1. THE “REASONING MIND” STRATEGY
CHAD GREEN

2. PAGE 1
Table of Contents
Overall Strategy..............................................................................................................................................................2
Pitfalls...............................................................................................................................................................................4
Reform vs. Product........................................................................................................................................................4
Cultivation: Re-Enrollment and Expansion of Existing Partners ....................................................................5
Targeted: Expansion .....................................................................................................................................................6
Partnership Strategy .....................................................................................................................................................7
Sales Projections ............................................................................................................................................................7
Pipeline Management ..................................................................................................................................................8
Identification of Communication, Marketing and Development Needs ......................................................11
Training............................................................................................................................................................................11
Expansion Training...................................................................................................................................................11
Product Enrollment Training .............................................................................................................................133

3. PAGE 2
OVERALL STRATEGY
Reasoning Mind’s Math product has the potential to change how we currently perceive educational
processes. While it directly opposes traditional processes, a 20% change in growth of student
performance is substantial to say the least. What this actually means to both large and small
districts is that they can change their accountability ratings substantially. The real question is how
to effectively push this message out to the marketplace.
We aren’t just selling a product. We are selling a philosophy that is a change agent for a higher
result. While this types of change is demanded by parents, it is very risky to district administration.
We are asking them to pursue a risk when they have been taught to follow the standards. Because
of this, we are looking for a different type of administrator. We need a leader that truly leads and is
connected to multiple districts.
These leaders, while rare, do exist. They exist at many different levels in the educational space. You
can begin identifying them by what their district does. Do they have a research department? How
active is that department? Do they present their research at state level conferences? Do their
Assessment and Curriculum departments sit on state committees?
But let’s not stop at the district level as we look at this market place. The true key areas where we
must take our reform message is to state level decision makers, lawmakers, Regional Service Center
leaders and school districts. Our task is to identify and impact those leaders. We are looking for
people who, when they become partners, can greatly influence other educational leaders. The idea
of assessing spheres of influence helps to focus us as a company on creating the largest impact with
limited resources and time. I have placed some examples below.
Dallas ISD
Broward
County
Chicago
Public
Schools
Denver
Public
Schools
LA Unified
Council of Great
City Schools

4. PAGE 3
We should also be looking at influencers on the state level. Having a state contract with the TEA,
we should be identifying connections with other states and setting meetings at CCSSO. Texas is
connected on a technology level and formative assessment level with Alabama, North Carolina and
Florida. On a College/Career level they are connected with Arizona, Florida and Oklahoma. These
circles of influence impact each other and interact politically
These are some examples of leaders, districts and regional centers that we should be targeting to
carry our message of reform. The big bang comes when we see the change in one district and, as a
partner, we are in a position to encourage that the word be spread through these collaborations.
We can ask the partner to set up a meeting to present the data in person. We can do a nation-wide
WebEx. We can ask the partner to present at targeted conferences.
Highly important to all of these connections, however, is research. It is imperative that we help
guide these districts in research as well as pursue a connection with a university to further our own
research. While this seems like a nice “to have”, it is actually a necessity. Research is the tip of the
spear for a reform message and our Enrollment Department should be actively carrying that
message to large districts, small districts, service centers, state agencies and collaborations.
We should also consider all of the opportunities to push forward our ideas and research including
conference presentations, publishing research, twitter and research meetings. I believe we have the
Houston
ISD
Miami-
Dade
San
Diego
Unified
ELL Research
Collaboration

