To Whiteboard or Not To Whiteboard

Whiteboard selling tools are the latest craze. With good reason — they eliminate “death by PowerPoint” (or need for any supporting technology) and enable sellers to have more intimate, interactive conversations with their customers and prospects using nothing more than a writing surface and pen.

Problem is, they’re popping up everywhere, and sellers are being inundated with new process and techniques.

At Launch International, we’ve had the opportunity to create and/or work with dozens of whiteboards, ranging from business-focused high level conversations to the most technical of discussions. We’ve rolled out whiteboard tools to global organizations, and trained dozens of partners and sellers nationwide on how to use them. We’ve watched sellers both shine and struggle as they take on this new medium and determine when/how to successfully include it in their selling style. 

It’s a transition for them, and it’s hard work to learn a whiteboard and present it well. So, we owe it to them to make sure it’s on target, and to create it with the end goal in mind. 

We’ve identified commonalities across these whiteboards and categorized them into three groups:

• Scoping whiteboards explore pains and challenges throughout client organizations. These are typically used at the early stages of a sale because they help drill down to specific issues a target may be facing.
• Impact whiteboards demonstrate solution value across the organization to show how disparate groups or units could benefit from a more integrated solution.
• Transformation whiteboards illustrate a new way of doing business based on the value of your solution. These could show maturity curves, timelines, or even benchmarks across competitors and the market.

 PROS(of well-designed whiteboards)

• Creates interaction between seller/buyer
• Carries a conversation from a business need to a solution response
• Is natural, so sellers easily can present
• Infuses differentiation, “sparklers” and proof points along the way
• Builds consensus and logically carries buyer to next steps in the process

CONS(of ineffective whiteboards)

• Don’t clearly define points of interaction, so they become a drawn presentation
• Don’t clearly identify when to be used in the selling process, such as using a technical whiteboard in an introductory conversation
• Scripts language and flow that causes presenters to struggle Is not unique. If you remove one vendor name and add another, would you have the same whiteboard?
• Does not actually do the intended goal: Gain approval from the audience to move to the next step in the buying process

When It Comes To MDF, Waste Not Want Not

Have you ever felt desperate to “do some marketing” but unable to get it done?

Every year, 25 percent of the $1 billion in MDF available to the channel goes unclaimed and is added back to the bottom lines of vendors and distributors, according to estimates from CMP Media. How does that make you feel? If you’re frustrated but don’t know what to do it about it, you’re not alone.

Vendors and distributors don’t like wasting that money because it indicates that their programs are not as valuable or complementary as they should be. Certainly they need to know if you’re not finding value in their programs, but let’s leave that challenge for 2012. Your immediate marching orders: Claim the MDF you have accrued in 2011 and save it from reabsorption on Jan. 1.

My non-scientific survey of more than a dozen solution providers, vendors and distributors in October indicates that roughly 75 percent of VARs will squander some MDF this year, simply because they don’t know what they may have accrued. What an incredible waste!

I consulted for one leading VAR that successfully built a national event marketing strategy primarily on MDF. This company has a large in-house marketing team, however, and is able to dedicate staff to tracking MDF. Few partners can support the resources required to track MDF and create strategies to maximize the MDF use. That’s when you need to rely on automated tools and resources provided by your vendor or distributor. Or at the very least, lean on your regional channel manager to find out what funds are available.

MDF exists to help build channel revenue, so most vendors are only interested in supporting initiatives that can directly drive sales. That means brochures, Web sites and other broad messages aren’t likely to be covered. Vendors are more likely to fund programs with maximum revenue potential.

Through my experience with organizations on all sides of the channel, I’ve developed a list of marketing initiatives that you could execute this year to optimize your MDF opportunity.

• Awareness: Print, e-mail and telemarketing campaigns that target a specific market with a clear message are the best way to spend 2011 funds and deliver the greatest chance for reimbursement. The campaigns could help you kick off 2012 with a bang.
• Briefs: Reports showing executives the business-level benefits of a technology solution are valuable—and more likely to be read. Remember, be long on vision and short on spin. They can also be great payoffs to your demand gen campaigns—and the development will fit into your 2011 budget for 2012 delivery.
• Case studies: Customer successes are the perfect answer to prospects who say “prove it” to your claims. Providing an past success with a similar solution gives the perfect validation that you can do what you say you can do.

By the way, vendors and distributors seem perfectly willing to work with partners who still have MDF available and want to spend it this year. In the words of one availability management software channel manager, “I love to help our partners spend free money!”