By Steve Ashkin, The Ashkin Group

This begins the first of a 3 part series of articles on marketing your company (and yourself) by conducting an educational seminar on Green Cleaning. In this series we’ll cover the key topics for a successful event including developing invitee lists (which include the real decision-makers), selecting speakers, co-sponsorships, supplier participation, greening the event, and more.

I think you’ll find the series very helpful and just remember, because our customers and prospects are currently eager to learn about green and Green Cleaning, they can and will get the information from someone --- the only question is if it is going to be from you?

Program Objective: My first recommendation is for you to begin by really thinking about exactly what your objective is. This is important because there is a big difference between doing a “customer appreciation” event versus doing an event focused on “growing your business”. This consideration changes the focus to one which emphasizes attracting prospective rather than current customers. Please know that there is no right or wrong answer to this, but your execution and emphasis will be different depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.

In this article I want to primarily focus on what it takes to do a seminar focused at growing your business. Frankly, I feel strongly about this because as business people we must recognize the opportunity that Green Cleaning is creating in the marketplace.

Now is the time when our customers and prospects are interested in learning about green. And if they can learn about green from you, then you will be in an advantageous position to earn their business. And if you simply choose to wait until after most have already made the conversion, then you will be back to competing only on who can offer the lowest price.

Planning Horizon & Picking a Date: Typically, it will take at least 60 to 90 days to plan an event (and perhaps longer) depending on the complexity of the event, the challenges you may face finding a venue, arranging for speakers, etc. And this is if it all goes smoothly. If you are new at doing customer focused educational events or have limited resources (i.e. personal time and resources) to devote to its execution then I would recommend adding more time to your planning horizon.

Make sure when looking at your calendar to avoid holidays and conferences or conventions in your area that can compete for invitees. Your local chamber of commerce often keeps a calendar of local business events. Also be weary of internal business issues such as month-end efforts to meet sales quotas and the annual year-end inventory adjustment or other activities that could pull resources away from having a successful the event. Finally, I recommend that the event be held during the middle of the week, as compared to a Monday or Friday program.

Focus on Decision-Makers: Please know that I care deeply about custodians and have an enormous amount of respect and appreciation for what they do. But unlike 20 or 25 years ago when most custodians actually made the majority of purchasing decisions, today is a very different world.

If you want to hold an educational event that results in acquiring large pieces of business, you’ll need to attract the senior decision-makers. To do this I recommend that instead of doing a Green Cleaning event that you conduct a Green Building or Green Facility Management event.

My experience has shown that when we do a “cleaning” event that the decision-maker (i.e. building owner or property manager) sends their cleaning personnel to the event. But when the event is a Green Building or Green Facility Management event it increases the number of decision-makers who attends.

Selecting Speakers: One strategy that can help you make this a Green Building or Green Facility Management event is to have a speaker who is a “peer” of your desired attendees, in addition to a speaker who will speak on Green Cleaning. So for example, have a facility manager speak about their efforts to “green” their building. And it is totally acceptable and frankly desirable to have them speak about the energy conservation issues, lighting retrofits, recycling programs, landscaping, etc. Let them talk about the big picture and then your Green Cleaning speaker can share some specific details that facility managers can do. In this way you can position Green Cleaning as one of the strategies or things to do ---- and as the “low hanging fruit” among all the things they could possibly choose.

In addition to a facility manager who can speak about their personal efforts, you can look to the local chapter of the US Green Building Council for someone to speak about LEED, or even a local political person as “green” has become such a hot topic that many governments are happy to have the opportunity to get their message out, or some other high level, influential person or celebrity.

And if you are focused on a specific market segment, such as schools or healthcare then you can find “green” speakers from within your local area or from the Healthy Schools Campaign or Hospitals for a Healthy Environment, because these speakers add to the credibility of your event and can help attract attendees from those specific segments.

Be the Expert: For the Green Cleaning session, I recommend that you don’t simply rely on your vendors. Rather I highly encourage that YOU use the opportunity to speak and become recognized as the local expert. And of course if this is a significant event for your organization, please give us (The Ashkin Group) a call, we would be delighted to assist you.

These “tips” should help you get started deciding what kind of event you want to hold, picking a date and thinking about speakers. Next month we’ll get into some of the additional details such as the length of the program and speaking sessions, vendor considerations, and considering co-sponsors to help building your invitee list.

Have a good month and remember, your customers and prospects are going to be converting to Green Cleaning products and services from someone, and we’d prefer that it’s from you! Good selling.

Steve

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About the Author:

A 25+ year veteran of the cleaning industry, Stephen Ashkin is the author of Green Cleaning for Dummies and a tireless advocate for environmentally preferable cleaning products. Often referred to as the “father of green cleaning,” Ashkin has played a pivotal role in setting industry standards, promoting environmentally preferable products, and advocating for socially responsible practices.

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