By Our stats show that people are not reading sales emails. They’re not picking up the phone. And plenty of buyers want to evade a conversation with a salesperson entirely.
And although written content goes a long way to engage prospects, video is another credible tool for salespeople to engage prospects, appear personable, and sell better.
If you’ve not been living under a rock over the last decade, you'll have seen the incredible rise of video to sell and market products and services. These days, 45% of people watch more than an hour of Facebook or YouTube videos a week. B2B buyers are no exception.
Salespeople can take full advantage of this engaging channel to reach their prospects and give them the resources they need to become a warmer prospect. Let’s take a look at 4 ways this can be achieved:
Use video in your outreach
The first one seems obvious, but using video recordings show that you’ve put time and effort into your outreach, instead of copy-pasting the same email spiel to your prospects.
One possible approach, for example, is to offer a tailored approach. We recommend using Loom, a simple Chrome extension that enables you to both record your screen and show your face in a quick recording. While speaking, you can browse through their website to show you’ve done your research, and demonstrate reasons why you think your product or service would be a good fit for the prospect.
Using your voice and face instead of hiding behind a wall of text can have surprising neuroscience-driven benefits, such as building familiarity and trust over time, otherwise known as the ‘familiarity principle.’ You can even reference this video in further communications later down the line.
Not only will video add a personal touch to your outreach, it also helps you to stand out in people's inboxes aside from other text-driven sales messages.
Make full use of your product videos
According to Google, 70 percent of B2B customers watch videos on their path to purchase.
That’s a hell of a lot, and potential prospects are definitely looking up your video content to see what you’re all about.
It's also worth keeping in mind that 4X as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.
Creating a promotional product video that features a short snapshot of what you’re all about and the services you offer will deliver your message with brevity and impact. It should capture the journey your prospect will go on with your company: the original pain point, the solution, the experience, and the larger vision of what your company is trying to build.
This kind of video can be used across social media, in your outreach emails as a ‘summary’ of your services, and on your website. The video should get them to seriously consider you as a vendor they can work with.
A great example is our sister brand, Katapult’s opener video:
Repurpose blog content into video
With Youtube ranked as the 2nd-highest search engine with over 3 billion searches a month, you best believe that if your competitors are trying to rank for the right keywords, they are winning new business through video.
To deliver value to new prospects, many salespeople are using their existing website content (including blog posts) to address a prospect’s pain points. However, sometimes a prospect is not going to read your 1,500 word blog, no matter how useful it is!
Instead, speak to your marketing team about the opportunity to turn blogs into video form, effectively summarising the key sections of the topic. This is an interesting way to experiment with video to help tackle your audience's pain points.
Use video case studies as social proof
After reviewing 34 million customer/content interactions online, senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, Frank V. Cespedes, discovered a B2B buyers' single biggest motivator: learning how others are using a product or service.
Using them in video form, however, is an even more engaging way for a salesperson to create social proof to engage the prospect. Sending it to a prospect, without obligation, is a way for the prospect to:
- Have something to share with senior decision-makers
- Give demonstrable proof of how your product or service is being used, and the benefits
- Convey emotion, which inspires decision-making
- Takes the salesperson out of the equation
Use these case study videos as a piece of sales collateral and see how it impacts your bottom line.
Video is just one way you can sell smarter...
Looking for ways to increase responses to your sales outreach? Try our guide to selling better and faster and start building your pipeline with insights and best practices today.
