Whiteboard Selling: Empowering Sales Through Visuals

Chapter 10

Whiteboard Structure, Flow, Content, and Interaction Points

The fact that the message was built and flowed throughout, and built in a relevant way, made the content easier to internalize, easier to get a grasp on, and then easier for me to personalize going forward.

—Executive Strategist, systems management software company

When you read a book there are certain elements you rely on. There is the content of the book, the words, and the pictures. There is a table of contents that shows you the outline. The author has ordered the ideas, or the narrative, of the story so it makes sense. There is a visual design and layout that help you better understand the content.

A whiteboard for sales has similar elements. Each whiteboard you use during the sales process needs a predetermined structure you can use and then improvise on as needed, depending on how the sales meeting progresses. Each whiteboard dialogue has elements you can count on to help you communicate.

What are the elements of a whiteboard dialogue? One element is content—the words and visuals that communicate the unique value of whatever is being sold. Another element of the content is a script associated with each step of the whiteboard, which supports the visuals by providing a talk track. The script is designed to be an example of talking points only, not to be used verbatim by the presenter. The best practice is for the seller to customize the script according to the needs of each customer or prospect, leveraging ...