5. PAGE 4
opportunity to expand far beyond our target of 150,000 students. I believe with the right
coordination, training and strategy that we can expand to 200,000 students by 2014-2015. District
retention will be 80% if we are actively winning on the research and PR. Expansion within our
current partners should follow as we push forward these items. Regional Expansion can also be
attained as we begin to work with key district influencers and regional service centers. In all, we
have the opportunity to create a masterpiece of strategic teamwork.
PITFALLS
Our risks right now have to do with where we are currently positioned in the market. Currently we
have little research backing us, which makes our position weaker. In order to build confidence we
are leveraging our relationships. This is a great way to start out , but if we solely rely on this, a
company that has established themselves as a strong reading intervention product could decide to
create a math intervention product. This could be a challenge because they may already have
relationships with districts we have targeted as partners.
Currently IStation has an excellent reading intervention product. They already have a state contract
under the Student Success Initiative. They have been working with Dallas, Garland, Frisco,
Houston, and others for years. They are currently creating a math program so that they can access
those monies from SSI. They have an in-house research department and they work closely with
SMU. They are highly political and connected directly with the Commissioner of Texas and Florida.
Their goal is to have this out in twelve months but they are really about 24 months out.
How do we counter this? We work with people that can connect us quickly to district leadership in
the next six to eight months. We create strong partnerships with regional service centers by
working out a relationship where they financially benefit from our success. We win the Public
Relations game in the next 16 months with growth data tied to affects upon college and career
readiness goals.
Another pitfall is subsidizing districts and converting them to paying customer s. I believe that a
performance contract would be a better way to go. Districts that receive things that they don’t pay
for generally don’t buy into the philosophy needed to make the programs a success. This can
happen at the teacher level or the administration level. A performance contract could set
performance goals and, if they are met, expansion of “x” amount would be guaranteed next year at
“x” price.
REFORM VS. PRODUCT
Reform is a very difficult sale. It requires a highly strategic approach as opposed to the typical
approach of utilizing a call list and setting appointments. We are looking to target districts as
primary targets because of their influence and research abilities. Cold calling secondary districts is
still an important part of our broad approach, but our targeted districts will be the focus of our
expansion and marketing efforts. In order to identify these primary target districts, we should be
asking questions to identify if they line up with our needs. What are the ideas and research that
they are pushing forward? Are they pushing for change legislatively? How active are they
regionally? Are they working on the national stage?

6. PAGE 5
The reason for expending this effort is that these relationships will be our most valuable company
assets; aiding us in moving our message forward and granting us greater leverage on regional, state
and national stages. And the research that will be the “explosive” of our message will be the key to
opening those doors. What superintendent would not want to tell the board that he had 20%
growth from his low performing population? What is needed is simply for a few of them to stand
up all over the country and tell other superintendents and boards about their experience. Below
are some examples of districts in Texas that are reform minded.
CULTIVATION: RE-ENROLLMENT AND EXPANSION OF EXISTING
PARTNERS
Expansion and re-enrollment is dependent on several factors. First, how did the product perform?
Second, did the product change the rating of the district? Third, how did it affect “At-Risk”
students? Fourth, did it help move GT programs forward? The answers to these questions are
important in order to put together an effective marketing plan for the community. It is important
to be proactive in our communication and involvement; attending board meetings and hosting
events that feature our partners and their results. We need to take the initiative to contact news
outlets and inform them of results in addition to using twitter, webinars and print media to update
the communities of our progress, always remembering that, ultimately, there is an economic
impact in attracting jobs and increasing property values with higher student performance levels.
Then, armed with our results, we can stay in front of the leaders making sure they begin plans to
expand their budget for our solution before March.
Coppell ISD
Lewisville
ISD
Plano ISD
Experimentation
Collaboration

7. PAGE 6
TARGETED: EXPANSION
Expansion targets should be broken into three levels.
1. Reform districts
2. Regional districts that surround reform districts
3. Regional service centers
4. Designated Districts for Improvement
Reform districts should be our primary target, but while we are focusing 60% of our effort on them,
we should be calling on the surrounding districts in the region to build momentum. Many times, as
soon as the reform district signs a contract, three to five of the surrounding districts will follow.
This type of effort can greatly decrease the average time it takes to get a contract. In Chicago , which
normally has a two to three year sales cycle, I was able to reduce that time to eight months. The key
is quickly building and leveraging your relationships across the region. This strategy will contribute
10% toward our expansions goal.
Regional service centers can help us quickly build our ROI by becoming a central hub for
communication of our product, training and expansion. These relationships take time to build, but
they can pay us back by decreasing our costs to travel to many small districts to tell our story and
train. Many of these service centers contain three to five districts that are reform minded. The
Executive Director of the service center will know them well and should be able to help with
introductions. This is the area I think we should focus on to reach 15% of our expansion goals.
When you look at a three year strategy with these service centers, their student population
numbers could actually be higher than our large district student population numbers.
Districts that have been designated as needs “School Improvement” can be found on most state
web sites. They list out which districts, schools and stage that the district fall into for math.
Contacting these groups should be a high priority for us. I would talk with the Director of
Communications to put together a multi-layered strategy involving e-mail campaigns and webinars.
Region 12
ESC
Waco
ISD
Midway
ISD
Region
2 ESC
Region
13 ESC
Abilene
ISD
Killeen
ISD

