For the past couple of years, video content has been an increasing and integral part of marketing strategies. Not surprising when you consider a person spends, on average, 19 hours per week consuming videos online.
But what about video selling?
More and more sales teams are using videos throughout their sales process, from outbound sequences in emails or LinkedIn messages to actual proposals.
- Why is video in sales important
- Benefits of video selling
- When to use a video in your sales process
- How to use videos in sales
- How to improve video click through
- The best video selling tools
- Example of video selling
Why is video in sales important?
To create a sale, there must be a challenge that you can solve. A common sales tip is to focus on the customer’s pains. The sale is not about you and your product, but about the challenge your customer faces.
The same is true when linking video content to your sales process. It's not about you, but about your customer. Your customer will more likely engage with a personal and authentic video that quickly conveys the information they are looking for.
Many salespeople use video in their sales process to increase engagement, build relationships and meet their customer’s needs.
According to a study by Sales Research Labs, 77% of sales leaders find the use of video in the sales process important or highly important.
Although a strong amount of sales leaders highlight the importance of video, our own data at GetAccept shows that only 10% of customers currently use video in their sales process.
When they do use it, they see real impact: adding engaging communication channels like video increase the hit rate by 30.4%.
Benefits of video selling
- Shorten the sales cycle
Most busy professionals don’t take time to read a lengthy message or sales proposal, but they will take a few minutes out of their day to watch a quick video introduction or a walk-through that summarizes the highlights of your proposal.
They can quickly forward it to other decision makers, and after just a few minutes, everyone is on the same page.
- Build trust & enhance relationship
Today, as salespeople, we mostly use emails, phone calls or screen sharing, rather than meeting our customers in person. A personalized video helps you build an instant connection and trust with your customer from the get-go.
- Cut through the noise
Most executives receive more than 100 emails, and similar amount of social media messages every day. Especially as an introduction message, video can put you in front of the competition.
- Convey your message precisely
Unlike text messages, prospects can simply click the play button and hear exactly the message you want to convey. And points don’t get lost in translation because you can add extra details and visuals.
- Have better response rate
Your potential customers will be positively surprised and instantly appreciate the extra time & effort you have put into preparing the video. And this will significantly improve your response rate.
When to use a video in your sales process
- Prospecting
Use a video from your very first cold outreach, be it on social media or via email.
This creates a way to differentiate yourself, stand out, and showcase your personality.
Even if the prospect doesn't reply to the video message, they are more likely to remember you in your next follow up.
- After the phone call
You just talked to a prospect. It went well, they seemed interested, but they wanted to see some material from you.
No problem! You just send your sales collateral and link a short video to the document.
A short 1-2 min intro video makes you stand out from the crowd.
Your prospect most likely receives a ton of emails and sales presentations daily.
With a short video, you stand out from the crowd. It is more manageable to watch a short 1-2 min video that tells the essence of the material than to read through 10 (sorry) boring pages.
Briefly, introduce yourself along with a summary of the conversation you just had on the phone. Repeat your business values and customize the message with an insight from the conversation.
- Before the meeting
Finally, you got that meeting in the calendar. The meeting is in the future. Let’s say in a week. The day before the meeting, you will send the agenda together with a short video.
Why? Until now, you have just been a voice on the phone or a calendar link from a signup form on the website. A personal video with the agenda makes it more personal and creates a higher commitment because the prospect can see that there is a human behind it.
Furthermore, you start building a relationship even before you have the meeting.
A short video before the meeting creates excitement and reduces the likelihood of a no-show.
It's psychological. You show your prospect interest and commitment. At the same time, you remind the prospect of what the meeting will be about and why they accepted or requested the meeting.
- After the meeting
The meeting is done - it went well! Now it's about keeping momentum.
Send a summary after the meeting with a short video that highlights the key takeaways and the next steps for both parties in the process.
A short 1-2 min video that briefly explains the prospect’s biggest pains, your solution, and the value it will add to their business, as well as the next steps.
It shows the customer that you listen, understand, and acknowledge their challenge, which builds trust. It also makes it easier for the prospect to sell the idea internally and involve more stakeholders.
We are all busy today, and most of us don’t prioritize looking through long documents.
However, people don’t mind spending 1-2 minutes watching a short video. With a short video, you make it easy for your prospect to sell the idea internally.
- In the proposal
The sales process is moving forward - they are interested and want to see an offer from you. Yes! Time to submit a quote. But wait … Let's just be completely honest for a moment and ask.
