By David Holly, The Ashkin Group

Unlike Green Cleaning chemicals, there are very few Green Standards for cleaning equipment. This is one of those good news / bad news discussions. Our job this month is to understand the bad news and figure out the good news for our selling efforts.

Green Cleaning Equipment Standards
While the ASTM does publish a variety of testing standards and methodologies relating to cleaning equipment, manufacturers are not required to follow them. Even when they do, there is no practical way for the buyer (or often you as the sales person) to know which company has followed which testing standard.

Thus, it is very difficult for you to compare “apples to apples” if you only work from cut sheets or marketing information.

If you’ve been selling equipment for any time at all you’ve come across the auto scrubber that can clean 42,000 square feet an hour. At least, according to the sales sheet published by the manufacturer, it can. If you sold one of those to a contractor cleaning 20,000 square foot grocery stores, he probably called you to complain that it took an hour to do the store – not 28 minutes!

Now, the manufacturer, in an effort to be “accurate”, likely measured the area cleaned by the pads, then multiplied that by the rate the machine can move across the floor in a straight line and calculated number of square feet covered in one hour. It’s an “honest” performance standard that has no relationship to the real world.

The unfortunate reality is that every piece of equipment on the market is subject to the same type of performance reporting. And what happens to the manufacturer that tries to use “real world” results in their sales literature? Their equipment doesn’t appear (on paper) to perform as well as the competition.

I applaud the Carpet and Rug Institute’s efforts to begin to bring some discipline to reporting test results. Their Green Label program for vacuum cleaners clearly states the test methodology and requirements for achieving Green Label Certification. This is truly an important first step in our industry.

However, I must say again that this is a first step. Let’s look at what the Green Label standard consists of: (taken from the CRI website January 2007.)
“To qualify for the Green Label, these vacuums must go through a stringent testing process that measures three key performance factors:

Vacuums meeting the above protocols, which have been peer reviewed by scientists, can display the CRI Green Label on packaging, merchandising displays and on the machine itself. Since the launch of this test in 2000, CRI has certified more than one hundred machines in the following categories: backpacks, canisters, central systems, and uprights.”
Let’s look at the first two points in the “real world”:

Finally, consider the sheer number of vacuum cleaners that have been certified under the Green Label program, over 200 at the time this article was published. While that is good from the standpoint of manufacturers’ efforts to make better machines, it doesn’t help much when trying to differentiate between individual machines.

My point is not that equipment manufacturers are being deceptive – they are not. Nor, am I saying that the CRI Green Label Program is bad – in fact, it is an excellent beginning. The point is, if you want to sell Green Cleaning equipment; if you want to sell more Green Cleaning equipment than your competitor, you will have to invest some additional effort.

Selling Without Standards – a Three Pronged Approach
To win in the Green Equipment selling game, you’ll need to step up your efforts with two groups of people – the manufacturer of the equipment you sell and your customer or prospect. As we suggested in previous articles, it is important to get to know the engineers at the manufacturers you represent. Some things you’ll want to ask them include:

A key question – What is the unique feature or benefit of this piece of equipment that marketing told you was not worth mentioning?

At the same time you’ll need to ask some questions of your customers – not just the buyer – and get to know the shift supervisors and equipment operators in at least a few of your accounts.

Finally, as you know, manufacturers of all product categories are developing green products.  We are learning, however, that green is not just about the product itself.  Green is about “sustainability” and our greenest customers ultimately want to buy green products from green companies.  So ask the manufacturer what they are doing to become a sustainable company, which may give you another way to differentiate the products you sell from your competitor --- and in the end make the best impact on health and the environment.

Altogether, the information you get will help you shape your sales story when you go to your current customers and new prospects. The efforts you make here to differentiate your offering by understanding the “real world” Green Standards of your equipment and how it meets your customers’ needs will make you stand out from the average sales person claiming to sell Green Equipment.

Good Luck & Good Selling!

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About The Author:
David Holly oversees the development and implementation of all new technology solutions for The Ashkin Group. Also, he has partnered with The Ashkin Group in the creation of Green Cleaning University (GCU), an online professional development tool and extensive resource of information about Green Cleaning and healthy building maintenance. Holly's past experience includes: Vice President of a regional BSC, Director of Sales & Marketing for S.C. Johnson Professional, and Marketing Director for Multi-Clean.