DestinationGreen - Helping Salespeople Sell Green Products

Volume 4 Issue 3 - March 2008

Welcome to DestinationGreen!

This month's issue of DestinationGreen, we wanted to provide a little extra boost to help your Spring-time sales efforts. While we are enjoying a prosperous time in the Green Movement, other economic indicators signal a time of caution, if not recession.

Thus, included is a second "green selling tip" to help put aside some misconceptions regarding sales during a recession. Actually, hard economic times are periods of rapid “change” and the perfect time to position yourself as a leader in the Green marketplace. Not only can you help your customers and prospects deal with tough economic realities, but you can also help them become green --- turning lemons into lemonade.

Also, in this issue of DestinationGreen is the second installment of our series on “key” selling strategies; “Conducting an Audit”. This article is intended to help make conducting a building audit easier for you by identifying some of the common issues and opportunities to look for. And as we discussed last month, this is a great way to help your customers and really add value.

Finally, Earth Day is upon us! Please don’t take this wrong, but Earth Day is to diehard environmentalists what Christmas is to Christians (please know that I am not trying to offend anyone, but the fact is that environmentalists really do look at Earth Day almost with the same religious fervor). So we have included some last minute tips for you to use to get ready for this year's event.

Good selling,

Steve

As always, we encourage you to share your personal and professional strategies for “Going Green” with us for future columns. Submit them to editor@destinationgreen.com.

The Key to Sales Success Part 2: Conducting an Audit

Last month I began a series on the “key” selling strategies by introducing the 3 Bucket Approach to evaluating a prospects/accounts needs and then to logically organize the information in a way that allows them to make a purchasing decision. If you haven’t read least month’s article or want to do a quick refresher, simply click here.

This month we want to continue the series with an article to help you actually gather the information that later will be sorted into the 3 Buckets. While this article is a little longer than I typically like to write for DestinationGreen, I think you’ll find it packed with lots of valuable information.

I think people who know me would consider me to be an optimist. I believe I am the “glass is half full” kinda guy. So when I talk about recessions, I’m not trying to scare anyone, but rather I think it is important that we plan for the future --- and if we’re really smart (and maybe a little lucky), perhaps we can turn all this talk about recession into a good opportunity to actually grow our business.

In the past, we often were victimized by knee-jerk reactions from our customers who were simply ordered to cut expenses. If you haven’t already started hearing that cleaning costs need to be cut by 10 percent (or whatever the percentage happens to be), my guess is you will soon.

The Ashkin Group and ISSA in China Update

As a result of the IFMA Facility Management delegation visit to China last Fall, goals have now been set to begin the Green Cleaning workshop to begin the process of “greening” the Chinese cleaning industry by October 2008!

We will keep you updated here on any new information and concrete dates for our next visit!

Last Minute Earth Day Ideas

Over the past years, I have written many articles encouraging and imploring both sales and facility folks to participate in Earth Day, which as I’m sure you know is on April 22nd. In years past, far too often our role was limited to setting-up and then cleaning-up after the events, and we frequently missed the opportunity to actually participate and proudly let people know about our contributions.


Climate Change Update New water warning: 50% chance Lakes Mead and Powell will run dry by 2021. Water will become the next big issue in the Green Movement and will in the near future begin to affect the Green Cleaning. This article covers a new study that states that Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which helps supply water to millions, stands a 50 percent chance of running dry by 2021 unless dramatic changes take place in how the region uses water. Read More Here
The Green Marketplace FTC to Revise Guidelines for Green Packaging Claims. For those of you who sell packaging supplies, “green” is coming your way as the Federal Trade Commission is updating its environmental marketing guides for the first time since 1998. The agency's second workshop will focus on packaging following its initial examination of carbon offsets in January. Read More Here
Green Buildings Update Report calls for more green buildings. A new report says promoting green buildings could cut North American greenhouse gas emissions more quickly and cheaply than any other available measure. Read More Here