When was the last time you carefully read a text-heavy proposal to the end?
I’ll admit, my patience is short.
The same, probably, applies to your prospect too.
Most people simply do not have the time to carefully read through all 20-pages to understand your suggestion of a solution to their problem.
Do your prospect a favor and submit your offer together with a short video that explains and summarizes the key message and most important parts of your proposal. A short video makes it easy for the recipient to understand your offer.
Again, very few people have time to closely study all pages, but most don’t mind spending 1-2 mins getting it explained in a video.
Additionally, it is easier for the prospect to forward the offer to other stakeholders and quickly get everyone on the same page.
Furthermore, you cannot expect your prospect to read your entire text-heavy offer to derive your solution to their problem. Make it easy to ingest with a short video explaining your proposal.
In the video, you can explain some of the ideas that you discussed with your team when preparing the offer or explain how you came up with this and why you believe this is the right solution for them.
How to use videos in sales
There are a couple of important rules to follow when creating sales videos:
- Personalize the video
Don't make one generic video and use it for mass send outs. You will create more impact if the content in the sales video is personalized to the prospect.
- Add a clear call to action
A video is great to grab attention, so maximize that moment by informing your prospect of a clear next step.
Is it to click on a link to book a meeting? Or pay close attention to a specific section of the proposal?
Let them know.
- Give value
Simply adding a video to your outreach won't change your prospect's interest in going further along the deal cycle with you.
A video will be more memorable, both in the good and the bad. So make sure you add valuable and relevant content.
- Be natural
Don't read off a script. Try to be yourself and don't fret about it being "perfect".
Flawed and natural always beats perfect and robotic.
- Other things to keep in mind
Less important but other factors that can influence the success of your video are visual appearance, speech clarity, energy, and the use of captivating backgrounds. By incorporating green screen backgrounds, you can transport your viewers to different settings and create a more dynamic visual experience.
How to improve video click through
Again, you should always have a purpose behind the video. But for the recipient of your video content to actually see it, here are a few things to consider in order to ensure they click and watch the video.
- Thumbnails
Logically, before the video even starts playing, the first “visual” a recipient will see is the thumbnail. It’s a detail that so often and easily gets overlooked but has such a high influence on click-throughs that you want to make sure it becomes a routine part of your video creation process.
Check thumbify if you are interested in creating a highly personalized thumbnail that includes your recipient’s picture, company logo, and website to really grab attention?
- Personalized CTAs
From a marketing perspective, we know the importance of CTA’s (call to action); the same can be applied to sales videos.
If you want to capture traffic to the video, make sure to personalize the CTA with the recipient’s first name and if possible, company name. After all, isn’t that what sales engagement tools in the 21st century are all about: humanizing digital channels?
Also noteworthy: where in the email/text do you ACTUALLY place the video block or link?
- To the point
Time is money! Sales reps know this.
And your prospects know this as well, as they probably spend their time going from zoom meetings with your sales reps to zoom meetings with your competitors’ sales reps.
So until you can provide them with a time machine, why not provide them with insights on how long your video will be before they click on it? The research findings: the shorter, the better.
- And smile!
Interestingly - whether or not someone presents happily with a smile was also seen as extremely important. Say cheese!
The best video selling tools
There are a lot of online tools and platforms that allow a sales rep to record a video. It’s important for you to think about which one will best fit your business. Keep these thoughts in mind:
- The tool’s ease of use for both the buyer and seller
- How will the video be shared/transferred
- What kind of analytics does the tool offer (if any) on the video (clicks, views, etc…)
Top tools for video in sales
- Loom / Vidyard
Perfect for prospecting, these tools allow you to record your screen and add a personal touch to your content.
- Chorus / Salesloft
Sometimes using a clip from a call recording can be a good enough reminder to your prospect on why they should continue the discussion with you.
Or maybe one of the stakeholders couldn't make the demo?
- Videoask
This tool allows you to exchange communication by video (or text). You can record a video question and send it to your prospect, who can then choose to respond to you by text ... or video.
- GetAccept
If you are already engaged with a prospect and want to centralize all communication, then a digital sales room may be what you want.
You will be able to add a video introduction that pop up when your prospect opens your sales content, embed videos throughout the document to share case studies or how to videos (or whatever you like) and customize links and CTA's.
Example of video selling
Here's an example of a video from our colleague Jason, sent to two prospects as a follow up to a meeting.
