I read somewhere that if you go to bed having not learnt a single thing that day, then it is a day wasted. Yesterday, I learnt something that I would like to share with you.
I was talking to a colleague of mine who is a contractor. During the course of our discussion, he told me that recently he had been asked to quote on providing air-conditioning for one floor of a particular building. A project worth $40,000. After listening to the briefing from the architect, he asked if he could have a few minutes with the CEO of the company that was commissioning the project and that would be occupying the building. The architect agreed.
My colleague spoke to the CEO about balance sheets. First, he spoke about the Commercial balance sheet and how he could save the company money over the medium term as well as improve her employees' productivity in the short term.
Then, my colleague spoke about the Social balance sheet and how he could enhance the lives of her employees by improving their work environment. They would not be constantly sick as he would virtually eliminate 'sickness building syndrome' and because of this they would go home to their families feeling healthy and happy. That in turn would impact their families positively.
My colleague then spoke about the Environmental balance sheet and how he could reduce her energy costs quite considerably.
Finally, my colleague spoke about the Scarce Resource balance sheet and how he could recycle the water generated by the building's air-conditioning system rather than have it channelled directly into the sewage system.
The net result was that his $40,000 project was approved at $180,000 and subsequent orders from the company amounted to over $1 million.
Today, as I was sitting in front of my client, I spoke about balance sheets.
When you provide value to others, they will always be willing to pay for it.
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