Thinking of Using Videos in your Next Sales Outreach?

We recently had Tyler Lessard, V.P. of Marketing at Vidyard join us in an episode of The SalesStar Podcast where Tyler spoke about his journey as a B2B/Tech marketer while also sharing interesting ways for Sales reps and sales leaders to optimize their use of videos.

Catch the complete episode with Tyler!

Key Takeaways from the Conversation:

1- The Power of Video helps Humanize Messages

The power of video is a better way to connect with audiences to humanize their messaging and their content, and to ultimately build better relationships with prospects and customers. Most importantly, video helps do this in ways that are simple, easy, integrated and help break down the barriers that have existed previously in communicating the right message creatively!

2- Innovations in Martech and SalesTech Demand that Teams Find Better Ways to Cut Through The Noise

The reality is that the world of marketing and the world of sales keeps changing so frequently. This rapid pace of evolution in martech and sales tech is driving a change for the consumers as well as the marketers and sellers because these days marketing tech has made it easier for companies to automate communications and messaging at scale.

But it’s also been a victim of its own success, prospects are bombarded with dozens if not hundreds of messages every day from different vendors and a lot of that is because it’s become so easy.

This makes it hard for any one vendor or any one individual to really stand out these days, whether it’s in their inbox or on the web or in your content or with targeted account programs. So there is that fundamental issue of how do we stand out from the noise.

That’s why, Sales and Marketing should be asking themselves questions like;

How do we look and feel and truly be unique in the market
How do we get our prospects and customers to want to pay attention to us and to want to engage with us and to actually want that relationship in a world where sales is not necessarily selling face to face or via phone calls
How do we use technology to our advantage
How could we personalize our message
How can we earn trust with these peopleThe answer – Video is actually a really great way to do that!

The truth is that it’s becoming more important to show the personality and the human side in sales and marketing. We’re seeing a swing back to that idea of the personal and human nature of what we do.

Standing out from the crowd and being more interesting is becoming incredibly important. This is going to be a big part of what we see in the year or two ahead.

This is what will increase the chance of getting a response and breaking through the noise.

3- Video is GREAT for Technology Sales Teams

When you’re sending e-mails or phone calls you can’t really show and tell. With video you can pull up a screen share and you can show somebody exactly what you’re talking about or you can use some creative props or interesting things to get their attention in ways that you just can’t with other mediums.

Here’s what the business development team at a company called Uber flip does. Their secret sauce is – they’ll record a video where they do a screen recording on their prospect’s website and they also have their webcam turned on in the corner, so you can see the person’s face but you also see your company’s website in this video and they actually walk through some things on your website and explain how they could help you do those things better.

The reason that works well – when they send that video over to that prospect they see right away in that thumbnail image (that nice big thumbnail!) with the play button, a screen capture of their own website and they go, “Oh that’s my website and there’s a person talking about it..” and this is very relatable for them. This isn’t a template or e-mail. That feeling goes a long way in justifying the use of visuals to make it clear that as a salesperson, you have something relevant to talk about.

Here’s another example: We run an awards program for people using video in sales, one of our winners was a gentleman from Dynamic Signal and he was prospecting to one of his target accounts – Buffalo Wild Wings (a restaurant chain). So what Frankie (the gentleman) did is- he had emailed and left phone messages, but couldn’t get through. And so he took it upon himself to actually go to a local Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant and he bought the hottest wings that they have. He bought these and he took them back to the office and in front of his webcam hit record and he said, “Hey friends of Buffalo Wild Wings. You know we’re really trying to get your attention and I’m hoping this does it. I’m going to tell you what we do while I’m eating your blaze and wings…” while he does this, you can see him on camera taking a bite out of these crazy hot wings and he starts crying a little bit…because its so hot. But he keeps delivering his pitch. And by the end of it, he’s delivered his pitch while eating these incredibly spicy hot wings. All the people in his office stand up and give him an applause and he sends that video off and not only did he get a response very quickly and actually booked the meeting but that video got shared and viewed more than 100 times to other people within that company. It was so personal, fun and interesting! And it was really a great way to break through the noise!

So it’s just another example of what you couldn’t do with text or with phone calls but with video you can, you can put yourself out there and do something creative.

4– A Few Tips to Get It Right

- The first thing which is really important is keeping it simple because if it takes you over five minutes to record the video and upload it, put it onto YouTube or something similar…it’s just not going to be effective for you and it will be too time consuming and difficult. You’re going to give up after doing two or three of them. You need to find a way to make it simple, easy and a natural part of your usual workflow.
- There’s one simple button you click it that says would you like to record. You start recording and as soon as your video is done you hit stop and the video is immediately available for you to share. Aim for a seamless process such as this. You don’t have to upload it or anything. One click on the thumbnail image is dropped into your e-mail and you send it off. So step one there and my tip number one is make sure you find a way to do it. That’s simple easy and natural. So that it doesn’t become a big burden on you. Tools like Vidyard (well, of course) and others out there will help you do that.
- Your first video is always going to be your worst video and your last video is probably going to be your best video. This is to say – keep at it. It’s just like cold calling, the first cold call you made was probably your worst one. It must have been nerve-wracking and very challenging, but practice makes perfect. Stick with it. Keep doing it!
- I also encourage people to not only record videos and send them to customers but also use it internally. Use it with peers, use it with families, wish people happy birthdays, things like that…just as a way to continue to keep yourself hitting that record button. This helps you get more natural on camera because I really think this is a skill you’re going to need in the future, regardless! So the more natural and comfortable you can get with it, the better! Just like cold calling and anything else, practice makes perfect.
- Next, its important to be natural and be yourself! And I think this is hugely important because if you hit the record button and you’re suddenly trying to be very formal and you’re reading a script or something, it doesn’t really work. Part of it is getting the confidence and doing it again and again, make it part of your cadence.
- Think about how to use visuals to your advantage because one of the great things about video is it can not only help you put your personality out there, but it can help you show and tell. We see a lot of people using a trick where they’ll have a little whiteboard, a little sort of hand-held whiteboard with a marker at their desk where they can quickly write a custom message and hold it up in the video so that the person when they’re watching it (particularly the thumbnail image of the video) has that message on it.

5– Educate Your Prospects with Video!

As you move through the buying cycle with the customer and whether it’s video or other content, make sure that you’re focusing on educating, educating, educating! I think many of us as sales reps understand that. But I don’t think enough sales people do it well. Everybody is trying to sell and not necessarily trying to help and trying to educate and trying to earn trust. So whether it’s your initial outreach or whether you’ve got their attention and you’re now trying to move them through the deal cycle, always focus on helping to educate them, earning their trust because the more that they trust that you’re in it for them and that you’re helping them learn the right ideas and succeed, the better off you’re going to be.