When e2Companies got here to Kuno Inventive, that they had an progressive vitality answer and a daring sustainability mission, however few advertising and marketing or gross sales supplies. They didn’t have an inbound advertising and marketing technique, a solution to observe who was partaking with their model, or a documented course of for following up with leads. At present, they’ve constructed a strong net presence, created industry-specific gross sales collateral, and are coaching new group members and channel companions to inform their sustainability story with confidence.
That transformation is what a robust gross sales enablement technique appears like in motion.
As extra B2B consumers consider companions based mostly on environmental and social influence in more and more aggressive markets, the flexibility to speak your sustainability commitments is greater than branding or taglines or intelligent hashtags.
It’s a complete development technique.
Sustainable advertising and marketing practices can drive sustainable income development. This is how.
Understanding Gross sales Enablement
Gross sales enablement is the alignment of your sources, messaging and technique to shut offers. If you add the aspect of sustainability, you’re showcasing what your model does for the better good, why you imagine in it, and why it issues to your clients.
These aren’t worth propositions, however value-added propositions.
They equip your gross sales group to elucidate not simply what you do, however why you do it and the influence it has on society.
In a 2024 Deloitte report on sustainability practices, respondents in the UK positioned “moral working practices” and “respect for human rights” within the top-five sustainability considerations shaping shopper conduct. This reveals moral practices within the office carry comparable weight available in the market as extra typical inexperienced initiatives. This significance will possible improve with geopolitical considerations and coverage instability.
The U.S. department of Deloitte in a separate report considers these issues “human sustainability.” We agree – taking good care of individuals and our communities is as necessary as taking good care of the planet exactly as a result of it’s all the identical.
Gross sales groups have a definite alternative to reveal model commitments to company citizenship, enhancing rapport and credibility with messaging that highlights an organization’s concern for these human sustainability points.
Why Sustainability Issues in A Gross sales Enablement Technique
Shoppers count on greater than efficiency.
They’re on the lookout for manufacturers that align with or replicate their values and contemplate the broader influence their operations have on society and on the surroundings.
A PwC report discovered 4 out of 5 clients are keen to pay a “sustainability premium” of virtually 10% for manufacturers which can be sustainably produced or sourced, at the same time as they face stress from inflation.
And so they’re more and more validating this with their shopping for conduct.
As an example:
- 46% say they’re shopping for extra sustainable merchandise
- 43% say they’re giving extra thought to purchases to cut back consumption
- 40% say they’re on the lookout for manufacturers with sustainable manufacturing strategies and recycling
- 67% use social media to find new manufacturers by way of social media, whereas 70% use social media to validate a model earlier than making a purchase order
For B2B manufacturers, the precise purchases look completely different, however the way in which shoppers analysis merchandise and make choices is analogous.
The Gross sales Crew’s Function in Sustainability Messaging
Your gross sales professionals are your model’s voice. They translate your values into motion for potential clients.
To make each interplay rely, gross sales reps want greater than product specs or battle playing cards. They want sustainability-aligned messaging that resonates along with your consumers’ values. This contains well-crafted speaking factors and branded supplies that convey transparency and belief.
Think about the work Kuno Inventive did with Skyven Applied sciences, an organization within the renewable vitality sector that helps industrial producers cut back carbon emissions by upgrading waste warmth into boiler-quality steam.
Reaching a distinct segment viewers that included CFOs and operations managers at paper manufacturing vegetation, meals and beverage producers, and chemical processing services required exact advert concentrating on and messaging that would go away an impression.
We used a mixture of technical whitepapers and supplies with broader attraction to assist the group clarify why establishment conventional boiler programs have been inefficient and finally, price corporations extra money.
It wasn’t sufficient to attraction to the viewers’s want to cut back their carbon footprint. We needed to current the answer as a sensible, progressive new normal for manufacturing that would cut back gasoline prices, decrease emissions and enhance operational effectivity with out disruption.
Speaking factors included the flexibility to put in Skyven’s steam-generating warmth pump as much as half a mile from their facility, seamlessly change again to pure gas-fired boilers when electrical energy costs have been excessive, and reap the benefits of applications that allowed them to implement the answer with out upfront capital bills.
