Whiteboard Selling: Empowering Sales Through Visuals

Chapter 12

Why Change Whiteboards

Sixty-five percent of decision makers will give their business to the company that “builds the buying vision.” The other 35 percent said they will conduct a fair-and-square bake-off between the top competitors.

—Forrester Research

Let's take a look at the second whiteboard type, the Why Change Whiteboard. In Chapter 11 we discussed the possibility that a prospect may still be a good candidate for your solution or services, even if on the surface they don't meet all of your baseline qualification criteria, as explored using a Qualification and Discovery Whiteboard. The reality is, they don't know what they don't know.

The Why Change Whiteboard is designed to combat your biggest competitor, which isn't what you think it is. It's not your archrival; in fact, it's a more insidious enemy called “no decision” or “the status quo.” According to sales research firm the Sales Benchmark Index, nearly 60 percent of early stage opportunities fall victim to the status quo. These numbers correlate to Forrester's numbers above. If you can't create a buying vision, most prospects will more than likely keep current course and speed, with a minority going the bake-off route and perhaps ending up choosing one of your competitors.

It's a Messaging Problem

Let's look at these numbers more closely. Even if you did decide a prospect is worthy of next steps after using a Qualification and Discovery Whiteboard, a good portion of those prospects you scheduled follow-up meetings ...