Helping Your Customers Go Green

Andy Jordan - April 20, 2009

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

CRM Governance Stakeholder Management

Just a few years ago, if you suggested to management or clients that they should consider becoming more environmentally friendly on the next project you were likely to receive one question: “How much is that going to cost us?” Being green was seen in a similar light as a regulatory requirement--something that had a benefit, but a benefit that was hard to quantify and would cost a lot of money.

Fortunately, times have changed, both in perception and in reality. Now, organizations can legitimately use the ability to supply eco-friendly solutions as a major selling point with their customers (internal or external).

The green sales pitch
Before we go too deep into this, let’s be perfectly blunt--most organizations see eco-friendliness as a secondary issue. Their first priority is to maximize the return to their shareholders/investors. There are exceptions of course, largely in the volunteer/not-for-profit sector, and to some extent in the public sector. But for most organizations, cash is king.

The secret to using eco-friendliness as a selling point is therefore to focus on this financial benefit, not on the purely green aspects. A company won’t change its fleet of vehicles to hybrid power if the additional cost to purchase the vehicles and the ongoing costs of maintenance is greater than the saving in gasoline consumption.

So what does this mean in …

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Helping Your Customers Go Green

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