✌️ Whiteboarding Skills: The Cure For Your Crappy Sales Meetings?

In this week’s issue, I’m going to convince you why every seller needs to learn to whiteboard.

If you only rely on PPT to run a sales meeting - you’re missing a huge opportunity.

The problem is most sellers use PPT as a crutch, memorize a robotic pitch, and bore their buyers to tears - rather than engaging in a genuine, authentic conversation.

So let's change that.

Sorry to Break It To You, But Most Prospects Hate Your Fancy Deck.

Most sellers start meetings by pulling up a deck and talking about how great their product/service/company is...

Those meetings suck, so don't do them...

Or at least try to limit them, please.

Now, don't get me wrong, there's a time and place for a good ol' fashion deck presentation.

But you want to be different, right?

You want to be memorable?

Here's some data that will have you grabbing for a marker by the end: 

Improved engagement 

Our brains are programmed to follow movement.

So when you're drawing sweet stick figures while telling a story, you're actually forcing people to pay closer attention to you. (🧙 you're a wizard, Harry).

Data shows up to 9% higher engagement scores compared to PPT.

Encourages collaboration 

Many times, the buyer will take the marker 🖍 and say, "actually, this is how we do it".

When this happens - you transition from "selling" to "collaborating".

Enables situational fluency 

Too many sellers are so focused on getting through the message in their deck and just TALK AT your buyer.

Whiteboarding allows you to focus on the conversation, listen, and take the conversation where it naturally wants to go.

More memorable

The Picture Superiority Effect refers to the phenomenon in which pictures and images are more likely to be remembered than words.

Studies have shown pictures dramatically outperform words or text alone when it comes to memory recall. (by a factor of 6 or 7 times in some studies!!!)

Increases credibility & authority 

In the same study linked above - the whiteboard presentations created an 8% increase in perceived credibility compared to PPT.

Participants also rated whiteboard presenters higher in terms of uniqueness and trustworthiness.

Instant differentiation 

Only about 6% of sellers say they primarily use whiteboarding during in-person meetings.

Less than 4% for virtual.

Yet whiteboarding yielded a 16% increase in message recall and a 91% difference in visual attention.

But Keith... I Can't Draw!??

Crap, well, never mind you should just stick to decks then.

I forgot to mention a degree in Fine Arts is required.

People...can you draw a line?

What about a ⭕️? How about a 🔲? 🔺?

Maybe even get fancy with a rectangle?

Cool... you're qualified.

Ok...I Want To Try it! So What Do I Do Next?

The sad thing is many of you will read this, and be like, "hmm this data is pretty compelling" but will sadly never try.

Or you'll do it a few times, struggle, and go back to your deck. 

Don't give up. I've been doing it for 10+ years and still screw up all the time. 

Click the video to see for yourself.

If you want to give it a try but are not sure where to start - here's a simple whiteboard framework you can use in your next discovery. 

I'd also recommend checking out this book for even more templates and research on the power of whiteboarding.

That's all for now. See ya next week!

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You can check past issues here. ✌️