Constructing an Efficient Sustainability Gross sales Enablement Technique
Getting began with this type of gross sales enablement technique means alignment first on organizational sustainability targets. And meaning getting gross sales, advertising and marketing and stakeholders on the identical web page answering a easy query: Who can we wish to be?
It seems like a easy query, however there’s not often a easy reply.
It requires gaining a consensus amongst your organization’s key stakeholders concerning the model’s dedication to sustainability. This may function a intestine test to develop a proper plan when you don’t have already got one, or an accountability measure to see when you’re assembly your marks.
Whereas insights and views on these issues can come from everybody, the imaginative and prescient ought to come from management.
As soon as that imaginative and prescient is about, advertising and marketing and gross sales leaders can get to work articulating the message, constructing a technique that may carry prospects nearer to creating the choice to work with you and maintain present purchasers within the fold.
Outline Your Sustainability Values and Targets
Begin by figuring out the sustainability values that matter most to your group, your management, and most significantly, your clients.
Interviewing or surveying clients will help to make clear their priorities.
After getting a transparent concept of what they need, incorporate the highest three factors persistently all through each touchpoint. That features advertisements, emails, weblog posts, web site pages, video and extra technical sources.
Align Gross sales Messaging With Sustainability Commitments
These key factors also needs to be carried by way of to the messaging you present to the gross sales group. They’ll reiterate these factors in engagements like follow-up emails or telephone calls, LinkedIn messages, movies, even gross sales shows.
Right here’s one instance of key speaking factors we included into gross sales supplies concentrating on house owners and builders of multi-family actual property buildings who’re inquisitive about on-site energy options from e2Companies:
- Decrease Working Prices
Save as much as 30% in your vitality payments by decreasing utility utilization at peak occasions. - Guarantee Reliability
Keep away from outages and tenant displacement whereas decreasing insurance coverage premiums with 24/7 resiliency. - Supply Future-Prepared Facilities
Present EV fast-charging on website and combine with renewable vitality sources.
The corporate is now coaching its gross sales group and channel companions to debate these key worth props on their calls and offering steerage on the best way to ask the appropriate inquiries to qualify leads as robust prospects for these options.
These questions embrace asking them about their services’ present vitality utilization and infrastructure, targets for bettering reliability and reducing emissions, and funds and timeline.
Develop Sustainability-Centered Gross sales Supplies
Our work with e2Companies started with branding and a web site redesign, however the partnership has since grown to incorporate way more. Previously two years, we’ve developed quite a few advertising and marketing sources and supplies for his or her gross sales group, together with:
- Business pages and gross sales sheets targeted on particular options
- A technical video and digital demo of e2Companies’ expertise
- Whitepapers and charts explaining some great benefits of the system in comparison with typical options, sometimes, diesel turbines or uninterruptible energy provide (UPS) programs
- Gross sales sheets about the best way to use obtainable tax incentives
- A calculator to assist prospects shortly estimate their prices and financial savings
- Case research highlighting how the system works at manufacturing services
- Up to date gross sales shows displaying how the answer reduces carbon emissions, permits corporations to attain further income with demand response applications and EV charging, and integrates seamlessly with renewables
- Inventive visible components and supplies for commerce reveals, together with a serious {industry} commerce present the place the corporate debuted its answer with an on-site demo
Any gross sales supplies your group creates must be tailor-made to particular industries and audiences. They need to present how your answer works, and particularly the way it achieves broader sustainability targets and brings a couple of better societal return on funding.
Gross sales Enablement Finest Practices
Authenticity Is a Non-negotiable
Many corporations ignore distasteful or ugly elements of their previous, whereas others overstate the influence of their sustainability efforts. With regard to sustainability, these actions are referred to as greenwashing.
This might embrace downplaying catastrophic oil spills or human rights violations and launching PR campaigns supposed to distract from them as an alternative of addressing the hurt they’ve finished.
Greenwashing, like sustainability, isn’t strictly restricted to inexperienced points. Scandals, reputations for office toxicity or govt dangerous conduct, or breaking guarantees relating to closing services or decreasing headcount can’t be waved away by a advertising and marketing marketing campaign punctuated by heartstring-tugging advertisements.
Credibility issues, and meaning working inside your boundaries and being upfront concerning the previous, shortcomings or different cases of poor company citizenship.
