Nov 27 2007
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I spoke with a friend who was involved in green product certification back in the early 1990s. My friend came away from her green certification experience feeling that it wasn’t really worthwhile for companies to certify their products as green. She concluded that the vast majority of consumers would buy “green” [...]
Nov 20 2007
At last week’s Cleantech Crossroads* event in San Francisco, architects were well-represented among the attendees. It’s clear that architects play a pivotal role in green building. They do something every day that most businesses, institutions and individuals may undertake only once a decade. Because architects design large and complex building projects that have long-lasting effects [...]
Nov 15 2007
KJ’s recent post on ROI suggests that one way for Cleantech vendors to move beyond a straight ROI pitch is to sell higher in the organization where other factors can affect the decision process. After reading her post, I started thinking about what selling higher entails. It’s absolutely true that the needs, and the ability [...]
Nov 13 2007
Many clean technology vendors rely on return on investment (ROI) calculations to justify a sale. The idea is that customer makes an upfront investment and that investment (plus some) is paid back over a period of time. Many vendors will work with prospects to collect data and develop a set of assumptions about costs and [...]
Nov 08 2007
Why is an “elevator” pitch so important? And why is it so difficult? And how does it differ from the value proposition that KJ described in her last post? Our elevator pitch is important because it is the likely to be the first introduction a prospective customer or investor has to our company, and it’s [...]
Nov 06 2007
The term “value proposition” is widely used by businesspeople, entrepreneurs, investors, marketers and salespeople. But I find that, as with much marketing lingo, there is often confusion about its meaning. What is a value proposition? Why do you need one? How do you construct a good one? A value proposition is a brief statement that [...]