Whiteboard Selling: Empowering Sales Through Visuals

Chapter 11

Qualification and Discovery Whiteboards

Through this approach I uncovered opportunities in five different areas of our portfolio. I plan to continue using this approach to discover more opportunities from the Scottish customer base.

—Account Manager, large hardware, software, services company

If you work in a large enterprise, have you ever had presales, technical, or other subject matter expert (SME) resources complain they are being poorly utilized, or being pulled into sales opportunities before the right level of qualification has been done? Salespeople often put the cart before the horse. They use slides and jump to a Solution Whiteboard before they have confirmed whether or not an opportunity is qualified.

A Qualification and Discovery Whiteboard establishes whether or not—and how—a vendor and prospect should invest time and energy continuing the sales cycle. It's all about taking a prospect's temperature and figuring out whether they are a serious buyer or just kicking tires. These types of whiteboards can be conducted either in person or remotely using distance whiteboarding technology that we explore in detail in Chapter 27. The use of these types of whiteboards usually precedes—and can easily lead to—a Solution Whiteboard, even in the same sales meeting.

Let's look at a number of different Qualification and Discovery Whiteboard frameworks. After you review these examples, take some time to think about other whiteboard structures that may support your own selling ...