Why High-Tech Sales Gurus Go Low-Tech

High-tech sales pitches have historically fallen into one of two categories: not so bad or awful.

Typically, representatives from the prospective customer -- clustered together on one side of a conference table -- have had to endure a PowerPoint presentation delivered by a vendor salesperson who more than likely didn't write the slides; has not been a programmer or database admin in a previous life and doesn't understand the complexities of the software and how it applies to the customer's situation; and is so pressed to get through all 45 slides in 15 minutes that he has little time to actually converse with the users and IT staffers on the other side of the table.

"It becomes a 'show up and throw up' discussion," says David Jenkins, CEO of WhiteBoard Selling, whose methodology and tools aim to remedy those types of situations. "And salespeople aren't able to convey a confident, consistent and interactive message to customers."

At the core of the problem, of course, is the salesperson's reliance on PowerPoint and the customer's expectation of a boring slide deck as what should constitute a sales call.

But what if there were no slides anymore? What if the meeting was more about a presentation that offered more interactivity?

That's essentially the business model behind WhiteBoard Selling, a two-year-old company cofounded by Jenkins that counts Software AG, Borland, Avnet Technology Solutions, CA, Blue Coat and Symantec as customers. Whiteboard Selling's training tools and methodologies essentially force sales reps to understand and communicate the material better, Jenkins says, because without slides to rely on, the sales pros must rehearse presentations and thereby internalize the material.

How those sales reps deliver the product pitch is, for the most part, up to them: on a whiteboard or flip chart, via a tablet PC and webinar, or even on the back of a piece of paper, says Jenkins. On delivering a presentation via a whiteboard and marker, Jenkins says, "I challenge your hand to draw something your brain doesn't understand."

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