By David Holly, The Ashkin Group

This article is the second in a series of Green Selling Tips covering several categories of equipment. In the series, we’ll discuss vacuum cleaners, carpet extractors, automatic scrubbers, buffers and burnishers, as well as some more specialized and unique types of equipment. In this issue we’ll discuss some general topics and tips that are important for your Green Equipment sales efforts.

As always, in these Green Selling Tips, I’d like to encourage you to review Building the Bundle (DestinationGreen Issue 2). Your customers and prospects are looking for a complete solution to their Green Cleaning needs; it is important that you approach this from a program perspective. Not only will this better serve your customers’ needs but, will offer you an enhanced revenue and profit opportunity.

It’s also a good idea to review The Pilot Process (DestinationGreen Issue 3), as equipment sales usually involve some sort of demo or trial to close the sale. In fact, bundling a floor care system with a scrubber or burnisher Pilot Program can be a very effective tool for building an effective system or bundle for your customer. We’ll talk about that in more detail in coming segments.

In future articles, we will go into more detail on selling to protect human health for each type of equipment. This month, we examine the impact your Green Equipment can have on the environment.

Cleaning Equipment Protects the Environment
When we think of protecting the environment, we need to consider both the built or indoor environment as well as the outdoor environment. Protecting the indoor environment is in many ways similar to our discussion relating to human health. The equipment must effectively and efficiently accomplish the tasks it was designed for. By removing soils and debris from floors and other surfaces, we prolong the life of these surfaces improving the ROI on the building materials. The same fine dust that causes damage to human health can cause significant damage to computers and other electronics. It also fouls air filters increasing the strain on the HVAC system. Removing this dust from the indoor environment protects the equipment and again improves the building’s ROI.

How does your Green Equipment protect the outdoor environment? One of the most dramatic ways is to build and sell equipment that is designed and manufactured to last for many years. Every year our industry sends the equivalent of 10,000 dump truck loads of equipment to landfills. A good portion of that waste is made up of equipment that was designed to be a “throw-away”. Cheaply made and cheaply priced, it was designed to be discarded rather than repaired.

You can help your clients understand the true cost, or all-in cost of their green equipment investment. Prepare yourself by doing the calculations that demonstrate the long term advantage of buying well made equipment that can be maintained and repaired vs. the “throw-away”. This takes some work on your part. You will need to look at amortization costs, repair and parts costs and so on. However, I suspect that your company has an accountant or finance department that can help you put together a very effective presentation. Get to know your service department’s capabilities and build that into your presentation. When you sit down with your prospect and discuss their green equipment investment, you will move the discussion from buying a vacuum cleaner to a business discussion about the ROI on their green equipment program. Wouldn’t you rather sell an equipment program than a vacuum cleaner?

A final consideration in this area is recycling. When you are working with a client that “gets green”, a very effective part of your presentation should be discussing the recycled content of your equipment. Obviously, the more recycled content your equipment has, the better the long-term impact on our environment. The next step is to sell take-back or recycling programs for used equipment. If your company or vendors offer such programs, learn as much as you can. This will become an increasingly important topic as more of your customers move to green.

Selling Green Equipment Takes Effort
Again, the lack of industry standards relating to green equipment means you can’t just say – it meets the XYZ-55 Standard. For the sales pro willing to make the effort, this is not a limitation but an opportunity. If you’ll take a bit more time to prepare and build your sales story, the rewards can be dramatic. Not only will you sell more equipment, but you will likely increase your total Green Bundle sales as well.

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

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.