8. PAGE 7
I would also direct our expansion teams to begin calling these districts and the surrounding service
centers.
Regional Expansion work by our three directors can be elevated by combining teams to help build
momentum. While they target specific districts like, Garland, Fort Worth and Dallas other member
can be working with districts that influence those targets. Webinars can be scheduled weekly so
our directors can point there different partners to these access points. With the expectation of
providing 25% growth, we need to find ways to help them obtain their goals while also expanding
into neighboring areas. This team partnering has worked well in the past with Chicago, El Paso and
state level contracts.
PARTNERSHIP STRATEGY
Partners are not limited to regional service centers and reform districts. Partners can be consultants
that we hire to quickly introduce us into reform districts. They can be other companies like ACT
who is very interested in growth results in mathematics that are well beyond the norm because it
applies to the College/Career conversation. Partnerships with the Gates Foundation, InBloom, The
Dell Foundation, The Walton Foundation and others can help us in spreading the word about our
results and even position us for state and district contracts.
School improvement companies can also be good partners. These companies vary from state to
state and can be found by looking at the approved state list for providing consultation for school
improvement. Often these companies are headed by retired superintendents who have made a
name for themselves in that state. Some of these companies are Evans Newton, Edison Learning,
Consortium of Educational Change, Cambridge Education, John Hopkins University and TCDSS.
SALES PROJECTIONS
The ability to accurately project your sales reveals how closely your sales funnel matches your
target market. It is a skill that must be taught to the Expansion Team and its accuracy must be
adjusted immediately as timelines extend or decrease. Salesforce can be used to track the number
of opportunities that come into the pipeline and can calculate the success percentages as decisions
are made.
There are many variables in K-12 that affect when a contract can be closed. Many of these variables
are centered on the time of year that the district leadership is approached. A good example of this
is the budget cycle. School district budget decisions are made March-May every year. If your
solution requires a large budget allocation then you really need to be focused on developing those
discussion between September and February. This changes if you are piloting programs and your
product for the pilot does not require a large piece of the budget.
Meetings with the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum tend to decrease
the length of time to receive a commitment. Building relationships at these levels is highly
important for not only target district success but also regional success
Another thing that can affect your projections is the RFP process. In most states, districts can avoid
an RFP if the product is under $20,000. If it is not, then an RFP is a must and that process can delay

9. PAGE 8
your closing. There is a way around this, however. You can sign an inter-local service agreement
with a regional service center. The district can then purchase the product from the service center
and avoid an RFP.
When a district reaches a pipeline percentage of 50% then the opportunity can be more accurately
projected in the pipeline. At this point you have had at least three meetings with the decision
makers, they have expressed that they recognize that they should work with you and they are
looking at their budget. Projections should be in the forefront of every expansion persons mind.
How do we get to the place where we can accurately project? This question is very easy to answer if
you have already developed a pipeline. If a pipeline does not exist then all effort must be made to
quickly begin filling the pipeline. This is company effort with marketing, and expansion teams
working together to influence multiple district and regional touch points. This process is a part of
pipeline management.
PIPELINE MANAGEMENT
A sales organization’s pipeline is the most important aspect of their day-to-day work. Each morning,
the question should be asked: “How am I filling my pipeline?” For a company this can happen in
many ways.
1. Marketing
a. Advertisement
b. Webinars
c. Conference lead generation
d. Web hits
e. Twitter
f. Articles
2. Inside Expansion
a. Directly contacting small to medium size districts
b. Webinars
3. Outside Expansion
a. Directly meeting with target district personnel face-to-face
b. Regional meetings
c. State level meetings
Creating a strong pipeline with a small company also means that you have to connect several
different systems into your CRM system. The telephone system should automatically be able to
update your CRM system. Also, the need for tracking the success of different marketing initiatives
and website activity can also be pushed into your CRM. These capabilities keep accounts updated,
push leads to your expansion team, and allow you to easily access the success of your marketing
efforts.
For the expansion team, a matrix should be developed to promote day-to-day “best practices”. For
an inside expansion team, a 40/40/40 program is usually standard. This system sets a bench mark
of 40 calls per day, 40 introductory emails and 40 follow up emails. This model is strictly for an
inside expansion team that is at their desks all the time with no responsibility to do extensive

