Congratulations! You’re doing the hard work of sustainability. Your sustainability team is diving into the supply chain, setting and meeting climate targets, optimizing for health, you name it.
Here’s a semi-controversial opinion: if you’re not training your sales team on that work and your role in the industry, your investments aren't having the impact they could.
Why?? Beyond your website, your sales team is the first experience customers have with your company and your products. Relying on your sustainability team to answer questions instead of getting your sales team trained up to talk the talk creates a bottleneck, and misses a chance to inspire and connect the dots within your company and with your customers.
Here are 4 reasons you should be training your sales team on sustainability:
1. Demonstrate Authenticity + Continuity
An authentic sustainability program will be integrated throughout your company, not siloed and not the responsibility of any single employee or team. Customers can tell when sustainability is a one-off or ancillary effort. If they are hearing everyone speak to sustainability and its integration in the company’s actions and ethos, they’ll feel the difference.
2. Fire Up Your Sales Force
A sales team that is fired up on sustainability becomes PART of your impact, not separate from it. So get them fired up (more on how to deliver sales training that isn’t a snooze fest in a future post). Most of us want to be a part of change, while also making a living. And it’s not just a pitch: your company’s sustainability is dependent on everyone who touches the product and the process, from its extraction, through sales and installation.
Plus, your sales team has worked hard to build their relationships with customers. Giving them this knowledge and language will enable them to grow that relationship and trust.
3. ROI ROI ROI
Without a sustainability-versed sales team, you're going to miss sales opportunities and the ability to track ROI for your investments. Sustainability, while it would ideally just be standard of business, is so often examined deeply to understand whether it's "worth it." And to be clear it IS often an investment. But how can you expect to see ROI, if you can’t connect sales to sustainability? Your sales team has the potential to make connections between aligned purpose earlier, and make your company look and sound as good as it’s acting.
4. Connect the Impact Dots
It’s not just about your sales goals — it’s also about your customer’s goals. Does your sales team understand what your customers are seeking — not just a Declare label, or an EPD — but what are they trying to shift in their building or the market? Is the customer signed onto a materials pledge, or do they have carbon or health goals? Sustainability is a huge opportunity to connect your mission to the impact they're seeking and be part of something bigger.
Bottom Line: Take the Leap, Realize the Reward.
Let’s be clear, talking about sustainability is hard even if you've been doing that work for decades. You run the risk of greenwashing on one end, and greenhushing on the other (learn more). Then, like any industry, there’s any a lot of jargon and acronyms. We know it feels like there are many pitfalls to run afoul of.
But sales teams don’t have to know it all (there’s no way to, trust us). Plus, you can have your sustainability team on speed dial for deeper details.
The reward is worth it. Investing in a salesforce through training and resources — one that understands the foundations, can connect your company’s actions to their own why, to the product, and to their customers — is going to go a long way.
Next up, how to offer Sales Training that isn’t a snoozefest (we’ve been there).
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