Why your commitment to sustainability is not enough to make your sustainability-focused SME thrive

The moment you registered your company with Companies House.

The moment you got that first client who was willing to pay you to carry out an environmental assessment.

The moment you hired your first employee to help you with the mounting workload.

The moment you felt that paying for that environmental society membership would add to your credibility.

The world was your oyster. You felt this was going to make a real difference to the planet and to your life.

And yet… the ice caps are still melting. Much of the environmental claims big firms make are greenwashing. And looking closer to you, your clients just do not follow your advice. In fact, they say they haven’t got the budget for it.

You look across the fence and see that the bigger clients with larger pockets work with much larger firms than yours, those that can churn report after report, and carbon calculations at full steam, like a well-oiled machine.

So, all you have left to do is struggle to tick one box here and one box there and send an invoice. Tomorrow, much of the same.

Is this making you happy? Is this in line with your values? Are you making an impact as much as you thought you would when you graduated?

My guess is probably no to all of the above.

My guess is, in fact, that you are wondering whether you’d better off quit and get a "normal" job. At least that way you’d get to work on more interesting projects and feel like you are actually making a difference.

Let me break it to you. It’s not your clients’ fault if they don’t buy into your solutions. The fact that they aren’t interested in sustainability is, partly, your fault for not being able to “sell” sustainability to them.

But I’m here to tell you that things can be different.

That if you are the managing director of an SME focused on sustainability, you can make a huge difference to the planet, to your life, and to the life of your employees.

Let’s start with the fact that your commitment to sustainability will not be enough anymore. Your technical knowledge and the technical knowledge of your employees are only the starting point, the backbone of what you need to win at this game.

Why? Because when was the last time you were convinced to adopt any kind of solution or buy a product purely based on its technical features? When was the last time someone bought a Tesla because it had a powerful engine, four wheels, and four doors? When you adopt a new solution, you buy into a story.

Moreover, you identify at some emotional level with the meaning of that brand, object, or service.

And as a sustainability business owner, it’s your job not only to provide a technical service to your clients but to articulate your story, what you stand for, and start building that emotional connection with them. It’s what author Simon Sinek calls starting with your “why”.

This is the first step to create a meaningful, unique, and lasting relationship with your ideal clients.

Which will automatically translate into a better, more personal service but, most importantly, in increased trust.

Trust is key to be able to sell to your clients the best possible sustainability solutions to their business issues. If they don’t trust you, they won’t buy into your ideas. Because they are not experts, they will need to blindly – in most cases – trust your advice.

Your objective, beyond pushing your and your team’s technical abilities, is, therefore, to create that personal relationship and, by using a coaching approach (through which you ask as many open questions as possible) and tactical empathy, understand what your client exactly needs and find the unique sustainability solution that fits them like a glove.

Your team will have to step up and learn how to do the same to become your brand’s most powerful advocates.

The results for your clients will show the same differences between buying a suit from Tesco and hiring Valentino to tailor your suit while you sip a cocktail by the pool.

The outcome? Happier clients, higher value contracts, fewer sleepless nights, happier employees, and – not to be underestimated – a healthier planet.

Want to talk about how to implement a plan like this? Start here.

We are happy to deliver free lunch and learn sessions to your company to start you on this exciting journey.

Tags: lunch & learn, sustainability, small business

You have no rights to post comments

The Green Gorilla's Posts

  • All
  • Coaching
  • Getting Started
  • Lunch & Learn
  • Resilience
  • Small Business
  • Sustainability
  • SustainABLE Mastermind
  • Womeninsustainability
  • Your Community
  • The moment you registered your company with Companies House. The moment you got that first client who was willing to pay you to carry out an environmental assessment. The moment you hired your first employee to help you with the
    Read More
    • Lunch & Learn
    • Small Business
    • Sustainability
  • I have never considered myself a feminist. Not in the extreme sense of the term anyway. Although I have always advocated for equality of opportunities for everyone, whichever sex they identify with, I never contemplated burning my bra. I even
    Read More
    • Resilience
    • Womeninsustainability
    • Your Community
  • The power of resilience in uncertain times

    The power of resilience in uncertain times

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2020-08-03 09:55:52
    I will echo many other people saying that we are living unprecedented times. Life as we know it has come to a weird standstill. Bars, restaurants and shops are starting to reopen after the pandemic, schools and offices have moved
    Read More
    • Coaching
    • Resilience
    • SustainABLE Mastermind
  • Is sustainability a luxury?

