This is a special blog for Earth Day that gives tips on how to have a more environmentally friendly office and sales role. There will also be added benefits of more time and reduced travel costs. There are three big factors that contribute to green house gas emissions for the sales professionals including driving, flying, and printing. The points below will outline activities to reduce those things. I am not sure that travel and paper can be totally eliminated, because they play important roles in the sales cycle.
Customer Meetings
- Before you jump in your car or on a plane, consider whether that meeting needs a face-to-face presence, I personally prefer to have a face-to-face meeting later in the sales cycle. Web based sales tools like WebEx, GoToMeeting and Skype are excellent tools to connect with prospects.
- If you need to drive or fly to a meeting, schedule multiple meetings in your destination city. I travel to Waterloo approximately once a month where I try and schedule a full day of meetings to make up for the 250km round trip.
- Using public transit to get to meetings. I find that the street car and subway are a very convenient way to get to many urban meetings. My business partner lives outside of Toronto and usually takes the Go Train into Toronto. With mobile devices it is sometimes possible to get work done on public transit, making you more efficient.
- When you are going to joint meetings with another team member, try and carpool.
Working in the Office
- I am not a big believer in the old school sales philosophy that reps should check into the office first thing. I think there are benefits to being in the office, but going to meetings first from home is often a less expensive and more timely method for sales meetings.
- Companies should not be afraid to have team members working from home. They can be as or more effective than working in the office. Proper management and CRM systems can guard against people not doing their job effectively.
Printing
- I think the days of dropping off brochures have passed by. Using PDFs, effective websites, projectors, and tools like SlideShare almost totally eliminates the need for preprinted materials
Additional steps your organization can take to help the environment include the following:
Measuring and Taking Action
Other ways that you can help to measure and then reduce your environmental impact is tracking your activities. Zerofootprint has a free web based solution for residents of some major centres including Toronto that can be used to track your environmental footprint and has ideas on reductions. Your organization could also do what VA Partners did and work with a consultant. We are working with Carbon Foresight to measuring our footprint and buying offsets.
Support Green Causes
Venture Accelerator Partners support Farm Radio International. It is a charity that brings low tech and environmentally farmer practices to farmers, in Africa. We have been able to raise approximately $20,000 for this great cause over the last six years.
Help Other Green Companies
Venture Accelerator is lucky to work with two great Canadian based clean technology companies. UV Pure is a water purification company and Cleanfield Energy manufactures and markets Wind Turbines. By helping them sell their products we are helping the environment. Your business could also do little things like selecting environmentally friendly suppliers.
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