10. PAGE 9
demos. Your CRM system must also have the ability to hold form emails and send them out to
several districts and their personnel in a short time frame. As your pipeline begins to grow and
demonstrations begin to fill the day, the matrix should change to give a heavier weight to the demo
activity. It will most heavily eat into the number of cold calls that are made. Below is a sales funnel
that describes the movement of activities through the sales pipeline. Salesforce can produce a
funnel like this. The stages begin with lead generation, qualification/discovery, opportunity
analysis/needs assessment and solution presentation, then move to negotiation and close. Each of
these steps should be weighted, but they should not be projected until they reach a 50% level.
Qualification should put an opportunity at the 10% level. The reason why you shouldn’t project
these out is that this is a concept that is not like other products on the market. You could say that
5% of every 1,000 leads will turn into quality opportunities with half of those reaching the decision
level but that is dependent upon market demand and acceptance, which we have already
recognized as a hurdle. Will that turn around? Absolutely! As our success stories build, our
acceptance in the market will increase, changing the percentage for opportunities that make it to
the final decision.

11. PAGE 10
I would recommend that the area we should focus most of our budget on this year is finding ways
to leap over some of these steps. How could we do that? Go to meetings/conference that directly
connect with superintendents and work with some influencers that can get us directly to the
superintendent. That doesn’t mean that we will get a contract immediately. The Superintendent
must still have the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Director of Technology and also the
Director of Assessment sign off on the project. But, while this process takes time, it protects the
superintendent from claims of favoritism and it protects us as a reputable company.
The following table impacts both projections and pipeline management. I developed this table to
explain to the board why many decisions have to be made quickly to meet the current year’s
projections. The dollars amounts may not directly reflect the mathematics curriculum market, but
they can be developed to use with this table.
Month District/School
Calendar
Budget Cycle Special
Pops
Funding
Selling
Season
Small District
Budget
Availability
Medium to
Large District
Budget
Availability
August Teacher Training,
School Starting
$1,000 or less $10,000-
$100,000
September ELL Testing,
Classroom
stabilization
Districts are
looking for
products that
meet their
strategic plan
Title 1,
SSI, Ell
Selling
for the
next
year
$1,000 or less $10,000-
$100,000
October Districts are
looking for
products that
meet their
strategic plan
Selling
for the
next
year
$1,000 or less $10,000-
$100,000
November Districts are
looking for
products that
meet their
strategic plan
Selling
for the
next
year
$1,000 or less $10,000-
$100,000
December Christmas Break Districts are
looking for
products that
meet their
strategic plan
Selling
for the
next
year
$1,000 or less $10,000-
$100,000
January
Crucial
Final
Demos
Return to School Districts are
looking for
products that
meet their
strategic plan
Title 1,
SSI, Ell
Selling
for the
next
year
$1,000 or less $10,000-
$100,000
February
Crucial
Final
Demos
Districts are
looking for
products that
meet their
strategic plan
Selling
for the
next
year
$1,000 or less $10,000-
$100,000
March Testing Budget set $5,000-
$50,000
$50,000-
$1,000,000
April Testing Budget Set $5,000-
$50,0000
$50,000-
$1,000,000

