Insight Lab Series
Clarity, Free Trials, and Knowing Your Customer: How This Assistant Provost Chooses to Buy EdTech for Her University
Overview
In this episode of the Insight Lab at Olah Marketing Edge, we sit down with the Associate Provost and Dean of the School of Professional Studies and Innovation at Moravian University — a higher education administrator with 25 years of experience evaluating, buying, and implementing EdTech across multiple institutions.
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If you sell EdTech to American universities, this conversation is required viewing.
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Deirdre breaks down exactly what makes her sign a contract — and what kills a deal before it ever gets started. From the moment she lands on a vendor's website to the moment she signs a contract, she walks us through the real buying process inside a private American university — including how budgets actually work, why free trials close deals that sales teams can't, and what happens when a vendor pivots in real time to solve a problem she didn't even know she had.
Key Insights
Why clarity on your website is your first — and sometimes last — chance to make an impression
How free trials create the activation moment that closes deals​
The difference between selling what you have and solving what they need
How procurement actually works at private vs. state institutions
Why getting on state-approved vendor lists is a market access strategy
The three-proposal competitive review process and what it means for your pricing
Continue Exploring the Insight Lab
Learn directly from educational leaders and decision-makers across K-12 and higher education to understand the real challenges, priorities, purchasing behaviors, and adoption realities that drive — and derail — EdTech buying decisions in American institutions.
