Wouldn’t hurt to schmooze from the top down either. Get to know the school boards, or when they have meetings. Someone is always up for re-election. If they have a pet project, (yours) that can help them keep their seat and show a benefit to the community, you might be able to bypass a lot of the crap and let it filter down from above.
Rick,
As someone that sells technology often into the public school environment…my only piece of advice is the make sure you know when their budgeting and buying season is. As an example around here we spend the months of Jan and Feb building proposals that will be formally distributed in May for June/July purchasing. Don’t wear out your welcome if it is the wrong time in the purchasing cycle.
Then build a relationship with those Transportation Coordinators…while they have their own budgets and a ton of autonomy, they will still seek approval (even if is it not required) from someone above them (CYA)…offer the help present your product to their supervisors…the more folks that support your product, the easier it is for the Transport guy to sign the PO…
If you want to chat directly about that, you may still have my cell number from years ago…if not you can ping me at wogstl at gMAIL dot com…be glad to help…sales is what I do when I’m not tri-ing!!
Paul
You should call Tucson UNified School District. I think they had something like 100 late buses the first few days of school this year.
They have a perpetual problem with late and no show on route buses.