Four easy ways to boost sales of green p

A , o cREEN BUTLDER. I have learned lLover the years that some of the best dealers and manufacturers are ill represented by salespeople who simply do not understand my needs. On the flip side, there are those sales professionals, who while not completely fluent with what my needs are, have long since learned why we have two ears and one mouth-and they have put those ratios into action when calling on me.

Below is a list of suggested best practices for any sales professional looking to sell me their products and services.

1. Know your stuff . Get training about your products and offer training to your customers about the use and installation of them. One of the largest barriers to the purchase of green products is the real or perceived barriers to installing something new. It's hard enough to get existing products properly installed by our trade partners, so there is a very real fear about improperly installing something new. Take V.O.C.-free paint, for example. Will it flow and set up the same as regular paint? How quickly does it cure and how difficult will touch-ups be? I need a sales professional who has actually applied these paints and can answer these questions from personal experience. Additionally, I need a rep who can meet my painters in the field and work them through the application of these paints. Otherwise, my painter has to calculate how much it will cost them to learn how to do this on their own.

2. Understand building science. Temperatures move from warm to cold. Moisture moves from wet to dry. A tight house performs better and more reliably than a loosely built home. Indoor air quality does matter, and there is a difference between filtration and purification. These are some basic building science principles that green builders take for granted, but these are not facts most builders understand. And there are even fewer product representatives that know these and other building science principles as well.

Get enrolled in Green Builder College (greenbuildercollege.com) to have a better understanding of the daunting volume of information your green building customers have a responsibility for learning these days. There has never been more liability associated with building homes than there is today. Understanding how your products can mitigate or increase those liabilities is critical to your success.

3. Understand the clinate zone in which you are selling. I build in Houston-a hot, humid climate. Now, even my mom can tell me that, but building here means I must meet the challenges of building in this climate-by managing cooling loads and UV degradation of materials, and moving moisture away from the house.

I need products that can survive and thrive under these conditions, and products that help me manage those challenges. But as often as not, salespeople just want to give me a brochure and tell me what a great product they are selling-without explaining the benefits of their product in the context of my climate zone.

d. Understand relevant certification systerns. All things equal (and sometimes they are), I will go with the product that can help me earn points. Not pie in the sky points, but the points I am after or the points I can obtain without additional effort or unreasonable expense. If I lost you here and you do not know what points I am talking about, you are well behind the curve and you need to drop me an email.

From luxury green to affordable green, it's all about the checklist and the points. It's time you and your sales staff got up to speed on the checklists so you will be ready to cash in the green when housing rebounds.

- Michael Strong was named NAHB's Green Remodeling Advocate of the Year in 2008. His projects include the first LEEDrated home in Houston, Tx., and Texas' first NGBS-certffied remodel. He consults with supply-chain distributors and manufacturers on how to " green" their sales force for the housing rebound, co-hosts a weekly radio show on green building issues, and co-instructs a green building/remodeling class at Rice Universin. He can be reached at michael.d.strons@att.net.