The Decision-Maker Doesn't Exist

The decision-maker you have been trying to reach does not exist.

After forty years of selling to K-12 school districts, I watch EdTech founders make the same search again and again. They go hunting for the decision-maker, and the search fails because that person doesn't exist.

Here's how this search usually happens. You start at the bottom and move up. The teacher liked your product but couldn't buy it, so you went to the principal. The principal was supportive but said it was a district decision, so you reached out to the curriculum director. She was interested, asked tough questions, and then said the words that changed everything: I will need to run this by a few people.

Most founders hear that and think they still haven't found the real decision-maker. So they keep going. Some even reach the superintendent, who says something similar. At that point, the founder often feels like the district is just giving them the runaround.

But the district isn't giving you the runaround. You're actually seeing how an institution says yes.

A district's yes doesn't come from just one person. It's made up of several smaller yeses from different people, and they all have to line up. After forty years, here's how I break them down.

The educational yes: Someone in charge of instruction needs to agree that your product fits with how the district teaches and what it wants to improve. This usually comes from curriculum and instructional leaders, with input from teachers and principals who would use it.

The financial yes: The business office has to confirm there's money for this, in a fund that can legally pay for it, and in a year when it's possible to spend. There has to be a funded mandate or priority behind the purchase. A specific person controls this money, and it's almost never the one who loves your product.

The operational yes: Someone has to agree the district can actually put your product in place. That means the technology works in their setting, training is possible, and staff can handle something new. Many deals that get the first two yeses quietly end here.

The formal yes: For deals above a certain amount, most districts need the superintendent's sign-off or a board vote. This yes usually confirms the others, but it has its own schedule and politics, and it can delay a deal even if everyone else is on board.

Think back to the curriculum director who said she needed to check with a few people. She wasn't brushing you off. She holds one of the yeses and was clearly telling you that others are involved. Most founders miss the gift in that sentence. The right move isn't to look for someone higher up, but to ask her which yeses are left, who holds them, and what those people need.

See how this changes your usual question. Asking who the decision-maker is makes you climb the org chart, searching for a role that doesn't exist. Founders who close deals with districts ask about the yes instead: What needs to happen for this district to buy, and who is responsible for each part? That question turns your enthusiastic contact from a dead end into a guide.

So here's the tough exercise. Take your best deal and list the four yeses. Write down who holds each one in that district, by name. For most founders, only the educational yes has a name, and the other three are blank. Those blank lines are not missing information. They are your real sales work, the conversations you need before a purchase order can happen.

And this fall is the time for those conversations. From mid-September to mid-December, districts are in their listening season, when the people who hold these yeses are still open to meetings. You don't need all four yeses today. You just need to know whose yes you're working on next.

No single person can give you the yes. But one person can guide you to everyone who holds a piece of it. Stop searching for the decision-maker and start finding out who holds each yes.

If you listed the four yeses for your best deal and found blank lines, that's worth a conversation. Helping founders figure out who holds each yes is something I do every week. Schedule a call with me right here on the site.

This article first appeared in my LinkedIn newsletter, Why Districts Don't Buy, where I write twice a month about how school districts really make buying decisions. You can subscribe on LinkedIn.