“You need a playbook,” demanded Lauren Bailey, CEO, Factor 8. “You need a playbook.”
I knew she was right for multiple reasons. I’ve been in sales for more than 20 years and “playbooks” give sales people comfort. Playbooks help sales people to streamline and simplify the sales process based on what other people in our industry have learned after multiple attempts and many failures. Like a blueprint for an architect, the playbook gives sales people the exact recipe needed to do their job well and close deal. But the playbook Lauren was asking for…this one is different. This playbook needs to accomplish more than just process; it needs to make the sales person look good.
You have a face for radio.
We’ve all heard this saying before. Many of us live by it. Better behind the scenes than on the scene. Many Inside Sales Professionals chose their line of work specifically to communicate with leads from a remote location. But that’s changing. With video becoming a more mainstream format for communication, your likelihood of “showing up” or “putting a face to a name” is growing…daily.
As the VP of Sales for a video company, I’ve watched video consumption skyrocket in the past couple of years. I’ve watched video production quickly shift from in-studio with a Sony PMW-300 One XDCAM to in-Uber with an iPhone. But mostly importantly, I’ve witnessed first-hand an increase in sales revenue when video is added to the sale process. I hear it everyday.
Video is making me money.
I have a relatively small sales team responsible for selling a product that has a sales cycle of about 12 months. We sell software to learning professionals. We recently launched a video product for sales engagement. Both products are video-based. We developed the sales tool in part to accelerate our sales process aimed at the learning side of our business. We did this because we know that trends in learning and communication are heavy in video. We also know that humanizing products and services is the best way to sell and keep customers. Our sales team is now seeing increased open rates on email grow by 300% — simply by adding a video to the email. We are seeing 3 times the level of engagement from our prospects than before because our prospects are now able to put a face to the name. It also allows you to differentiate yourself and stand out from a sea of similar emails. These statistics and others have shorted our 12 month sales cycle by an average of 3 months allowing us to beat quarterly quotas and revenue targets.
No money is easy money.
Video is for some a favorite medium and for others — a sheer dread. We hear it all of the time. We’ve interviewed Bob Perkins, President and CEO of AA-ISP (The Global Inside Sales Professional Association) who says if you’re not using video, you’re not in the game. We’ve interviewed other executives who still struggle to get comfortable in a video production studio. I was in a meeting with a Sales Director and his team a few weeks ago. He looked around the room and said if video can get you a 2-3X better conversion rate can anyone here tell me that they are not going to use the tool? No one raised a hand. People are coming around and the bottom line is that if you are not comfortable with video today, reps are willing to push through their hesitation to use it because it helps them make more money. But the bottom-line is that video — mobile and web-based — is not going anywhere and only continues to prove out in sales engagements. And so….for the curtain call…
Crushing Quotes Play by Play.
I worked with my team as well as a team of sales and coaching experts to create a playbook to help salespeople sell more, faster while also helping to make them feel comfortable and confident on video. The plays that your sales people will want to master follow and in each case there are specific structures, attitudes and angles that your sales people will want to bring to the camera.
- Prospecting: How to Use Video to Connect with a Cold Prospect
- Marketing Qualified Leads: How to Use Video to Turn your Most Active Web Visitors into Clients
- Inbound Leads: How to Use Video to Turn Interest into Investment
- Demo Follow-Up: How to Use Video to Stay on Radar and Make the Demo Experience Shareable
- Account Management: How to Use Video to Show that a Real Person Cares About Client Success
For each play, we developed a list of tips and scripts but what we find to be most useful are the examples of other sales people who are using the playbook to create videos and posting them to our community. With each video, we have stories like “I got the demo!” or “He never answered my call before.” Or engagement stats and statements like “She shared my video with 17 people”, and “The VP watched my video 4 times!”
With video and analytics, a playbook and some creativity, I’ve not only seen increased revenue from my sales team; I’ve seen renewed spirit.
I get it. It’s new and it’s different and it’s hard to change behaviors. People are creatures of habit. But it’s too easy not to try and the intrinsic value it brings to your sales team and your prospects and clients. It humanizes the sales experience, allows for creativity, and allows your prospects to virtually meet you. So in the words of Steve Richards, Chief Revenue Officer of Execvision, I leave you with this, “I challenge you to try video. I know I will.”
Brad Layman is the VP of Sales for KZO Innovations (producer of KZO Drive) and thought leader on video sales communications.