Chapter 8
The Major Whiteboard Types
If you're sitting in your minivan, playing your computer-animated films for your children in the backseat, is it the animation that's entertaining you as you drive and listen? No, it's the storytelling. That's why we put so much importance on story. No amount of great animation will save a bad story.
—John Lasseter
So far in this book we have showcased the stories of real salespeople and their experiences with PowerPoint and whiteboarding. Part of the power of whiteboarding is the power of stories. There are plenty of other books that sing the praises of storytelling. Using stories, especially visual stories, creates a shared vision and helps to sell more and bigger deals, faster. But using whiteboards to tell stories is just part of the picture. An effective sales whiteboard needs to be more than a narrative—it should also be a discussion framework that supports a two-way knowledge transfer. This discussion framework builds out step-by-step, while still allowing for situational fluency if the discussion changes course. It has predesignated areas to capture customer meeting objectives, feedback, and next steps. This “discussion map” is critical to keeping the dialogue moving to create a shared vision and progress the sales cycle.
In this section, we will describe at a high level the key whiteboard types. In later sections we'll describe the basic design points of a whiteboard and the associated content.
The Whiteboard Army Knife
We identify a total of six different types of whiteboards that can be used in different situations and at different stages that work with whatever sales process you adhere to. These are:
You may be thinking, “Wow, that's a lot of whiteboards I need to learn to be effective without using PowerPoint!” The reality is that you will rarely ever need to deliver all or even more than one of these whiteboards, depending on the unique sales situation. Keep in mind, they come in many different forms and flavors, and that regardless of which type of whiteboard you are using, they must all drive to specific next steps and actions that move the sales process forward.
Qualification and Discovery Whiteboards
These whiteboards are used to assess the value of a lead to see if it has merit to become a qualified opportunity. Qualification and Discovery Whiteboards are also effective in providing a chance to identify the prospect's existing challenges and business objectives, and to ensure there is a sufficient amount of alignment with your offerings.
Next Step/Action
By gathering important information about a prospect's current situation, Qualification and Discovery Whiteboards lay the groundwork for a Why Change Whiteboard or a Solution Whiteboard, or at the very least, the need for more discovery with other stakeholders via a phone conference or web meeting.
Why Change Whiteboards
Many buyers know they need to evolve how they operate their businesses and are therefore actively in pursuit of solutions or products to address new objectives, initiatives, and projects to help them become more competitive and grow. These buyers are “in the market,” so to speak, yet unfortunately they are in the minority. The most successful salespeople earn the kind of money they do because they are hunters and not farmers. Farmers take orders from in-the-market buyers. Hunters generate new demand for their offerings among prospects who are not convinced they need to change the status quo. Even if a Qualification and Discovery Whiteboard does not signal a sales opportunity that is ripe for the picking, hunters will not be dissuaded from pursuit.
Why Change Whiteboards help farmers become hunters by providing a structured discussion framework to help these status quo buyers understand the risk of inaction.
Next Step/Action
Once a prospect has seen the light and that change is needed, a Solution Whiteboard provides the required detail about your offerings to move the sales process to the next stage.
Solution Whiteboards
Solution Whiteboards are often the most frequently used whiteboard type in the sales process. You've identified a qualified opportunity based on a preliminary alignment of your prospect's business challenges and objectives with your solutions. Or, you've used a Why Change Whiteboard to create the demand for your offering in the mind of your buyer. Now it's time for a more in-depth dialogue and knowledge transfer around how your solutions and services uniquely address your prospect's needs, and where you've had proven success helping other customers.
Solution Whiteboards usually start by confirming what has been learned so far from a Qualification and Discovery Whiteboard, a Why Change Whiteboard, or from other initial discussions you've had with the customer. Solution Whiteboards are designed to answer the question, “So where's the beef?” Now it's time to communicate, “Here's what we do, how we do it, and why we're unique.”
In some cases, you can use parts of a Solution Whiteboard in the very same meeting after you have used a Qualification and Discovery or a Why Change Whiteboard. As there is no requirement to present all whiteboard types in any given sales engagement, a Solution Whiteboard may be the first whiteboard you deliver to the customer.
One of the participants from our whiteboard enablement program sent us an e-mail about how she had struck up a conversation with a potential buyer on an airplane. Her seatmate asked her what her company could offer, and she pulled out the air sickness bag from the seat pocket and proceeded to do a rough version of one of her company's Solution Whiteboards. She even captured some of her buyer's unique challenges before handing him the bag to take with him.
Next Step/Action
The next step after a Solution Whiteboard will vary significantly based on the sales situation and type of sales process. The outcome should be to lay the groundwork for a shared vision on how your solutions can uniquely address your prospect's goals and objectives. Ideally, the possible next steps are a proposal and a request to open a purchase order! Next steps might also include presenting a Competitive Whiteboard, in-depth assessments, and a meeting with key stakeholders responsible for further evaluation. In many cases an effectively delivered Solution Whiteboard will lead directly to vendor selection and a closed deal.
Competitive Whiteboards
A Solution Whiteboard isn't always enough to seal the deal, and the prospect may want a head-to-head comparison of how you stack up against a competing vendor or group of vendors. The objective of a Competitive Whiteboard is to clearly and authoritatively demonstrate how your solution is superior across a specific set of criteria that are most important to your prospect. Technical and other presales resources are often involved in the presentation of Competitive Whiteboards.
Next Step/Action
The ideal outcome of presenting this whiteboard is final vendor selection in your favor, avoiding any type of proof of concept or in-depth evaluation.
Business Case Whiteboards
Have you ever had a customer say, “Yes, we believe you have the right solution and we want to look at how we can implement it,” but the next thing out of their mouth is, “How am I going to pay for it and how long will it take for me to see ROI (Return on Investment)?” A Business Case Whiteboard provides a clear answer to these types of questions, usually in a quantitative fashion. Business Case Whiteboards are valuable, but they are not always required and they may even slow down the sales process if used at the wrong time and place.
Next Step/Action
Final vendor selection in your favor.
Closing Whiteboards
You've gotten to a point in the sales process where the need is established for your solution, you are the acknowledged first choice, and you've proven how your offerings will pay for themselves. But in many cases, your “champion” or sponsor isn't at the right level to have final budget and signing approval, or someone at a higher level within the organization needs convincing.
Closing Whiteboards are simple whiteboards—sometimes a condensed version of both a Solution Whiteboard and a Business Case Whiteboard—designed to seal the deal. As one of our trainees reported several weeks after training, “My customer loved the whiteboard and plans to use it as the basis for telling the story to the committee that approves their funding.”
In some cases, the presentation of a Closing Whiteboard may require the presence and participation of higher-level executives from your sales organization.
Next Step/Action
You should be exhausted by now! The desired outcome is final vendor selection and a Statement of Work or Purchase Order for signature.
In the following chapters we'll provide in-depth explanations and examples of each type of whiteboard.