In today's society, it’s the buyer who dictates what happens, not the salesperson. Did you know that
The age of video is now. 91% of marketers expect to see more noise and competition from video over the next 12 months than ever before. 51% say it's because it’s easier than ever to make videos. It's no different for sales teams. For you, it's all about being impactful in your intro videos, live demos and follow up videos to close more deals.
But how can you utilise video correctly? How can you use videos to build lasting connections faster and make it easier to communicate? Get the answers in this blog - just click on one of the sections to read more.
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Videos to use during the sales cycle
There’s an incredible amount of video types and focuses to use during the sales cycle. Here's a rundown of the videos you should use in your sales process to close deals faster.
Video outreach in emails
Email is a common method of communication for sales teams. However, it’s also common that emails aren’t opened, which can be a real nightmare. The good thing is video helps reduce this eventuality.
Did you know emails with subject lines that contain the word ‘video’ are 8x more likely to be opened? When you send videos, it’s a lot more personable than just an email and a lot more interesting than leaving a voicemail.
You can use video outreach in email but also Twitter messages and LinkedIn InMails - depending on what you include in your strategy and what your prospects are actively using.
Videos for follow-ups
Follow-up emails are important for people who may have missed your first email and adding videos to these is just as crucial.
While sales teams usually use email tracking to see just how many prospects have opened emails, they can also utilise video tracking tools to see just how many people have opened and watched your attached videos, like Vidyard.
This is brilliant for outreach as it shows you who's most likely to appreciate further follow-up contact. A savvy salesperson will check the video watch rates and even contact the halfway people to nudge them along.
Just remember to record the video you send, so the prospect always hears from the same person and can instantly build a relationship with you or someone from your team.
Personalised videos for account-based marketing
For those sales and marketing teams pursuing account-based marketing, including persona and account-based videos are the perfect accompaniment to a well-thought-out strategy.
As a sales rep, you can create personalised one-to-one videos that delve into the deep knowledge of customer wants and needs, adding extra je ne sais quoi to outreach.
This is the best way of staying in touch with repeat customers and clients, showing you're going above and beyond to build a connection to target high-value accounts.
Nailing that back-and-forth
More often than not, potential customers have a bunch of questions that are pretty important to answer effectively. Sometimes it can be a barrage of questions all given in the same email. On other occasions, it’s one-off questions that come in sporadically.
You can answer these questions in detail using video, ensuring the prospects get all the information they need without turning to someone else.
Video allows you to explain things a little more in-depth but more humanly, so answers are more easily understood. It’s also another chance for prospects or clients to become familiar with you.
If you find that prospects tend to ask similar questions, it's easy to film one video and send it out to save time, rather than always filming one from scratch covering the same thing.
Remember, they don't need to be well-produced. With the time and money you spend on hi-tech equipment and trying to make it Oscar-worthy, you're at the risk of losing prospects who want an answer quicker elsewhere. Make it clear, easy-to-understand and show you're human - that's how you build a connection faster to help shorten the sales cycle.
Micro-demos
Micro-demos are smaller demonstrations you can send to either accompany full demos you might have over conference calls, in person or combined.
To be honest, micro-demos are brilliant because they’re easily replayed, meaning if someone needs to go back to an explanation, they can.
Micro-demos are actually the perfect replacement for all those meetings or calls you keep scheduling, which take up your time and can annoy potential customers. Plus, because you’ve recorded them, you can send them to multiple prospects rather than having numerous calls to explain the same thing.
A five-minute video is always better than a 15-minute call that drags on to 30.
More evidence for proposals
It’s a common case for salespeople to send over a pricing document and get absolutely no response. However, video provides the remedy.
On a video, walk your prospect through what’s included in pricing and your proposal. You have a much better chance of explaining why what you’re offering is great value, rather than just sending a document full of numbers that can often confuse a prospect.
You can also use this video to explain any legal agreements that might come as part of the deal and cover any query you either know prospects tend to have or ease their concerns.
Quality and quantity
What’s better than a poorly-made video? A well-made video. What’s better than one well-made video? Many well-made videos. It’s simple.
Now, we’re not talking about Hollywood, Oscar-worthy quality - just good quality resolution, editing and sound quality. These kinds of things are easier than ever to do and really don’t have to break the bank. Even hiring video enablement services can be done with competitive prices.
Similarly, creating video content isn’t about the one, 20 minute-long documentary. It’s actually better to create a whole range of videos that are maybe only a minute long - videos you can add to your library and send to prospects with ease without constantly hitting record and filming a video you've recorded 20 times in the past.
This is an effective method. It draws people in faster and can help you close deals quicker too.
A key point to note here, however, is that not all videos need to be Oscar-worthy, but you need to choose which videos you’ll produce with higher quality and which don’t need it.
Videos you send to add to emails, destined for the inboxes of either internal or external stakeholders, don’t need that Hollywood treatment. Using tools such as Vidyard, you can add video to emails, documents and other files to explain them better.
For partners or clients, this goes a long way in creating a more human approach to communication. No longer are you just names and thumbnails added to emails, you're voices, faces, accents and expressions.
Plus, receiving a video like this is still a novelty to some people. It’s not a cold sales call. It’s personable and helps build a connection, meaning the time it takes to build that trust and close that deal is greatly reduced.
Measure your success
In the sales cycle, data is key. Data is what tells you whether your videos have been successful or not. It can tell you what you're doing right and, more importantly, what you're doing wrong.
Many video platforms allow you to gain access to insightful data so you can learn about your audience. With Vidyard, for example, you can see analytics, such as who's watching your videos, which videos perform the best, the watch and drop-off times and how many viewers are progressing through your ‘engagement funnel’.
This lets you decide what your prospects engage with, what resonates with them, which prospects are the most promising to pursue as leads, who isn't worth chasing up and who in your team is doing it effectively.
By having this data, you can close sales deals faster as you know who to target and when - eliminating all of the guesswork.
To cut a long story short, the more metrics you can track, the better you can deduce just what works and what doesn’t. Seen as how video is a highly engaging form of content, you’ll get valuable insights every day.
All of these tips will help you use video to the best of your abilities, creating connections faster with engaging content and vastly reducing that all-important sales journey.
We understand video isn’t some undiscovered country as so many people can do it now due to the accessibility of video capture and editing tools.
However, this doesn’t guarantee it’ll be used, as it still requires a good amount of skill, experience and technical know-how, especially with the higher quality video creation. Making videos is one thing but doing it effectively to close sales deals faster is a whole different ball game.
This is where we can help.
Ensuring you’re fully enabled for video success
Video enablement is a key service for those looking to capitalise on the benefits of video without the need for constant head-scratching, questions about where video should be used or technical problems.
Video is hard to get right the first time around, so we’re here to offer the skills and experience needed to provide you with the insights and experience necessary to hit the ground running with video.
If you’d like to learn more about video enablement, click the button below right now to transform your sales process for the better.