    Is sustainability a luxury for the wealthier?

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2019-03-01 09:55:52
    I have been thinking about my personal finances a lot, lately.I dedicated the whole of February to money wisdom. I worked out that I have about 25 years (everything going well) of working life still in front of me, and
    Read More
  • Using science to influence sustainability clients
    If you have children, you might have heard about oxytocin, aka the “happy hormone”, which is released when you bond with your newborn baby, and is even injected into expecting mothers to induce labour. Oxytocin is produced after any emotional
    Read More
  • Using storytelling in technical situations
    A few years ago, in a quest to refurbish a 1960 concrete block on the BRE site in the most innovative and sustainable way possible, I had the good fortune to meet an extraordinary man and architect. He was one
    Read More
  • What is sustainable architecture?

    What does sustainable architecture really mean?

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2018-11-15 09:55:52
    I was recently invited to deliver a CPD session on Sustainable Design at a small architectural studio. I was told beforehand that the office didn't specifically look at sustainability in their practices, as it was a small practice. In my
    Read More
  • Can circular economy save the planet?

    Can circular economy save the planet?

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2018-11-15 09:55:52
    This phrase by Walter Stahel, the man who also coined the phrase ‘cradle to cradle’, made me chuckle before I felt the heaviness of its meaning. How often do we actually feel that our single and collective actions have an
    Read More
  • The difficulty of selling sustaiability

    Why aren’t your clients interested in sustainability?

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2018-11-15 09:55:52
    I’ve been asking myself this question over and over again: why aren’t clients interested in sustainability? A couple of months ago, my eight-year-old daughter told me off because we were still using plastic toothbrushes. I’m a sustainability consultant, and sustainability
    Read More
  • Selling sustainability to your co-workers
    It’s another day in the office. Fights over the stapler, ‘elevenses’ gossip, passive-aggressive comments hissed in between the teeth, boiling in silence because your colleague is on Facebook while you are slaving away, talking to the boss instead of having
    Read More
  • The top five skills of a sustainability consultant

    The top five skills of a sustainability consultant

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2018-10-28 09:55:52
    It was all over the national news a couple of weeks ago: according to a new assessment from IPCC, limiting global warming to 1.5ºC would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society. One of the key
    Read More
  • Women and the construction industry

    Why doesn't Wonder Woman wear a hard hat?

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2018-10-03 09:55:52
    In recent findings summarised in the report Delivering Through Diversity by McKinsey & Co. , it emerges that companies with executive gender diversity perform 21% better than less diverse companies. This means that companies with women in top executive roles, where
    Read More
  • Sustainability performance with LCA
    At a recent networking event, I met a very happy sustainability consultant. Given that my new mission in life is to help sustainability consultants to feel happier in their jobs, mainly by making them more confident and able to ‘sell’
    Read More
    • Getting Started
  • How to be assertive in sustainability
    In today’s culture we are all more or less dependent on the pleasure caused by the rush of endorphins that we get when our posts on social media accumulate ‘likes’. Sounds a bit daft when you read it, even childish
    Read More
    • Getting Started
  • Six Sales Techniques for Sustainability Consultants
    You are at your first meeting with a potential new client, and they are clearly not keen on undertaking a sustainability assessment for their building. They have to do it because it’s a planning condition, but really, they would rather
    Read More
    • Your Community
  • my own feet

    My Slow 2022

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 0000-00-00 00:00:00
    If you have been following me for a while, you might remember that I posted a couple of times in the last year or so about feelings of burnout. Of course, being locked in at home with two kids to
    Read More
    • Coaching
    • Resilience
    • Small Business