Many sales teams rely on PowerPoint presentations to tell their value stories. There is a place for that, but telling stories from the whiteboard can be more powerful and engaging.
When I was at Ariba (now SAP), I was often tasked with teaching our new colleagues how to tell the Ariba whiteboard value story. My sessions were based on a masterful framework developed by the Ariba marketing team. Every sales professional at Ariba tested and certified on delivering those value stories. Sometimes I was their teacher.
Take the time to get really good at telling your value stories through practice, practice, practice. Teaching all those new hire sessions made me better at telling our story in front of customers, prospects and partners.
We also built tools to train our channels and alliances partners on this approach. Don't leave these important members of your extended team out when adopting this selling technique. It was game changing enablement for our direct and indirect sales teams.
With the global workforce going remote or hybrid, there are fewer and fewer opportunities to get in front of your audience using a physical whiteboard. But, there are still great ways to use this technique:
Video conferencing tools like Zoom have a built-in whiteboard feature.
I have a whiteboard set-up in my home studio that lets me move between traditional video conferencing and standing at the whiteboard on camera. Consider creating a similar space if you are fully remote.
Check out free online whiteboard tools like the one offered by Webwhiteboard.
If you want greater engagement, incorporate story telling techniques into your selling process. Build your messaging around well-crafted value stories and tell them with a pen at the whiteboard!
(Image Credit: Photo by thisisengineering on Unsplash.)