By Stephen Ashkin

Have you ever read any of Charles Dickens novels? Often taking place in the slums of 19th century London, his novels frequently tell stories of hungry, dirty, poor, young street urchins who among their daily “adventures” scavenge for crumbs. When they would find even the smallest morsel they would run off, hiding their treasures under their torn and soot covered coats to find a hidden corner where they could consumer their meal safely away from those from who they had stolen and away from other scavengers who might steal their treasure.

Sometimes when selling I get the sense that we operate in the same mindset -- happy to get even the smallest crumbs. Personally, I don’t want the crumbs. Frankly, I don’t even want the whole loaf of bread. I want the entire 12 course meal – I want it all! How about you?

But if we want to sell the entire bundle instead of just getting a single product, our sales strategy has to be one that gets our customers thinking about their entire process – and that all the parts of the process cannot be divided up like slices of bread, but need to be purchased as one integrated bundle. And this is exactly the opportunity created by Green Cleaning. But to sell the entire bundle, you need a strategy that will get you there.

What we recommend is a sales process built around the concept of offering a complete “pilot” program. The pilot concept was developed by observing how floor care systems (e.g. floor finish, stripper, maintainer, applicators, equipment, etc.) are sold to large buildings or organizations.

For example, if we wanted to sell a floor care system to a large building it is likely that they would first give you an opportunity to lay down a “test patch” – maybe a hallway or one floor where they could evaluate the performance of the system – gloss, durability, black heel-marking, maintainability, slip resistance, ease of application, odor, etc., and typically the evaluation period would last three to six months. And only after a successful demonstration period could you win the entire floor care business.

When selling Green Cleaning, the exact same strategy can be followed. However in this case, don’t stop at just the Green floor care systems – let’s test your entire bundle and when you complete a successful test you can end-up with everything from floor care and cleaners to paper and liners to equipment and mats, plus all the other products that you sell which are necessary for meeting the building’s cleaning needs.

The “pilot” process meets a number of important needs. It allows the prospect to really prove that the products will meet their performance and cost requirements. But it also makes it “safe” for them to try something new and to make a change. Just as switching that entire floor care system would create a lot of problems if the floor finish didn’t hold up, switching everything is even more risky.

Thus, instead of asking for the every building on the initial sales call, ask for a “pilot” in a limited area and for a limited amount of time. This allows the prospect to control their “risk” – if it fails or doesn’t meet expectations they haven’t done it everywhere. Also, even if it fails, the prospect can still claim “brownie points” for trying something new in a very intelligent and business-like manner.

As a result, the pilot makes it easier to get you to “yes” while gaining the commitment for everything when your pilot succeeds. So for example, in a school district instead of trying to get every building on the first sales call, ask for a single building where you can implement your entire Green Cleaning program to demonstrate how it works. You will need an entire building because after you evaluate the entire needs of the building and its occupants, you will then install ALL of your Green Cleaning “bundle” (see Volume 2 of DestinationGreen) along with the necessary training, procedures, workloading, communications, etc. in order to get a “good” test.

Just make sure that there is agreement as to what happens when the pilot is successful – do you just get that building or is there commitment to roll-out the program to the other buildings?

When selecting the pilot site there are a few considerations to keep in mind. You want to do it in a building that gives your pilot a fair chance to succeed and creates the best chance for success. Far too often, we are offered the most problematic or difficult building to work our “miracles”.

However, if the building has serious issues such as a mold, union or legal problem, a Green Cleaning pilot program cannot fix everything and may result in all of your time and efforts being wasted. Rather, request a building that is representative of the entire building portfolio, and one that has a good or at least decent cleaning staff which is well supervised – and with a supervisor who is willing to try new things and well enough organized so that he/she can implement and carry out the appropriate training that you provide.

Also inquire if among these buildings, there are any occupied by “vulnerable” populations (i.e. asthmatics, children, people with severe allergies, sensitivities or compromised immune systems, etc.) who might truly benefit from a Green Cleaning program.

Finding the right building and cleaning team, thinking big from the beginning, and establishing the appropriate goals and expectations are a sure way to basically guarantee your success.

So let’s let others scavenge for the crumbs. Let’s feast on the entire 12 course meal. Remember, Green Cleaning is coming and your customers are going to transition to an entire Green Program sooner or later. And as long as they are going to buy their products from someone, I just assume that it is from you!

Good selling.