Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Try Using the Dry Erase Board Instead of PowerPoint

There’s something about using the dry erase board during a sales call that makes it more interactive. So much so, that I recently purchased a product called Bamboo Connect so that I could white board presentations via the web. So far it has worked out really well.

Customers and prospects are tired of the PowerPoint pitch. I’ll bet this is how yours flows:

1. Title slide

2. Agenda

3 – 8. About your company. How large you are, how fast you are growing, and of course that slide with all of your customer logos. No doubt without their permission.

9 – 15. Your products and services.

16 – 20. Your proposed solution for the prospect.

21. Your proposed pricing

22. “Questions”, or “Thank you!”, or “Next Steps”.

Blog continued below

Would you spend $3.99 to get a big deal un-stuck? Seems like a silly question – who wouldn’t. Well, I have developed a killer email that gets deals unstuck and it works so well that I wrote a book about it. And, I have also included two other emails to help you as well. It’s a short book – 22 pages printed – and it will take you about ten minutes to read. The ideas in the book are simple – almost silly. But you’ll be pleasantly surprised if not shocked with the results.The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.


This is what I call the show-up-and-throw-up deck. (I reprinted a great article about the overuse of PowerPoint. Click HERE to read the article.) Don’t you think that your customer has seen about ten thousand of these? Can’t you see their body language change as you grind through the deck? And after your presentation, what have you done to truly differentiate yourself as a seller? By the way, if you count your slides, my guess is that you have about two-times more slides than I suggested above.

At one recent meeting the room didn’t have a dry erase board. The prospect quickly grabbed a tripod with the 3M self adhesive flipchart paper and in about an hour the conference room wall was completely covered with my “artwork”. After the meeting I took down the pages and started to throw them in the trash. The customer shouted “No!” and grabbed the sheets from me. That was one meeting that they did not soon forget.

That’s an example of why I like to whiteboard my conversations. There is so much more interaction. You can build the story as you go. My main problem is that I’m left-handed and write like a 2nd grader. But nobody seems to care. I draw pictures, get excited, and make large gestures with or without the pen. It just makes for much better selling and storytelling.

Any rep can stand in front of a group and give an average, boring PowerPoint pitch. Do you have the confidence to break free from the projector and use the dry erase board? Try it and see what happens. I think you’ll like the outcome. So will your prospect!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Take Ownership of the Sales Process

I remember going on a sales call and really wowing the prospect. I did a white board presentation and really educated them on how an emerging technology was going to completely change the way that conducted business. The meeting was very interactive and they asked a ton of questions. I was even invited to join a national meeting via video conference and give a brief presentation. In the end, they bought from a competitor. I realized that my job was not to just educate – it was to educate AND sell!

Blog continued below

Would you spend $3.99 to get a big deal un-stuck? Seems like a silly question – who wouldn’t. Well, I have developed a killer email that gets deals unstuck and it works so well that I wrote a book about it. And, I have also included two other emails to help you as well. It’s a short book – 22 pages printed – and it will take you about ten minutes to read. The ideas in the book are simple – almost silly. But you’ll be pleasantly surprised if not shocked with the results.

The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

Don’t let a great, interactive session with a customer go to waste like I did. Use the opportunity to move the sales process along. In the above scenario, I allowed the prospect to dictate next steps. That’s something that I should have done. Now, when I have one of those really great and interactive sessions, I’ll end by suggesting the next steps. I'll take ownership of the situation and recommend a trial or other tangible event that moves the process along. That, or I’ll start sketching out a Mutual Activity Plan. By recommending next steps and taking ownership of the sales process, my close rates have increased and my forecasting accuracy has improved.

Let’s be clear about something. Educating your customer is important – use sales calls to do just that. Any time that you can add value to the conversation by sharing knowledge you should. But, your job is to sell – not just educate. Don’t fall in to the trap that I did years ago. Yes, it’s cool to have knowledge that others are thirsting for; yes it’s cool to wow a prospect with your product or industry knowledge; but no, it is not cool do use all that time, talent and resource to educate them well enough to buy from a competitor.

Own the sales process by recommending next steps and taking a leadership role. Your results will definitely improve.