If your eco-product is still underperforming, hiring a Sustainability Manager too early can backfire.
In this post, we’ll show you why strategy and clarity must come first—and how to set your next hire up for real impact.
We’ve also included a quick self-check guide to help you decide if it’s too soon to bring in an eco-manager.
The Mistake Isn’t Hiring — It’s _When_ You Hire
If you’re struggling to turn your sustainable product into commercial success, hiring a Sustainability Manager might seem like the right move. And honestly, it is—eventually.
But here’s the thing most B2B companies overlook:
👉 Sustainability Managers don’t speak sales.
They bring valuable expertise, but not necessarily the tools to fix a misaligned go-to-market strategy.
Hiring one before your team is aligned around a clear direction doesn’t solve the core problem—it just adds another opinion to the table. The result?
More meetings. More friction. Still no traction.
Your Teams Are Speaking Different Languages
Let’s be blunt: your teams are out of sync.
- Sales is frustrated—they don’t know how to pitch the product.
- Marketing is leaning on vague or overly technical sustainability claims.
- Product is guessing at what’s not working.
- You are watching the numbers stall while the team spins in circles.
There’s no shared narrative. No unified understanding of what your buyer actually cares about. And every time someone suggests a solution, it just adds to the noise.
Bringing in a Sustainability Manager before solving these alignment issues is like hiring a new navigator while your team is still arguing about the destination.
Without clear direction and a unified strategy, they become:
- A siloed expert without real authority.
- Another voice in an unresolved debate.
- A costly delay in taking meaningful action.
To be effective, that hire needs a solid foundation—not a moving target.
You Don’t Have a Product Problem — You Have a Clarity Problem
Before bringing in a Sustainability Manager, make sure you’ve got:
- Clarity on the problem: Is the issue the product, the pitch, or the channel?
- Cross-team alignment: Sales, Product, and Marketing must share one definition of what “sustainability” means to your buyer.
- A decision-making framework: One that helps you determine whether to fix, reposition, or sunset a product—based on data, not opinions.
- A sellable product narrative: One that turns compliance into commercial value.
How to Know Quickly If It’s Too Early to Hire a Sustainability Manager
In your next leadership meeting, ask:
“If we had to double sales of this product in the next 90 days, what would we change—the product, or the pitch?”
If the room doesn’t align quickly, pause the hiring .
Solve the clarity problem first.
👉 Ready to turn your product around? The sooner, the better.
Our 3-Week Eco-Product Clarity Service gives you a proven structure to uncover what’s really going on, align your team, and chart a smart, confident path forward. Schedule a Clarity Call Today.
The Fastest Way to Know Your Next Move
Get 15 free minutes of clarity to uncover what’s driving — or holding back — your product’s performance, and the smartest way to improve it. You’ll walk away knowing exactly what to do next.