Selling complex products (high-value equipment, consultancy services, computer hardware or software, telecoms solutions, medical services etc) takes more than Willy Loman’s famous ‘shoeshine and a smile’. In today’s world - differentiation must be clearly articulated, and financial value demonstrated or explained.
It is clearly important that your sales people understand the benefits that can be gained from your products and services, and it is vital that they are also able to get the customer to appreciate your unique value. However, enabling a sales organisation to deliver these messages consistently, and in a way which is enjoyable for the presenter – and engaging for the audience has proven to be difficult. Our clients tell us that only 20-30% of their sales force is capable of delivering their value proposition at Decision Maker level.
To close this communications gap, innovative companies have turned to Whiteboard Strategies Limited to create powerful and dynamic whiteboard presentations that sales people learn, internalise, understand, appreciate and make use of. Entire sales organisation (including channel partners and strategic allies) can now be enabled to deliver your own ‘Whiteboard Value Proposition’ confidently, credibly and most importantly…. consistently.
The Whiteboard Strategies presentation format blends the visual communication elements that are drawn on the whiteboard (including diagrams, schemas, words, numbers, pointers etc) with a guideline narrative that is spoken by the presenter. The specific content and structure of each Whiteboard varies, depending on the desired result or ‘Whiteboard Intent’ (WI). If the WI is for a customer to proceed to the next step in a sale, then the whiteboard is designed with that in mind. If the WI is for the customer to feel confident in a company’s ability to deliver on the promises being made – then the whiteboard will be designed to produce that result. If the WI is to tee-up a ‘close’ then this will be engineered into the visual communications - and the narrative itself.
Deliver your pitch in an informal yet consistent way – Unlike a PowerPoint presentation, a whiteboard presentation is a more informal and engaging way of working with an audience. Audiences open up. They read what is being written up – and they listen to what is being said.
Leverage your audience’s predisposition to ‘visual communications’ – We live in a visual world. Compare today’s newspapers to those of twenty years ago. Compare today’s mobile phones to those of ten years ago. Images and icons now dominate. Stop sending in your sales people to ‘talk’ your customers into an understanding. Add another dimension.
Leverage the most powerful and ubiquitous communication tool in existence – Look around any office - whiteboards abound. Inexpensive, flexible and easy to work with. The offices of most managers and decision makers will contain a whiteboard. Clearly, the whiteboard is an indispensable business tool. Quite simply, it is the ‘weapon of choice’ for effective personal communications.
Engineer consistency in your message delivery - Get your sales people singing off the same hymn sheet. Following the Whiteboard Strategies’ ‘Enablement Process’ you can have 100% of your direct and channel sales force delivering the same, effective, persuasive message - consistently.
Add a new tool to your communications tool-kit – Sales people appreciate the Whiteboard methodology. Smart sales people already use the whiteboard (albeit in their own unstructured way). A whiteboard value proposition gives presenters a structure to follow. It helps the presenter to look credible and consultative. It is new, fresh, different – and most importantly………effective.
Stand out from the crowd – Look at your competitors. Most of them are sending their people out with laptops and corporate slide decks. Customers are sick of it. Most sales people don’t even fire up the laptop anymore (they have seen the customers look of disappointment when they reach for the computer). In a homogenous world where sales people and their pitches look and sound the same you have a chance to stand out by using Whiteboard Strategies.
Ensure that your sales people really understand your proposition – As part of the enablement process, sales people learn the entire whiteboard presentation by rote. This type of learning doesn’t take place much anymore. Why? Because it’s tough. It’s testing. What it also does however, is to ensure that your people really do understand the case that your presentation aims to make. The memorisation itself forces the brain to organise and sequence each step. This process then leads to internalisation and understanding. PowerPoint presentations don’t demand this level of engagement. Slides act as crib sheets and cue cards. Say ‘no more’ to Death by PowerPoint.