6 Things American Universities Wish EdTech Companies Understood

Breaking into the American higher education market is incredibly difficult to do. And a lot of the difficulty comes down to one thing: not understanding who your buyer actually is or what they need.

For the first episode of the Insight Lab, I sat down with Deirdre, the Associate Provost and Dean of the School of Professional Studies and Innovation at Moravian University. She brought 25 years of experience evaluating, buying, and implementing EdTech across multiple institutions to this conversation. She has seen every pitch, sat through every demo, and signed — and declined to sign — more contracts than most EdTech founders will ever pitch.

She is the perfect buyer persona, and here is what she wants you to know.

1. Your Website Is Your First Sales Call — and Most Companies Fail It

Before Deirdre agrees to a demo, she goes to your website. If she can't immediately understand what your product does and how it solves her specific problem, the meeting may never happen.

"The number one thing that will kill a deal is the very starting point," she told me. "When I look at a vendor's website, I want to know unequivocally what their product does. I don't want to go through endless demos from a salesperson that really doesn't understand my need."

This is not a UX complaint. It is a deal-killer. Higher ed administrators are running large departments, fielding dozens of vendor approaches, and juggling competing priorities at all times. Clarity is not just a nice-to-have — and it’s even more than a competitive advantage — it’s an absolute necessity in an industry where your target audience is less than tech savvy (sorry educators, this is largely the truth). If you make her work hard to understand your product, she will move on.

Your website should be more than just a first impression. It should be your first sales conversation.

2. Free Trials Can Close Deals That Sales Teams Can't

Deirdre recently signed a contract with an AI course development company. Not because of the pitch. Not because of the deck. Because they gave her a free trial — a real one.

They took one of her existing courses, built a sample experiential activity inside it, and integrated it flawlessly into her LMS before she had spent a single dollar.
"That was it," she said. "That's all I needed to sign the contract."

This is what marketers call an activation moment — the point at which a customer experiences the real value of a product before committing to it. In higher education, where administrators are often not deeply technical and cannot easily self-evaluate software, that moment is everything.

But Deirdre was specific about what a real free trial looks like — and it is not a generic seven-day login. "If you have to learn the software in a short period of time, you don't ever really get a good feel," she said. What moves the needle is a small-scale, customized rollout using her data, in her environment, solving her specific problem.

For early-stage EdTech companies without large sales teams, this is worth paying attention to. A well-designed free trial is product-led selling at its best. It does the work a superstar salesperson would do — and it goes a very long way in de-risking the adoption process for the buyer.

3. Salespeople Who Don't Know the Industry Kill Deals Instantly

There is one thing guaranteed to end a meeting early with Deirdre: a salesperson with a script and no substance.

"One of my biggest frustrations is talking to a salesperson that just has a sales script and really doesn't know what they're talking about," she said. 
 
Higher ed is not a generic B2B market. The problems are nuanced, the terminology is specific, and the stakes are high — student retention, accreditation, faculty adoption, budget cycles that run on academic years. An administrator at Deirdre's level is not looking for a demo. She is looking for a partner who understands her world well enough to diagnose her problem and propose a solution she may not have identified herself.

"It's up to the vendor to be able to show me how they can solve my problem," she said. "I don't want to have to pick it out of them."

Your team, whatever the size, needs deep industry knowledge, not just product knowledge. The ability to listen, translate a vague pain point into a specific solution, and speak the language of American education is what separates the vendors she calls back from the ones she forgets.

4. Post-Sale Support Is Where Retention Is Won or Lost

Deirdre once purchased an expensive assessment tool that was so complex and so poorly supported after implementation that it was never used. Not underused. Never used.

Contrast that with an AI-powered proactive advising tool she adopted more recently. The implementation was seamless. Every meeting was organized and productive. The support team worked hand-in-hand with her IT department. Training was complete and on time.

"They make the sale and they think it's done," she said of vendors who get this wrong. "You'll never get a repeat customer that way."

This is where churn lives. A great sale followed by a poor implementation is worse than no sale at all — it generates negative word of mouth in a market where relationships travel fast. Higher ed is a small world. Administrators talk to each other at conferences, through professional associations, and across institutions.
 
A vendor who executes well post-sale earns referrals and strong CLV.

5. Your Buyers Are Not Technical… But They Will Never Tell You That

This one is uncomfortable, but it needs to be said.

Most American university administrators are not technical people. Not even close. And the gap between how EdTech companies imagine their buyers and who their buyers actually are is one of the most expensive misalignments in the industry.

"Most universities — and I'm not talking about your Stanfords and your MITs — the administrators and faculty have no idea what's going on with AI," I said during our conversation. "They push out messaging about being on the cutting edge of tech. That is not the reality."

Deirdre agreed. Administrators are running large departments, relying on others for detailed information, and often don't fully understand the jargon you are using. And here is the part that should concern every EdTech sales team: they will not tell you that. They will nod along, disengage quietly, and simply not call back.

You cannot assume your buyer has the technical context to evaluate your product independently. You have to be their guide, translating your product into layman’s terms and earning their trust through clarity and patience rather than feature lists and technical specs alone.

6. Private Institutions Are Your Best Entry Point Into the U.S. Market

The procurement process at American universities is more complex than most EdTech companies realize, and it varies significantly depending on the type of institution.

At many private universities, administrators are required to evaluate at least three competing proposals before committing to a vendor. This is not about doubting the administrator's judgment. It is about folks like CFOs and cabinet members ensuring competitive pricing. "They trust the administrator to understand whether the product is going to work," Deirdre explained. "They just want to know that the price point is correct."

Budget authority also varies. At Moravian, Deirdre controls her own budget and can make purchasing decisions within it. At other institutions, anything above a certain threshold requires a formal approval process that can extend the sales cycle significantly.

State institutions are a different challenge entirely. They typically require rigorous vetting and rely heavily on pre-approved vendor lists — a process that is slow, bureaucratic, and difficult to navigate without an established U.S. presence.

Her advice for EdTech companies entering the U.S. market was direct: start with small to mid-sized private institutions. They move faster, have more flexibility, and are far more accessible than large public universities for companies that are still building their American footprint.

The Bottom Line

Breaking into the American higher education market is genuinely hard. But a lot of the difficulty is self-inflicted — the result of not understanding who your buyer actually is, how they think, and what they need from you at every stage of the relationship.

The companies that win in this market are not necessarily the ones with the best product. They are the ones who show up with clarity, earn trust early through customized free trials, engage salespeople who actually understand higher ed, and support their customers long after the contract is signed.

If you manage to nail these six items, you will be that much closer to breaking into and expanding in the US market.