12. PAGE 11
May Testing
June Summer Break
July Summer Break
IDENTIFICATION OF COMMUNICATION, MARKETING AND
DEVELOPMENT NEEDS
I would expect to be working with each of these departments on a weekly basis; helping supply
them with market intelligence, building superintendent advisory boards and assisting them in
putting together district and collegiate research teams.
The assets that are carried by the Expansion team will be developed in collaboration with these
departments. Marketing materials, research papers and strategy in attacking a region through print
outlets will all help us build momentum quickly. I would expect that often there will be joint
presentations or meetings to help further our growth.
TRAINING
EXPANSION TRAINING
I would recommend that we break the training into several modules that can be delivered every
two weeks as we are building our pipeline and experiences. We should put a training guide
together with every department contributing and as the trainings take place we can expand the
session to include members of the expansion team so that they can participate and deliver small
sections of the training. We can do this by having them read books like The Little Red Book of
Selling or attending a sales training and bringing back what they learned to their co-workers.
Having them not only participate but add substantial value in the training will help their
confidence and help them internalize the training material.
A part of this ongoing training is determining and analyzing the results. This c an be done in the
short term by measuring how quickly we are filling the pipeline and then how are those
opportunities moving through the pipeline. Long term, Salesforce just developed an application
that identifies the most successful habits that have the highest closing results. This should be
something we look at for future implementation. It allows us to track, reward progress and coach
directly from Salesforce.
We should also look at Miller Heiman training. They have a module that fits directly into Salesforce
and they are very good at complex sales. Education sales are very complex requiring us to find and
work with influencers and decision makers in multiple departments. Building consensus and buy in
from these departments is essential to our success.
Dealing with the complexity issue will require experiential training. This experience gives us as
leaders the opportunities to do hands on coaching. I plan to be on phone calls with our team and

13. PAGE 12
travel with our team until their experience and confidence level is at a place where they can
confidently take the reins. The goal is to create a team that can perform at a very high level of
expertise.
I would recommend that we split the work week into sections. In the beginning three days a week
should be focused on cold calling and setting appointments. Two days should be dedicated to
conducting webinar/demos and visiting with potential partners. I will be traveling the most but at
different places within their individual development it would be good for them to work with the
Director of Communications, VP of Strategic Initiatives and the SVP of National Expansion. I will
also place them on teams that may deal with specific conferences or speaking events for our
organization. These events may involve the CEO or others. Working with our leadership helps
build depth of experience and enthusiasm.
(SVP of National Expansion, VP of Strategic Initiatives, Director of Communications)
1. Who are you? What is your sales approach?
a. Friend
b. Product Expert
c. Consultant
d. Networker
2. Lead Generation: How?
a. 40/40/40 model: Process for contact points
b. Cold Calling: establishing good habits, call scripts, daily goals
c. Large Districts: Strategies you can use, key departments to meet with, meeting
influencers, board meetings, developing a district strategy brief
d. Small to Medium Districts: Call scripts, communication, WebEx,
e. Regional Service Centers: Call scripts, Value to Service Centers
3. Opportunity Identification: Who are we looking for? How do we identify them as a
reformer?
a. Superintendents
b. Assistant Superintendents
c. Math Directors
d. Assessment Directors
e. IT Directors
4. Handling Objections: How do I ask the right questions and restate how we meet district
goals?
a. Common Objections
b. Statements of Goals
c. Restating Results
d. Contracts
5. Value Proposition
a. Cost vs. Results
b. Building the story with the community
c. Building the story with the board
d. Building the story for the state
6. Closing

14. PAGE 13
a. Who do we close?
b. How do we set our partnership goals?
c. How do we deliver our end?
d. When can we receive payment?
PRODUCT ENROLLMENT TRAINING
1. Implementation: What are the steps of Implementation?
a. Success: What does it look like at 3month, 6 months, 9 months?
b. Project management process (Senior Vice President of National Expansion)
i. Process Steps
ii. Salesforce notation
c. Identification of influencers
d. Building momentum with a district
e. Results-oriented call outs
2. Building Relationship: Crossing the barrier between vendor and valued partner (
3. Community Communications (Communications Director, Knowledge Engineers,
Development Director)
a. District Leadership
i. Technology: website, twitter,
ii. Print: Newspapers, Magazines, Conferences
iii. Research: Whitepapers, Student Growth,
iv. District PR
b. School Board
i. Research, Student Growth, Predictions
ii. Print: Newspapers, Magazines, Conferences
c. Parents
i. Research: PTA Meetings, website, twitter
ii. Jobs in Math: communications that talk to the importance of math tied to
earnings
4. Financial : Process and Opportunities for affordability (CFO)
5. What’s Coming (Senior VP of Product Development)