In our first episode of ModMarkRadio, we sat down with Nathaniel Crocker, President of saleKEY, to discuss tools of the trade for sales professionals and which tools accomplish the most important part of any deal: telling the story.
With so many solutions on the market to help sales professionals communicate with and understand their customers, it’s easy to become overwhelmed or confused about the right fit for your selling style. This is a challenge we discussed with Nathaniel and he brought to light an obstacle that most seller solutions don’t take into account. He said, “The real challenge is that buyers today are so well-informed, so the question is how do we help them on their journey? And I find that the very best way to do that is by telling stories.”
You can have every analytics tool at your disposal with countless pieces of data and matching graphics and statistics, but it’s all for nothing if you cannot effectively and succinctly tell the story of your product to your customer.
Nathaniel proceeded to expand on his preferred method of storytelling: whiteboarding. Whiteboarding is a tactic that Nathaniel has been utilizing for much of his career in sales and he’s found it to be the “sharpest tool in his drawer.” The simplicity and immediacy of telling a story on a whiteboard in the room with his customers has proven to be very powerful.
If in a situation where new information from your customer is brought to light and is not accounted for in your prepared presentation, Nathaniel explained “When I get up to do my whiteboard, I still have 80% of my content that I’ve worked out and I’ve scripted, but then I can quickly incorporate that 20% of that new information in real time. So my whiteboard is fresh content that’s on the fly and I’m addressing exactly what it is they want. And it looks like I’ve just created the presentation right there on the spot.”
Listen to our full conversation with Nathaniel below to learn more about whiteboarding and why finding the right storytelling approach is still a top concern for any savvy sales professional.
