Are you ready for sustainable selling?

Sustainable selling was voted by you as the number 10 Sales Trend for 2010. With the green agenda comes sustainable selling. More and more questions are being asked by many about how we can best manage this relationship now and for future generations?

I recently attended and spoke at the 6th CIPS Australasia Annual Conference (peak industry body for the Procurement Profession) where sustainability was well and truly on the agenda. The conference theme, ‘Managing Volatility’, had a range of national and international speakers presenting on how we manage and guarantee supply in an ever changing, often unpredictable world. The key topic, which everything seemed to revolve around, was about managing value rather than only managing cost. The messages I received was that the Procurement Profession wants to encourage real, measurable value, trust, transparency, substance, and ethical selling and procurement practices which discourages excessive consumption and greed. The focus was on forging legitimate business relationships which serve the environment, people, businesses and communities. ‘We are all in this together’ was the point that I resonated with.

Taking the lead from the CIPSA conference, other forward thinking professional bodies and emerging business practices such as Fair Trade, if we are to meet the needs of the present (economic, environmental and social) without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, we need to engage in sustainable selling practices which support the concept of sustainable development as part of our strategy moving forward.

The Brundtland Report that formalised ideas around sustainable development provides the basis for practical application of the principles of sustainability in the real world. Sustainable development is not a fixed state of harmony, but rather a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional change are made consistent with future as well as present needs.

Cradle to Cradle Design is one example of some clever thinking and action around sustainable development. Cradle to Cradle Design is a biomimetic approach to the design of systems. It models human industry on nature’s processes in which materials are viewed as nutrients circulating in healthy, safe metabolisms. It suggests that industry must protect and enrich ecosystems and nature’s biological metabolism while also maintaining safe, productive technical metabolism for the high-quality use and circulation of organic and synthetic materials. Put simply, it is a holistic economic, industrial and social framework that seeks to create systems that are not just efficient but essentially waste free. The model in its broadest sense is not limited to industrial design and manufacturing; it can be applied to many different aspects of human civilisation such as urban environments, buildings, economics and social systems.

Sustainable selling, I propose therefore, is made up of ethical selling principles, ideas, values and practices which values trust, transparency, substance, community, the environment and healthy profits while discouraging the exploitation of people and resources, excessive consumption and greed. Sustainable selling recognises that everybody lives by selling something and that selling is about the principle of exchange – the sustainable exchange of ideas, innovations, products, tools, concepts, feelings, money and value.

The focus is on creating sustainable selling business cultures by encouraging and training all people in sustainable selling and business principles and skills so they can forge legitimate business relationships which serve the environment, people, business and communities.

We need to recognise the importance of minimising the impact of the way we do business. Our goal should be to live and work with a cradle to cradle mindset. As an initial step, you can sign up to Carbon Compass.

Sustainable selling is not a fixed state of harmony but rather an evolving process in which the application of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional change are balanced with future as well as present needs. 2010 and beyond will be about putting eco into sales.

Remember, everybody lives by selling something.

Sue Barrett practices as a coach, advisor, speaker, facilitator, consultant and writer and works across all market segments with her skilful team at BARRETT. Sue and her team take the guess work out of selling and help people from many different careers become aware of their sales capabilities and enable them to take the steps to becoming effective and productive when it comes to selling, sales coaching or sales leadership.To hone your sales skills or learn how to sell go to www.barrett.com.au.