Ladderly's Sales Strategy
Ladderly's order of operations for acquiring new customers.
- Document owner: Eli Johnson
- Approved by: Kati Pyper, J. Hathaway
- Version: 1.0
- Approved date: 9/24/2026
- Applies to: Founders, Co-Founders, Head of Business Development, Head of Marketing
Overview
At Ladderly we believe that the method for acquiring customers with the highest conversion rate is through word of mouth. Therefore, our immediate strategy for acquiring new customers is to exhaust our personal contacts in Idaho and beyond. It would however be a mistake to solely focus on leveraging our personal contacts forever as that well can only go so deep and only stretches so far. In this document we lay out the order of priority for how we believe our sales team should juggle the many responsibilities they currently manage across business development and marketing.
Priorities
1. Take Care of Existing Customers
It's much cheaper to keep an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one. We want to always go above and beyond to exceeds existing customers expectations so that they stick around for as long as possible.
2. Respond to Existing Leads for Paying Customers
If we have already begun conversations with a particular contact we want to prioritize responding to them and pushing that relationship over the finish line. All of our efforts should drive us toward pitching and closing schools/districts. Outside of our existing customers, nothing should take precedence over this.
3. Reaching Out to New Leads
If we have attended a conference or heard through word of mouth that there is someone out there we should be talking to, we should reach out to them. This continues our belief that we should exhaust our network of contacts before trying to find more the cold contact methods.
4. Preparing for Conferences
Conferences are a great way to find people who are looking for what we have. People there are looking for solutions that we want to offer them. Thus conferences are a great way to find new leads. We should be actively signing up for conferences that will let us have a booth or even present. Time spent preparing materials should be delegated to designers. As conference dates approach, we should prioritize making sure we are ready for a polished presentation.
5. Cold Contacting Possible Customers
As we determine new districts to reach out to, we should make a steady consistent effort to reach out to individuals at those districts to set up a line of communication. Cold contacting is grueling but important. We should try, try, and try again to get in contact with someone at a district. If one angle doesn't work out, we should readjust and try again. This means we may try calling, emailing, texting, showing up in person, reaching out on social media, or doing anything else to get someone to talk to us.
6. Posting on Social media
We believe social media is an important aspect of the business to provide credibility. As we make new contacts they will look us up online with one major question at the forefront of their mind, "Are these people legit?" Everyone wants to know that Ladderly can really deliver on our promise to help their schools manage interventions to help teachers help their students get back on grade level. Potential customers want to know that we can "talk the talk" before they'll believe that we can "walk the walk". Ultimately though, most people will not read everything we post. They will be more inclined to feel that there is a pool of content that signals that we are anxiously engaged in our cause. This means we fill the pool one drop at a time and should just focus on developing social media materials once all previous priorities have been addressed.