Your model is a worth assertion. Good company conduct in any respect ranges enhances model and facilitates the gross sales course of.
Personalize Sustainability Messaging for Completely different Purchaser Personas
Not all consumers view sustainability by way of the identical lens. For some, it’s a matter of regulatory compliance. For others, it’s a company worth or a strategic differentiator. Understanding these nuances is crucial.
As an example, a hospital administrator might prioritize vitality effectivity upgrades that cut back carbon emissions, however their guiding rules are requirements set forth by the Joint Fee. In case your messaging doesn’t straight tackle compliance with these requirements, it’s not more likely to land.
A producing CFO could have completely different priorities that possible embrace uptime, price financial savings and ESG reporting. Your gross sales strategy ought to emphasize how your expertise or service contributes to long-term operational effectivity, helps regulatory reporting and helps them qualify for state and federal sustainability incentives.
That’s why defining and segmenting purchaser personas is a foundational step in constructing sustainable promoting strategies that resonate throughout roles and industries.
Use Knowledge To Strengthen Sustainability Claims
To keep away from accusations of greenwashing and the skepticism that has permeated the {industry}, any claims should be backed by quantifiable information, third-party certifications and real-world case research.
We’ve seen how highly effective this strategy will be with our personal purchasers.
Skyven gathered in depth information demonstrating common emissions reductions for every {industry}, based mostly on common annual gasoline utilization and ensuing carbon emissions.
It may reveal annual carbon emissions reductions by 96,000 MT per yr and common annual facility financial savings of $830,000 for the pulp and paper {industry}.
The corporate makes use of AI-powered software program that pulls from digital fashions of present manufacturing services and creates a singular design for every new venture to estimate prices, financial savings and anticipated emissions reductions.
This demonstrates proof of idea earlier than the expertise is applied and reduces engineering time and prices by over 90%.
e2Companies has additionally constructed proof factors into its expertise and its gross sales course of: With origins as an environmental compliance service, it already had the established expertise to observe emissions generated by its programs and examine them to the typical emissions for diesel turbines. It may reveal greater than a 90% discount in carbon emissions, a quantity that has been validated by impartial third-parties.
The corporate is an ISO 26000 ESG-focused group and dealing to attain ISO 14001:2015 certification, a world normal that measures the effectiveness of environmental and security administration programs.
When knowledgeable prospects hear these numbers and the certifications, they’ve fast reassurance that their funding could have an actual influence on the surroundings.
Different methods to strengthen claims embrace environmental influence assessments and consumer case research that doc measurable outcomes. When messaging contains this stage of credibility, gross sales groups acquire speaking factors and prospects’ belief.
In case your consumers are asking “How do I do know that is true?” you’re already behind. Gross sales enablement content material ought to tackle the query earlier than they ask, turning proof into persuasion and information into conversion.
Combine These Components Into Gross sales Operations
Incorporating authenticity, personalization and information into your gross sales operations isn’t simply finest apply: it’s a mechanism that powers efficient gross sales enablement perform.
It begins with capturing and utilizing each first-party information (info collected straight from types, web site interactions, or conferences) and third-party information to form conversations and content material. From there, advertising and marketing automation platforms like HubSpot permit you to automate lead scoring based mostly on standards reminiscent of content material engagement, kind submissions, and persona match. This helps your gross sales group prioritize probably the most certified leads and comply with up with customized outreach that resonates by way of e-mail sequences, social touchpoints, or conferences.
Throughout discovery calls, your reps must be outfitted to ask good qualifying questions on sustainability targets, compliance necessities, vitality utilization and/or shopping for timelines. These insights must be logged as structured notes in touch and firm information, constructing a shared information base for your entire gross sales group.
And when the inevitable follow-up questions come up, reminiscent of “What does implementation appear to be?” or “Do you might have a case research in my {industry}?” your group ought to have fast entry to related supplies like ESG experiences, carbon financial savings calculators, company citizenship report playing cards or buyer testimonials.
That’s how you progress from a generic pitch to a value-driven dialog that builds belief, shortens gross sales cycles and retains your sustainability messaging constant throughout each interplay.
Your chief income officer ought to take the lead in creating these gross sales expertise and measuring gross sales efficiency.
