Winning The White Board Wars

My lawyer friends tell me that whoever tells the best story in court usually wins. The same is true of being a Sales Engineer. Using a white board is a fantastic way of personalizing a story for your customer. Before you even think about the story - what are three basic things you should remember to help your whiteboard pitches?

1.      Stand on the correct side! If you are right-handed like me, you should be standing on the left of the board (as the audience sees it) – just like the picture. That way you obscure only a small part of the board when writing and I can step away and use my left hand to point. Although it may seem counter-intuitive as you’d think you want your writing hand closest to the board – it doesn’t work that way! The mechanics of your shoulder joint dictate that you’ll have neater and straighter diagrams doing it my way.

2.       Chunk your diagrams into 8-10 segments. That way you talk, pivot to the board, draw for 8-10 seconds, pivot back, and talk some more and so on. It reduces dead air time and means you don’t rush because you’re conscious of having your back to the audience all the time. Try it!

3.      Take your time. Seriously! There is some kind of space-time warp that distorts reality when the average SE gets to a whiteboard. It makes 5 seconds seem like 10. That makes you rush – your writing gets sloppy, your straight lines get bent and your icons are unrecognizable. You can’t tell the best story if you don’t give it your best efforts. A sloppy whiteboard is worse than the most atrocious bullet-laden product-marketing slide you can ever imagine.

For more about whiteboarding visit the MTSWhiteBoard Page.

(The photo was taken of me giving a WB seminar in Beijing last year)