By Corey Sommers, Co-Founder of WhiteboardSelling
We’ve all heard the term “Death by PowerPoint”. This has become a common way to describe the lack of interactivity and boredom engendered by slide presentations. You’ve only got one chance to stand out from the crowd, and slides aren’t the answer.
In this post, we’ll look at five ways salespeople can boost performance using “visual storytelling” instead of slides. Whether using a whiteboard, a flip chart, the back of an envelope or a tablet PC via desktop sharing software, you can integrate the visual storytelling model into your existing sales methodology and apply the approach as a powerful differentiator in competitive and complex selling environments.
#1: Develop a Powerful Whiteboard “Story” Instead of Bullets
Your presentation should be much more than just a list of bullets – it should be a compelling visual narrative designed to showcase your products and services and how they deliver unique value. For example, you could create a story about a “tragic hero” (an anonymous customer) who overcomes adversity (the current situation) to attain ultimate glory (the desired state, achieved uniquely by your solution/service).
The story also needs to be visually intriguing, with humorous iconography, and should have a script that goes along with each step. The whiteboard story should include planned “interaction points” where you’ll engage with the customer to ensure a two-way dialogue. And whatever you do, try to stay away from features and functions and instead focus on business value, ROI (Return-on-Investment) and TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of your solution, as compared to your competition. Always ask yourself, “is this truly unique and something my competition can’t do?”
#2: Practice Becoming a Storyteller
With the visual storytelling approach, it’s essential that you immerse yourself in the content. There will never be a case where some magical force takes control of your pen and you draw something on the whiteboard that’s not in your head. You need to OWN the knowledge. Pair up with a colleague and take turns presenting the material in a real-world situation. You should practice the story multiple times until you’ve got it down cold. First, master the visual flow and focus on content accuracy on your own. A pen and some blank sheets of paper will work best. Once you’ve got the flow and content mastered to the point where you can draw out the entire whiteboard without referring to notes, only then should you integrate the script and practice presenting the story “in role” to your peers on an actual whiteboard. For more whiteboarding best practices, see our previous post, “The Art of Whiteboarding a Sale”.
#3: Go Virtual
Using simple web conferencing software and an inexpensive pen tablet, you can easily simulate a fully virtual whiteboarding experience. This can make a big difference on your return-on-sales: you won’t need to travel but can still conduct an interactive and intimate sales call remotely. And you won’t just save costs using this method – you’ll also command greater attention from your prospects. We’ve found that while 50% of WebEx viewers intermittently leave a remotely-shared PowerPoint presentation to access other applications, the “attrition” rate is less than 10% using the visual storytelling approach.
#4: Dialing for Whiteboards
If you’re part of an inside sales team, just because you aren’t face-to-face with the customer doesn’t mean you can’t use visual storytelling techniques. The virtual whiteboarding scenario described above allows you to have interactive dialogues and qualification discussions using remote whiteboarding. Imagine the difference between you saying “I can send you an email with more information”, instead of “are you on your computer? Why don’t we jump on a quick WebEx demo so I can show you what I’m talking about with a virtual whiteboard?”
#5: Do a Mini Focus Group
Whether you’re planning to deliver your whiteboard in person or remotely, make sure you “focus test” the presentation with an actual customer you trust and with whom you have a strong pre-existing relationship. The question you want to ask is, “does this story resonate with you”? The type of feedback you are looking for here is whether or not you are positioning the right customer challenges and pain points. You want to make sure your day-in-the-life story starts off with a bunch of “pot holes” that keep your prospect up at night worrying about.
After following these steps, the next thing to do is present the whiteboard in a live sales situation (preferably with a new prospect), and then figure out a way to share it with your peers (that is, unless you want to be the only one to make quota!)
Tags: death by powerpoint, enterprise sales, high technology sales, powerpoint presentations, presentation skills, sales enablement, sales methodology, sales process, sales readiness, sales skills, sales strategies, sales tools, sales training, software sales, whiteboard presentation, whiteboard selling, whiteboard story, whiteboard symposium