How Kuno Inventive Helps Gross sales Enablement
Experience in Sustainable Advertising
We’ve already shared how we’ve supported sustainability pioneers like e2Companies and Skyven by serving to them outline a particular model voice, streamline complicated purchaser journeys and empower their gross sales groups. These engagements not solely raised consciousness but in addition improved lead qualification, marketing campaign efficiency and long-term pipeline visibility.
Our sustainability advertising and marketing experience has included different purchasers within the house over time.
For a corporation that’s remodeling how hospitals and clinics eliminate waste, sustainability is a core a part of the worth proposition. We’ve helped them make clear their message for a extremely specialised market and educate prospects concerning the want for this service and the choices obtainable to them.
For a nationwide companies supplier dedicated to moral sourcing and environmentally accountable operations, we’ve helped translate their bold sustainability targets into actionable advertising and marketing technique. From persona analysis and ESG-aligned messaging to the rollout of a brand new model appear and feel throughout net, content material and paid channels, we helped the corporate promote its environmental and social commitments in ways in which matter to each private and non-private sector consumers. Our work prolonged past model expertise to incorporate gross sales enablement content material tailor-made to completely different stakeholders, from finance and procurement professionals to facility managers and sustainability officers.
We’ve additionally partnered with a number one chemical producer pursuing aggressive sustainability benchmarks tied to emissions discount, waste minimization and inexperienced chemistry and manufacturing improvements. By means of detailed persona growth and content material mapping, we helped align their sustainability messaging with particular purchaser priorities throughout {industry} verticals.
In every of those engagements, our aim stays the identical: to construct belief by serving to our purchasers show their respective sustainability tales, not simply inform them. We do that by bringing gross sales and advertising and marketing into alignment round a shared function, translating sustainability into tangible worth, enabling enterprise dev groups with messaging, instruments and workflows that convert values into income.
How Kuno Inventive Helps Gross sales Groups Align With Sustainability
Beginning with branding, our group develops the inspiration for sustainability messaging and promotes it by way of advertising and marketing efforts and the promoting course of.
We assist purchasers construct sales-focused workflows in HubSpot that may replicate sustainability priorities at every stage of the client’s journey. These workflows qualify leads by greater than {industry} or job title, however by values and intent, segmenting eco-conscious and socially involved consumers and delivering content material that speaks on to their considerations, whether or not it’s vitality effectivity, emissions discount or moral sourcing and good company citizenship.
We additionally create lead nurturing sequences that do greater than maintain a contact heat. From the primary follow-up e-mail to post-demo drip campaigns, we develop messaging that balances sensible enterprise advantages with sustainability proof factors—reinforcing your organization’s mission and providing tangible proof of environmental and social influence.
Gross sales decks, movies and different sources inform sustainability tales value believing in. Whether or not it’s a pitch deck that features influence metrics and certifications, a buyer success video targeted on ESG outcomes, or an ROI calculator that quantifies environmental advantages, we create gross sales enablement content material that not solely informs however evokes belief and motion.
As a result of we perceive the longer, extra consultative gross sales cycles that sustainability-driven corporations typically face—particularly in regulated industries like healthcare, manufacturing or vitality—we transcend normal content material creation.
We work along with your gross sales and advertising and marketing groups to develop layered, persona-specific enablement property that assist each step of a multi-stakeholder determination.
Why Select Kuno Inventive for Your Sustainability Technique
When all these components come collectively, your organization can obtain stand-out outcomes.
In our first yr of working with e2Companies, the facility options supplier noticed a 135% improve in web site visitors, considerably elevated engagement and generated 400 new leads from a single tradeshow.
Since then, they’ve considerably elevated the variety of offers they’ve in varied phases of their gross sales pipeline, with the aim of decreasing the typical gross sales cycle.
Every buy includes vital planning, engineering, financing and approvals, so any means to assist prospects make choices quicker has an influence on their income.
At Kuno, we do greater than design web sites or supply a menu of deliverables. We carry collectively consultants in model expertise, advertising and marketing, paid promoting, gross sales enablement and person expertise to develop cohesive methods that create income.
We’ve made it our mission to assist corporations we imagine in, so we actively search alternatives to work with people who find themselves enthusiastic about making the world higher.
Let’s speak about how we will help your organization spotlight your sustainable initiatives and appeal to like-minded consumers.
Brent Sirvio contributed to this text.
