By Stephen Ashkin

I love entry mats! 

High quality and appropriately sized entry matting systems should be an integral part of every cleaning program – and especially a Green one.  They are one of the best pollution prevention strategies that can be employed to reduce soils before they enter a building.  A good entry matting systems is also one of the most under-appreciated “green” strategies and one that can be quite lucrative for sales people.  This article begins Part 1 of a 2 part series that you won’t want to miss.

But before we begin our discussion of entry matting systems, if you are a new reader of DestinationGreen, I recommend that you go back and read some of the past Green Selling Tipsincluding Building your Bundle (Issue 2) and several others on the green selling process (for the complete list of achieved articles, click here).

To begin, let me share some interesting facts:

Thus, if we can reduce the amount of soil coming in, we have enormous opportunities to reduce the potential adverse impact on the health, safety and performance of building occupants; reduce the frequency of stripping and refinishing floors; reduce damage to carpets and delicate electronic equipment; and improve the overall appearance of the building.

Please note that I have intentionally left out the opportunity to reduce the amount of labor and cost of cleaning. 

I have done this because I firmly believe that currently we are NOT cleaning our buildings enough and any labor savings resulting from green or other strategies should be redirected to create healthier, high performing buildings especially for those occupants who are sensitive or vulnerable.  The misplaced strategy of solely focusing on labor and cost reduction is harming not only our building occupants, but is harming your ability to earn a living as well!

To successfully sell an entryway matting system as part of your green bundle, you may have to deal with the challenge that most buildings already have them, or have made a conscious decision not to have them.  Thus, part of the sales challenge is to help a prospect understand how they can improve what they’re already doing or to overcome an established mindset.

Thus, I recommend that you begin by asking your prospect “what are your goals for an entryway matting system?”  Is it solely to improve the appearance of their building?  Or are there other factors/benefits such as those stated above (i.e. improve health, safety, occupant performance, etc.) along with others such as meeting the requirements of LEED?

If your prospect is only interested in the appearance, you have an opportunity to explain to them the numerous other benefits of a high quality and appropriately sized entry matting system.  And yes, you can sell them high quality and appropriately sized entry matting system in all kinds of colors, designs and with custom imprinted logos.

However, one of the biggest problems with most existing programs is that their entry matting systems are simply too small.  I frequently tell building owners and managers that if they are only looking for a small 3 x 5 entry mat that they should ‘stop pretending’ and save their money.  Even if they are buying a $25 mat at the local big-box club store, they should save their $25 because these mats are too small to be effective.  Thus why waste their money?

As you know, for a mat to be effective it has to be long enough for each foot to hit the mat at least two times – typically resulting in a mat that is at least 10 to 15 feet long.  Studies have indicated that 30 feet of a high quality, well-placed entry matting system can remove nearly 100 percent of dirt, sand and moisture!

And not only will the prospect be able to reap the benefits of an entryway matting system, your sale has gone from $25 or $50 to perhaps $500 per mat – and they are well worth it!  And if you have been selling these $25 and $50 mats, please think for a minute how much money you’ve left on the table – reducing your sales and commissions.

Next month we will publish Part 2 of this series and will cover locating mats (hopefully we will stimulate some ideas where to place mats that ordinarily you might miss), how to select a “high quality” mat and of course we can’t miss the opportunity to discuss cleaning requirements for entryways.

Good luck selling your Green Cleaning program.  Remember, customers are going to buy green products from someone, and we’d prefer that it’s from you!