Accounts

A school partnership begins with an account that the team can recognize and own. The account holds the name, code, address, contact name, segment, status and an eligibility note. A district prospect and a family prospect can both be entered, but the relationship conversation should remain clear in the account notes and linked people. The Account Owner uses the account as the starting point for a prospective service agreement. The Sales Lead can review the same account before discussing the pipeline.

Contacts belong to an account. A person can be marked as a decision maker, influencer, gatekeeper or end user, so the team knows whom a proposal should reach and whose questions need an answer. The contact record holds name, title, email and phone. When an opportunity opens, the owner can name a primary contact as well as the account. That makes the path from relationship to deal visible without assuming every person at a school has the same role.

• Identify the customer. Create the account under the appropriate organization and keep its code distinct for operating use.
• Name the people. Link each contact to the account, then record their role in the buying conversation.
• Connect the work. Open opportunities against the account and choose the primary contact when one person is coordinating the decision.

Agree how the team distinguishes a school, district and family account, especially when a district relationship covers several contacts. Decide who may change account status and who checks the eligibility note before a proposal is prepared. The segment options are Enterprise, Mid-Market, SMB and Public Sector; choose a consistent local meaning for each. The account status can be Prospect, Active, On Credit Hold or Inactive. These values guide lists and reviews, so use them consistently rather than putting the same information in free text.

For a practical first case, choose one school account with a named contact and one active opportunity. Check that the contact points to the correct account and that the opportunity’s counterparty and primary contact match the conversation the Account Owner is actually having. If a family contact calls instead, use the same relationship checks before attaching the call to the opportunity.

Suppose a school coordinator asks for tutoring for a term. The Account Owner records the school as a prospect, identifies the coordinator and a decision maker, then opens an opportunity with the school as counterparty. At the next review, the Sales Lead can find the account, the people involved, the expected decision date and the proposed value. When an activity is due, the team can trace it to the opportunity instead of trying to infer the relationship from an email address.

• Prospect Accounts — Relationships being developed, with a named contact and potential value beside the status.
• Active Accounts — Current relationships the Sales Lead and Account Owner can revisit with their linked opportunities.

Follow an account into opportunity qualification and proposal preparation.