I am in a very similar situation as you are. We have a very niche product that we sell to higher-ed. We sell it as a subscription model, which we allow them to pay X years upfront with a contract so that it more closely resembles a fixed-cost product to better fit their budgets.

As far as cold-calling goes, it really isn't worth it in this industry. The low conversion combined with the insanely long sales cycles just isn't right for a cold-call approach. That said, we've modified the cold-call approach by setting up Google Alerts for phrases which indicate a university that is ripe with need for our product, and then send them direct product information tailored to their specific needs.

We've also developed some internal software that helps automate this process. It has worked very well for us so far.

I would be very interested in talking with you further, as it seems we share a common market with common obstacles. Please feel free to shoot me an email.