Overview
Sales engineers commonly use PowerPoint presentations as a visual element in customer meetings. Unfortunately, PowerPoints are overused and often bore the audience! Too many words, too many slides, messing up is too easy. Slides are also static making a dynamic conversation hard. NSEC 2019's technical sales competition introduces a new white-boarding role-play offering an alternative to PowerPoints. Competitors will collaborate with their customer to design a high-level solution on a white board. Competitors must be able to listen carefully, speak clearly, and draw a clear, concise solution.
Understanding the Role-play
Competitors should exercise strong active listening skills during the whiteboarding role-play. This is a collaborative role-play and understanding what the customer needs remains the first priority.
Competitors should also use strong presentation skills while whiteboarding. Drawing, thinking, and listening is a lot of work, but these are not excuses for turning your back to the customer for long periods of time. Neglecting the customer for the whiteboard leaves the customer disengaged and eventually uninterested. Competitors should remember to speak clearly, ask engaging questions, and be genuine.
Finally, competitors should keep drawings simple. The role-play does not require a detailed description of the technical solution's implementation. The visuals should answer the customer's questions and no more. At most competitor's will be required to draw high level architecture diagrams.