Selling to lecturers in colleges and universities                   

There are three ways of selling to lecturers in colleges and universities: 

a)      Using a named list of lecturers

Named lists of lecturers are available by subject and this is an approach many companies have tried, but we have received increasingly gloomy reports of response rates in this area.

Part of the problem is that lists of lecturers tend to be defined by the lecturers’ interests rather than by the actual job that the lecturer does.  To give a specific example, I was, for a number of years, Senior Lecturer in Music. Thus you would expect my name to appear on lists of music lecturers, which it did. But I also had an interest in the sociology of music – so my name started appearing on sociology lists and I received promotions on materials that were by and large irrelevant. It was true that I was teaching a course called “Music in the Community” but my interests were never wholly sociological.  

Named lists of lecturers also have the disadvantage of involving you in a lot of costs. The lists tend to be expensive, come with minimum orders and involve you in posting maybe 10 or more letters to each college or university.  

But if despite this you are still interested in mailing lecturers by name, please ring us on 01536 399 000 for more details.  

b)      Approaching the relevant departmental secretary  

A more attractive approach involves writing to the departmental secretary in the subject area that you are interested in. Enclose with this letter 10 copies of your promotional leaflet, and with a spot of luck they will all find their way into relevant pigeon holes within the department.  

Even though some secretaries will not oblige, you will find that the cost of reaching each lecturer is a fraction of that experienced when using named lecturers.  

The more specific you make the department the better it is for you.  For example, you might want to reach the lecturers in the school of education who have an interest in the field of special needs, so it is worth writing to “The secretary, the Department of Special Needs Teaching, The School of Education, University of…”  

Much depends on how your write the covering letter to the secretary.  A cursory “please pass this on” tends not to go down very well.  

c)      Approaching the head of department  

The final method is ideal if the only person likely to be interested in your product is the head of department. This involves one writing simply to “The Head of …” by title.  Experience suggests that these mailings do indeed get through just as well as those addressed to heads of department by name.