Toolkit to Grow Employer Partnerships
Find and secure best-fit employer partnerships
The higher education industry is in a period of significant financial stress. The demographic for college-aged students has plateaued, and state support for public institutions varies widely across state lines. As a result, universities are under increasing pressure to find and sustain alternative sources of revenue. To face these challenges, higher ed employer partnerships through PAE units were identified as ways to generate revenue to support mission-critical programs and offerings.
However, this is currently an imperfect solution. PAE units have struggled to fully capitalize on employer partnerships in a sustainable and profitable manner. For most PAE units, less than 14% of revenue comes from tuition reimbursement, and the average PAE unit five-year growth rate stands at a mere 6%.
While PAE units boast expertise in the training services they offer, their current sales approach is outdated and littered with potential pitfalls. The increasingly long decision cycles that are present in today’s organizations are a key impediment to universities that are sourcing partnerships with business and industry. As organizations become increasingly large and complex, key decisions around partnerships and purchases necessarily involve more people than ever.
To aid in implementation of critical disciplines to grow higher ed employer partnerships, use the following tools to navigate the most complex portions of the partnership process.
Tool 1: Differentiation Brainstorming Guide
Convening stakeholders at your institution and defining unique differentiators can result in the added benefits of institutional alignment and confidence in messaging. Circulate the Differentiation Brainstorming Guide to members of your PAE unit (B2B sales, marketing, program development) as well as academic department partners and senior leaders in externally facing units to determine how to best position your university’s offerings in the employer marketplace.
Tool 2: Employer Lead Scoring Rubric
Use the Employer Lead Scoring Rubric to gather data and monitor metrics correlated with B2B success. While this process functions best as part of a cross-silo collaboration on campus, it is still effective as an exercise within units or colleges pursuing higher ed employer partnerships. Bring together data to create an employer profile first, and then determine weighted scores based on correlation with a future partnership. Score weighting can continually be reassessed and tweaked as your B2B business evolves and matures.
Tool 3: Employer Talent Assessment Template
By proactively offering assessment services, universities can demonstrate tailored customer insight in the negotiation process and design a proposal that appeals to multiple influencers within the organization. The Employer Talent Assessment Template from UC Irvine helps the primary purchaser navigate internal silos while also gathering information pertinent to program design. B2B sales representatives should use this tool early in the sales cycle, typically in their initial conversations with HR executives.
Tool 4: Corporate Buyer Archetypes
The Corporate Buyer Archetypes tool highlights the key concerns, responsibilities, and trends that are likely to influence various corporate buyers. B2B sales practitioners can use this tool in conjunction with Tool 5 for a practical exercise of taking a standard marketing pitch and tailoring it to the unique perspective of each corporate buyer.
Tool 5: Marketing Strategies for Multiple Influencers
Decision-making is driven by consensus at most organizations today. Articulating the value of a partnership with your institution requires convincing a range of executives, from business managers to chief information officers. The Marketing Strategies for Multiple Influencers exercise aims to help members frame the value of a particular program or service in terms that will resonate with a variety of possible stakeholders.
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