Human nature, when it comes to paying for any item, is to quantify the cost and then determine whether that price is worthwhile to you. We do it every day in our own businesses and in our personal lives. And quantification often is subjective. Two people could look at a single item and use two sets of criteria to determine if that investment is, indeed, valuable to them. The only objective element is the price. The dilemma this creates, especially as it pertains to an often misunderstood area such as cleaning products and services, is whose criteria should be used to justify the value?
When salespeople aren’t able to meet with the corner office decision-maker controlling the entire budget, they don’t know that person’s criteria. Instead, they must do their best with the person in charge of the cleaning budget. Yet a growing realization is that the person in charge of the cleaning budget may not know the corner office criteria either. Given this double-blind scenario, value propositions, return on investment, and the like could be—and often are—off-base and useless when the final decision-maker analyses the overall budget. Given this disconnect, it’s no surprise that the budget with the least business case behind it, especially if it isn’t seen as critical, is the first to be cut.
Addressing the Disconnect
How do you begin to address this quantification dilemma? The first step is to realize that the cleaning product or service you sell and/or perform is part of a line item in a department budget—one of many departments and many line items all vying for the overall funding available in an organization. The key to unlocking more of this funding is to follow the money trail to find out what really matters to the person dictating budgets. Then, correlate your value in terms of its impact on the elements most important to that person and the larger business scope for which that person is responsible.
Put yourself in the decision-maker’s shoes and ask: What would make me sit up and listen to a request from a seemingly “necessary evil” area of my business, when larger financial pressures are screaming for my attention? Can ignoring cleaning and maintenance impact income? Can it impact business productivity? Can it impact workflow? Can it impact customer satisfaction? Is there a hidden financial risk, such as insurance claims or asset devaluation, in not putting money into cleaning and maintenance? The answer to these questions is, of course, yes!
For instance: A company that owns its own buildings cares about extending the life of those assets as long as possible with the least amount of refurbishments, replacements, or rebuilds—not to mention that they have people working in those buildings, churning out the product or service that pays the bills. For example, if a carpet wears out, it not only has to be replaced, but it also will disrupt the workflow in that area. If the company is environmentally conscious, there can be additional implications when trying to dispose of the old carpeting. If the company cares about appearance—or if its customer surveys show appearance matters—the firm wants that carpet to last as long as possible without looking shabby.
Our job in the cleaning industry is to be the keeper of that carpet and the executive communicator of the business sense behind keeping it. The latter is
What we must do is use our technical knowledge of what options could best extend the life of that surface, do a risk assessment with different cleaning options, and present a business case for why the scenario you’re selling will equate to the best results. Keep in mind, you are not arguing the best efficiency for a cleaning staff or how you can do more with less; you want to explain why this option will avoid additional costs or profit erosion, avoid work disruptions (maintain productivity), and will look better longer.
But that’s not the end. Along with the disruptions and other implications, you also need to prove why spending less today, means spending more tomorrow, A smart executive wants to know best and worst-case scenarios. Yet too often, we only provide the positive one. By not presenting the negatives, we allow decision-makers to assume there is no measurable downside to saying no. If we don’t connect the dots and tie consequences to their decision, they won’t either.
The Solution Is Manageable
You don’t need a master’s degree to turn the quantification dilemma on its head. You just need the right tools and to ask the right questions, make the right connections, and communicate it succinctly. ISSA has tools to help you accomplish all of this, through direct resources and links to alliances. What you do need to do is some homework to gather data to support your case. A solid business argument at the executive level can’t be a single option; it has to provide the results of a well-thought analysis of multiple business implications to gain greater confidence that the recommendation is solid.
The first step is knowing which angles are most important to the executive you or your customer must convince. ISSA’s extensive work with customer organizations has helped to gather insight into what issues are high on executives’ radars. You can do further homework with local chapters of the International Facility Management Association or the Building Owners and Managers Association, which represent upper-level facility, property management, and business executives. Even networking with business owners in local chambers of commerce can give you insight into what hot buttons you need to connect to make a solid case.
Take the carpet scenario: The Carpet & Rug Institute estimates that properly maintained carpet can last three times longer than poorly maintained carpet. Exhibit 1, The Asset Life-Cycle Cost Calculation Formula, provides the data points ISSA has identified that make a case for cleaning recommendation tied to asset preservation concerns and budgeting.
The Value of Clean whitepaper (www.issa.com/valueguide) provides background regarding the sources available to gather this information if you don’t already have it, and the Value of Clean Presentation (www.issa.com/valuepresentation) provides slides you can use to communicate it in a concise and professional manner.
Exhibit 1 includes the following inputs:
- Initial cost of carpet: The price of carpet includes the cost of the carpet and installation.
- Removal and disposal cost: In a renovation, removing existing carpet and disposal cost should also be included along with additional costs, such as work disruption due to renovations or area shut-downs.
- Cost of cleaning over the carpet’s life: Cleaning costs include an estimate for time, labor, materials, and equipment repairs incurred by a facility while performing its routine program.
- Carpet life in years is determined by the number of years the carpet will be on the floor.
Next, enter your data into the Value of Clean Calculator (see Exhibit 2) and export asset preservation savings estimates based on your ideal scenario as well as those using the current “reduced budget” scenario you might be arguing to change. The Incremental Carpet Care Investment per Year is where you enter the change you are recommending. Based on the industry standards, you then can adjust the carpet life to reflect the impact of your recommendation.
Executive Bonus Points
Typical executives also would like to reduce workflow disruptions and avoid having to pull public spaces out of use and inconveniencing customers. Doing your homework to find out the length of time reconstruction or refurbishments can take in just a few common scenarios can help you add this element to risk assessment to any of your proposals.
To further cement your position as a business partner with consultative value, consider showing your customer contacts the Surface Life Cycle Cost module from the Value of Clean Calculator. Let them know that the next time they are involved in selecting a surface in their facility, you can help them run a quick analysis of which surface is more economical over its lifespan, based on a combination of the installation and maintenance costs. Some ISSA members have done these analyses and found that the surface commonly thought to be “cheaper” had many hidden factors that cost the organization more in the long run.
No one likes waiting either. Protecting occupant health is always a valuable impact of cleaning, but when it comes right down to it, employees out sick with the flu also mean less work is getting done and that means less money coming in (or more going out due to additional help or overtime for other workers). Tie improved health to higher productivity, especially in organizations where skills are unique and not easily replaced by temporary help, and you build an even stronger case for cleaning’s value. The Productivity and Absenteeism modules of the Value of Clean Calculator, whitepaper, and presentation can help you address these areas effectively with eye-opening third-party data to catch an executive’s attention.
The only people to blame when the cleaning industry is misunderstood by final decision-makers are those of us within it who don’t effectively communicate our connection to what matters most. For each customer, it could be a slight variation, but doing your homework to make the right connection with the right person’s criteria will slowly erode the quantification dilemma the industry currently faces. Now, you finally have the tools to stop the “do more with less” spiral that is causing many cleaning organizations to reach critical, even unsanitary operating conditions.
To download the exclusive Value of Clean tools for ISSA members, visit www.issa.com/value. An archive of the webinar, The New Advantage: The Value of Clean, also is available at this link to help explain this concept to your key staff or customers. You also can share the Value of Clean paper with your customers through a special link at www.issa.com/valuetips.
