Only 34% of B2B sellers believe they have significant knowledge of their customers’ sustainability needs, according to Bain’s 2025 research. The study surveyed more than 750 companies across industries including automotive, packaging, chemicals, machinery, metals, and construction.

As a former sustainability consultant responsible for closing deals, I know that struggle. You can understand your solution inside out and still miss what would make someone take action and buy it.

Early in my career, an industry association client invited me to present to its board, made up largely of legal and finance professionals from Fortune 500 companies. I spent weeks preparing—not just researching the companies, but learning about the people who would be in the room and the responsibilities they carried.

Three board members scheduled follow-up calls. One became a client.

The preparation helped me move beyond explaining what I did to showing why it mattered to them.

That’s alignment: connecting what your solution does to what the company needs to accomplish—and what the people making the decision need to deliver.

It matters whether you’re selling to a customer or making the case inside your own organization.

Here are six ways to build that connection before you pitch.

1. Read the business story, not just the sustainability report

Start with the sustainability report, but don’t stop there.

Use it to identify commitments, baselines, deadlines, progress, and acknowledged challenges. Then review the annual report, investor presentation, and recent earnings-call transcripts to understand the business conditions surrounding those commitments.

You’re looking for the intersection between a sustainability need and a business priority.

To make this repeatable, give your preferred AI tool the documents, a clear description of your solution, and a consistent review rubric. Ask it to identify potential connections, quote supporting passages, and distinguish evidence from inference. Use the output as a research brief—not a verdict on whether the company will buy.

Suppose a mid-market manufacturer has a water-reduction target. That gives a water-efficiency provider a reason to investigate.

Now suppose management is also discussing production interruptions at a water-constrained facility. That creates a more specific hypothesis: the solution might support operational continuity as well as the water target.

Don’t present that connection as proven. Use it to ask a better question:

“You’ve committed to reducing water use, and your recent investor discussion flagged production constraints at this facility. Are those connected—and is reducing freshwater demand part of the response?”

For an internal champion, the same principle applies: connect your proposal to the operating plan, not just the sustainability strategy.

2. Build a chain from your solution to a business outcome

“Supports your sustainability goals and saves time” is too broad to carry a business case.

Make the connection explicit:

Solution → operational change → measurable result → business priority.

For example:

Reusable transport packaging → fewer single-use packaging purchases and less disposal → lower net packaging costs, if return rates and logistics support the economics → progress toward the cost-reduction plan.

Or:

Supplier-data workflow → less manual collection and validation → faster responses to customer requests → support for account retention and a lower reporting workload.

Each arrow represents a connection you need to substantiate.

If savings depend on return rates, say so. If account retention is a possible benefit rather than a demonstrated result, don’t count it as guaranteed revenue.

This is the difference between a relevant pitch and a complete business case. Relevance establishes why the proposal deserves attention. The business case also needs costs, evidence, implementation requirements, risks, and alternatives.

Before building your next presentation, try completing this sentence:

“We help [team] improve [specific outcome] by changing [process], supporting [named business priority].”

If you can’t finish it without leaning on phrases like “drive sustainability” or “create impact,” keep researching.

3. Map the decision team—not just the sustainability contact

Company-level relevance gets you into the conversation. Role-level relevance helps you move it forward.

Find out who will:

• Own the result.

• Control or approve the budget.

• Implement the change.

• Use the solution.

• Review technical, legal, security, or procurement requirements.

• Absorb the consequences if it doesn’t work.

These may be different people.

Build a working map, treating the following as questions to validate—not assumptions about everyone in a particular role.

The personal dimension isn’t about guessing someone’s values. It’s about understanding their job: what they’re accountable for, what success looks like, and what they can’t afford to disrupt.

Ask:

“What would make this successful for you and your team?”

And:

“What could this make harder—and what would you need to feel comfortable supporting it?”

An internal champion may know the organization well and still need these conversations. Familiarity is not the same as agreement.

4. Turn research into discovery questions—not a personalized monologue

Finding an environmental or climate target in a report doesn’t tell you whether it has funding, an accountable owner, or an active project behind it.

Use research to form a hypothesis. Then test it.

Instead of:

“We saw your emissions target. Our platform can help.”

Try:

“Your report identifies purchased goods as a major emissions source. How are you prioritizing supplier action today, and where does that process get stuck?”

Then move from the published goal to the practical decision:

• Who owns delivery?

• What is the current approach?

• What happens if nothing changes this year?

• Is there an external deadline or an internal milestone?

• What evidence would justify changing the current approach?

• Which budget could fund the work?

If asking about budget feels premature, start with the process:

“How are projects like this typically funded, and who would need to be involved?”

You can also develop a working hypothesis about the funding path before that conversation. More on that in a forthcoming post.

For an internal proposal, use the same questions to test the initiative you want funded.

The objective isn’t to demonstrate how much research you did. It’s to find out whether the problem you think exists is important enough to act on.

5. Prove the comparison the decision actually depends on

Bain recommends quantifying sustainability benefits with the same rigor as performance and cost. Its research also emphasizes understanding customers’ particular priorities rather than treating sustainability as a uniform purchasing preference. bain

That means comparing your proposal with the real alternative—not just presenting its benefits in isolation.

The alternative may be:

• Continuing with the existing process.

• Buying a conventional product.

• Building something internally.

• Delaying the investment.

• Funding a different project.

For a lower-carbon product, clarify the baseline, functional performance, calculation boundaries, and evidence behind the comparison.

For software or advisory services, distinguish between what the solution enables and what it directly delivers. Better emissions data may help identify reduction opportunities; it does not, by itself, reduce emissions.

For an internal project, include the work required from other teams. A proposal that saves the sustainability team time but adds substantial work to operations needs to account for that trade-off.

Use this test:

“What would a skeptical decision-maker need to verify before accepting this claim?”

Build that evidence into the case before they have to ask.

6. Make the next decision smaller and clearer

Don’t end with:

“Let’s explore how we can support your sustainability journey.”

Ask for a specific decision that resolves a specific uncertainty.

For an external seller:

“Can we review one facility’s operating data with your plant manager to test whether the potential savings justify a pilot?”

For an internal champion:

“I’m requesting approval for a limited pilot at one site, with an agreed spending cap and success criteria before we consider expansion.”

Define:

• The question the next step will answer.

• Who needs to participate.

• The time and resources required.

• What success looks like.

• What would cause you to stop.

A pilot isn’t automatically the right next step. If the economics, technical fit, or ownership are still unclear, a scoped assessment or working session may be more useful.

Ask for the next justified commitment. Don’t expect a leap of faith—or leave everyone guessing about what happens next.

A one-page brief to prepare before you pitch

Use this for a customer opportunity or an internal funding request:

1. Company priority: What is the organization trying to achieve? Record the source and date.

2. Relevant problem: What is preventing progress? Separate confirmed facts from hypotheses.

3. Solution connection: What changes, and how does that support the priority?

4. Decision team: Who owns the outcome, budget, implementation, and approval?

5. Role-level value: What does each person need to accomplish or protect?

6. Evidence: What supports the performance, financial, and sustainability claims?

7. Trade-offs: What does the proposal cost, disrupt, or depend on?

8. Next decision: What exactly are you asking someone to approve?

You don’t need every answer before the first conversation. But you should know which answers you have—and which you still need to uncover.

The strongest sustainability pitch doesn’t start with everything your solution can do. It starts with a well-supported explanation of why this organization, and these people, have a reason to act.

You’ve got this.