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”.

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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 2^nd 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!