Fractional commercial leadership for education technology businesses.
Strategy at the top. A trained team doing the work underneath.
You don't need a full-time commercial director, and you can't justify a permanent sales team. What you need is senior commercial thinking, applied at the right moments, with people who actually pick up the phone to schools — all of it managed by someone who knows the education sector inside out.
The reality
Selling into education is unlike any other sector.
Decision-making is layered — head teachers, heads of department, IT leads, estate managers, CFOs, MAT boards, local authorities. Procurement cycles are long and seasonal. Budgets are tight. Trust takes years to build and one bad implementation to lose.
Most education technology businesses are founded by people who understand education deeply but have never built a commercial engine. They hire too early, spend on marketing that doesn't convert, and end up improvising a sales process.
It isn't that they were bad leads. Someone downloaded the guide, came to the stand, replied to the email. Then a term went by. Founders know they should be calling these people back, and they know a generic automated sequence won't do it, but there is no spare hour in the week and no case for a full-time hire.
That's the gap we fill. We talk to your potential clients and put the human element back into your sales process — from the first conversation with an education buyer through to a customer who recommends you.
What we offer
Take the leadership, the delivery, or both.
Commercial leadership
Strategy, process and revenue accountability
Senior commercial leadership embedded in your business one day a week. Setting direction, building a repeatable sales engine, and holding your pipeline to account.
This isn't advice from the sidelines. It's hands-on — attending your meetings, shaping your pitch, fixing your CRM, coaching your team, and making sure what you're building actually sells.
Where the delivery services below are running, this is the layer that directs them and reports on them to your board.
Talk it throughTypically includes
- Commercial strategy and go-to-market planning
- Defining who to target, and why
- Mapping the stakeholders in an education buying decision
- Lead generation strategy and campaign design
- Messaging built for education buyers
- Sales process design and pipeline management
- CRM setup, structure and accountability
- Positioning and pitch development
- Team coaching and sales leadership
- Board-level commercial reporting
- Event strategy and key account planning
The delivery team
Three roles covering the journey from first conversation to long-term customer. Each one works on its own, and they hand over to each other cleanly when you run more than one.
01
Sales Development Representative
Someone actually picking up the phone to the leads you already have. We qualify, nurture and book — so interest becomes a diary entry with a decision maker instead of another untouched record.
- Working your existing CRM records first
- Qualifying against your real criteria
- Meetings booked into your diary, handed over warm
- Follow-up that continues past the first no reply
02
Business Development Representative
Owning the deal from first meeting to signature. Stakeholder mapping, procurement and risk navigation, and the conversations that move a deal off the fence — so nothing stalls waiting for you to find a spare hour.
- Mapping every stakeholder in the decision
- Procurement, data protection and risk questions handled
- Pricing and proposal support
- Honest pipeline forecasting
03
Customer success
Turning customers into advocates. Onboarding, renewals and expansion handled properly, so satisfied schools become the case studies, referrals and references you can sell with.
- Structured onboarding from day one
- Renewal conversations started early
- Expansion into other departments and trust schools
- Case studies and referrals collected while goodwill is high
Trained in-house
Every person on your account is trained by EdTech experts.
All three delivery services are staffed by people trained through our EdTech Academy — so they understand school buying cycles, MAT procurement and what a head teacher's term actually looks like before they ever speak to one of your prospects. Managed, quality-controlled and reported on by Seventh Sibling throughout.
Find out moreWho this is for
Built for education. Nothing else.
Education technology founders
You've built something brilliant. Now you need people who know how to sell it into schools, trusts and councils without burning through cash on guesswork.
Scaling businesses
You've got traction but no repeatable commercial engine. You need sales process, CRM discipline, and someone who has done this before in the education sector.
Established suppliers
You're selling into education but growth has plateaued. You need fresh pipeline, sharper positioning, and a commercial leader who will challenge the status quo.
How it works
Simple. Embedded. Accountable.
Discovery
We have a conversation. No pitch deck. Just an honest look at where you are, where you want to be, and what is actually getting in the way.
Scope
We agree which services you need, the cadence and the deliverables. Monthly retainer, clear expectations, no ambiguity.
Embed
We work inside your team — joining meetings, shaping decisions, working your CRM. Not watching from the outside.
Deliver
Pipeline grows. Process tightens. Your team gets better. You see it in the numbers and in the conversations.
Award-winning commercial leadership with proven results.
From a £2.2m profit turnaround to scaling education technology solutions across 14+ countries, Seventh Sibling brings real-world commercial results — recognised by multiple innovation and sector awards.
See proven resultsOther ways to start
Not ready for fractional support?
Fractional isn't the only way in. Learn the thinking yourself, or just listen to how other people in the sector are approaching it.
Self-paced courses
Four education-specific business development courses for founders, commercial leaders and teams. The same thinking we apply in fractional engagements, structured so you can work through it at your own pace.
Browse all coursesB2Education Unpacked
The Education Growth Podcast
The only podcast interrogating the gap between how businesses sell into education and what happens when products land in schools. Ten guests. Four blocks. Zero fluff.
Explore all episodesGet started
Ready to have the conversation?
No hard sell. No obligation. Just an honest discussion about where your commercial function is and whether fractional makes sense for you.
Book a conversationOr email hello@seventhsibling.co.uk
