey conducted by Smart Insights, thus

reaching out to prospects through different mediums such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. can help you

stay in front of your leads. 

You can prosper in your targeted communication LeadSquared education CRM can help you determine
strategy by finding the fit, behavior, interest, and different touchpoints, curate effective content, and
buying stage of the prospect. accelerate sales.

11 ..
 Smart List Segmentation

Personalize Communication
Interested in English Interested in French Interested in German

Automation Save Publish

Messaging
Trigger Communication
Smart Communication [LeadName] here are your offers!
Email
Text
Whatsapp
Facebook
Hi Lead Name Retargeting
Google Remarketing

Here are the details for Cources Self-serve Portal

Phone Call
English
French
German

Send

Track Upsell/Cross-Sell Opportunities:

The student retention rate is challenging for most For an Ed-Tech organization offering multiple cours-

Ed-Tech organizations. However, it is an important es, it is necessary to track upsell/ cross-sell signals to

parameter that helps improve the quality of content boost sales. 

provided  and financial projections. LeadSquared For example, Amit, a student preparing for

Sales Execution CRM helps you to nurture the leads, IIT-JEE, has been taking a Math course from your

stay engaged post-sale, and leverage upselling and organization. He soon wishes to take up Physics

cross-selling opportunities. Automated marketing classes as well. However, he is unsure about

messaging like product updates, upcoming enrolling in your Physics course or explore other

events/webinars, ongoing discounts, or a simple Ed-Techs. Nevertheless, he fills out the necessary

phone call occasionally can go a long way. With information on your landing page and receives a

marketing automation, you can plan your targeting call from your sales rep. Amit figures out that he'll

better and set a clear timeline to reach out to the get an additional discountbecause he's already in

prospects.  Maths. He thus decides to purchase your course. 

Hey Steve, here are few course you may like

Visited course detailed web page

Viewed Course Video

12 ..
Amit has been on the receiving end of a selling strategy known as cross-selling without realizing it. LeadSquared 

education CRM helps capture the buying signals and tracks the opportunity for upselling/cross-selling, thereby

increasing the sales conversion as well as the retention rates.

Tracking Key Metrics:

Having the right set of data can help you make The analytics tracker can differentiate the profitable

informed decisions. Analytical dashboards simplify lead sources, leads stages, and an individual's as well

tracking of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and as the team's overall sales performance. You can

relevant metrics. The  analytical tools as a part of  track the following performance metrics:

LeadSquared’s education CRM show the ongoing • Over-all performance 

business activities in a decision-ready format. • Team performance 

The customizable dashboard allows leaders to track • Product (subjects, courses) performance

the performance of marketing, sales (online and • Campaign source performance

offline teams), admissions, customer outreach • Agents performance

teams, and more. • Return on Advertisements (ROAs) 

Daily Operating Metrics Metrics for Long Term

Daily calls made Revenue per employee

Email open and clickthrough rates

Hourly, weekly, monthly trends
and best time for sending Emails

% of Target achieved per sales-

Profitable sources of leads
person, team and region wise

Call to conversion ratios PAN India and location wise team performance

This is especially beneficial for high-velocity businesses. With detailed reports on the best performing sources and

the ROI for individual campaigns, based on which businesses  can decide future investments. 

13 ..
If you are spending X amount of money on
social media advertisements and targeting Face-
book, Instagram, and LinkedIn ads. You observe
that maximum qualified leads are coming from
Instagram and LinkedIn is delivering the least
results. LeadSquared Analytics provides reports
on the effective sources, lead quality, call to
conversion ratios, leads' intents, etc.
Intervene Wherever Necessary:
Your chances of reaching a lead are 100 times
higher if you call him within 5 minutes. Timing is
everything when it comes to high-velocity sales.
However, missing out on lead follow-up is common.
But what if you can track the daily sales opera-
tions for your teams – calls made, emails sent,
follow-ups missed, etc. – and intervene when
necessary?
With the help of analytics, managers can have com-
plete visibility and transparency about the daily
activities of sales agents. If in case, your sales reps
are unable to work upon a lead for a long time, The  The deals your reps close or commit to the pipeline.
escalation tool  in LeadSquared's  education CRM
can route the leads to another agent as soon as
possible.  
This ensures that your sales agents are working
efficiently. You can also record calls and meetings
for quality and training purposes. As a manager, you
can have complete transparency over the sales rep's
New Lead Added
PRODUCT
Course Admission
ADDRESS
Bridage Millenium Rd,
Olivia Smith
Nataraja Layout, JP Nagar
9817463828
7th Phase, Bangalore
Bangalore
With reliable Analytics, you can redefine your
strategies and invest more in profitable sources.
LeadSquared also helps generate payment mile-
stone reports, phone call metrics, lead stage tran-
sition analysis, and complete reporting for all
your processes, teams, products, and campaigns.
The following are the commonly used tracking
metrics: 
With the help of the sales escalation tool, you can
track the following:
Emails sent by your sales team. The click and open
rates of the emails. 
Call volume, connect rate, and successful conversa
tion numbers.
Call recordings and email audits 
The number of leads in each stage of the sales pipe
line. 
Meeting schedule of your field sales team on a daily,
weekly, or monthly basis.
 
The revenue contributed vs. the activities of the
sales reps. 
activities and the state of the business. With proper
task-oriented education CRM, you can streamline the
entire sales journey and boost student acquisition
rates for your Ed-Tech. 
Not Active from 2 months Transfered Lead
Active Lead
Active Lead
14 ..
CONCLUSION

The coronavirus pandemic has brought a paradigm shift in the Indian education sector. From elementa-

ry schools to professional education, from tier-3 to tier-1 cities, people have started to accept the online

learning system. As a result, Ed-Tech organizations are witnessing 2x-3x sales compared to the last

year. The market for Ed-Tech is vast. With more than a billion learners, the EdTech sector looks up to

the promising opportunities in the future. To some, the Ed-Tech market may seem saturated and

dominated by leading players. However, the right approach and proper sales and marketing tools can

lead your organization to become the next unicorn!

Some of the largest Ed-Tech organizations such as – BYJU’s, Vedantu, Unacademy, and more are using

LeadSquared's integrated platform for Sales and Marketing Automation to drive high-velocity sales

across India. 

LeadSquared's solution is scalable and flexible to adapt to your existing sales strategy. Keeping custom-

er experience in focus, LeadSquared's SaaS tools helps accelerate the onboarding of new learners and

nurture the old ones. You can even integrate this platform with Facebook, Google suite, ERPs, and other

third-party applications as well. 

15 ..
 ABOUT LEADSQUARED

LeadSquared is a student acquisition and enrollment acceleration platform loved by Ed-Tech busi-
nesses. It provides a complete overview of new student acquisition, student journey tracking, and
sales automation. It keeps all the teams - sales, marketing, operations, payments, and others connect-
ed for 360-degree student management. Leading Ed-Tech organizations, including Unacademy, Byjus,
Vedantu, Gradeup, CrackVerbal, Cuemath, askIITians, and CAMPK12, use the LeadSquared platform
to acquire learners. With LeadSquared, you can: 

Capture student inquiries from all digital and offline channels .

Manage all student data centrally with guided access across teams.
Track student journey and run targeted campaigns .
Ensure call center & field workforce productivity.
Draw advanced performance analytics for every aspect of Ed-Tech sales (students, processes,
teams, salespeople, courses, and more) .

Trusted by 1000+ businesses worldwide

Contact Us
marketing@leadsquared.com
+91.90191.72733

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