Ever found yourself writing and rewriting the same email over and over again?
To get around this at BabelQuest, we use a video-first approach, leveraging a very specific sales enablement tactic to enhance our sales outreach and make the whole process that much easier.
Let’s face it, the moment a prospect associates your email with a sales pitch, it’s headed to the Bin. Just imagine how much more engaging and attention-grabbing a video with a fun GIF prompting you to press ‘play’ is.
"Sales, marketing, and service software HubSpot reports that reps using video in prospecting, relationship-building, and sales emails see 5x higher open rates and 8x higher open-to-reply rates."
Our own data reveals that text-based emails have diminishing returns with a 20% open rate, while video-based emails have a 90% open rate. But it’s not enough to tell your team to shoot more (any!) video and cross your fingers.
The use of video in the sales process
For buy-in, you need to help your team to understand why they should change, to what solution and how. This is the ‘three-sale’ approach and you can use it to help all your salespeople smash their targets by becoming video-first.
This December, we’ll be presenting a joint webinar with Vidyard to explain first-hand how you can use this three-sale framework to adopt video internally, not just for your outreach but across the whole sales process.
In the meantime, find out all about the three-sale approach and how adopting a video-first approach could transform your sales team.
The 'three-sale' sales enablement tactic explained
1. Why change?
The big question here is “why should you change your current sales process and adopt video?”
For starters, video’s capabilities extend well beyond initial outreach. Let’s say you’ve just had a meeting with someone. As you exit their offices, you could immediately send them a video summary, shot right outside the building. As follow-ups go, this guarantees that you’ll have made an impression and they’ll remember your personality and creativity.
Videos are also inherently more engaging than text-based emails. Your contacts likely receive hundreds of traditional emails every week. The prospect of reading through all of those? Not so inviting. Give them the opportunity to watch a video, however, and many people will automatically move to click ‘play’. In today’s digital world, we’re hardwired for it.
Video is clear and unambiguous. Unless you’re a skilled writer, it can be difficult to master the tone of a written email. Text-based emails can even be misinterpreted. What they don’t offer is the pitch, pace, pause, personality and tonality that you get from a video message.
Video is also more personal. It offers you a chance to show your prospects that you’re thinking of them and taking the time to send a well-thought-out video just for them. There’s a face-fo-face element of video that text-based emails just can’t achieve. The benefits of this can’t be overstated, with some sales reps reporting that it actually changes the way a prospect interacts with you when you speak to them for the first time.
“When you speak to someone for the first time after they’ve watched your video, they act like they already know you. That’s a total game-changer.” Scott Daly, Business Development Manager, LAN3
The reality today is that more and more businesses are already switching to video as a way to elevate their sales activity. Not only does it increase your productivity, outreach and engagement with prospects, but it’s quickly becoming a must-have if you want to stand out from the crowd and remain competitive.
2. To what solution?
We’re not suggesting you overhaul your sales process overnight. Adopting video into your sales activity will need testing and iteration to find the right solution for your business. We’ll dig into all of this on the webinar, including the different types and versions of Vidyard available and how it all works with the HubSpot integration, so you can identify the best fit.
When rolling out this new approach, you may initially meet some resistance from your team. Aside from the fact that you’re encouraging your salespeople to work differently, some people just don’t like filming themselves. Popular excuses can include the following:
- “We don’t have time for video, we’re too busy selling.”
- “It will take far too long.”
- “Wait, I thought we didn’t have any budget?”
- “Only actors can be on camera.”
- “Our industry doesn’t do video.”
- “But what should I say?”
- “I’ve got other things to do.”
- “Well my clients won’t watch it.”
- “It’s not on-brand.”
- “It wouldn’t match our professional look.”
(Here are five of the most common video objections we encounter—and how to overcome them.)
The list goes on. Across your team, you’re going to have salespeople who aren’t comfortable with using video, and you’ll have others who take to it like a fish to water. Being resistant to change is natural; the trick is to find a way to overcome these challenges to get them on board and comfortable using it. Building up some buzz and competition around it is a great place to start.
Get people excited about using video
Video opens up a world of possibilities. Help your salespeople to see this! All those things that frustrate them about traditional sales outreach? Show them how video can help!
- If they send out 1,000 emails, they might only get one reply, but if they send out 50 videos, 44 of their target prospects could watch and engage with their recording.
- When they use the Vidyard HubSpot integration, they’ll receive constant feedback.
- They can monitor when people click and watch their video in real-time.
- And when a prospect watches a video until the end, they’ll receive an email from Vidyard saying “Well done! X watched your whole video!” Suddenly, all your salespeople know exactly when a prospect is “warm”, engaged and ready to talk.
3. How and with whom
So how exactly do you overcome these challenges and get people excited about using video in their sales process? The buck starts with you.
You need to consider how you’re going to motivate your team and bring about this change. Getting external help (did we mention we’re running a webinar?) is a great first step for getting a proper introduction to using video. Not everyone is going to perfect it right off the bat, which is why you need to create a defined process using Vidyard and HubSpot.
The use cases for video in sales (never mind the rest of your business) are many, but it has to be done right for it to have an impact. For instance, if you send someone a video with your face glued to the camera, how would the prospect feel? This is the equivalent of someone talking too close to your face; think of how you’d react. Follow video best practices and start off on the right foot.
Ensure buy-in with a sales video boot camp
One of the best ways to implement new technology is through a focused and specific campaign. Guidelines are important to make the transition as smooth and frictionless as possible. Running a six-week boot camp is a great way to deliver this.
- Each week should revolve around a particular theme. For instance, the first week should be about getting comfortable with filming videos and learning to be yourself in front of the camera. Your team can record and send videos amongst each other and gather feedback to help build a solid structure.
- The first week will give the sales team a chance to talk about lighting, sound and understand exactly what to say. It’s the perfect time to start with the basics. One activity they can do is the 100-video challenge. The goal is to do as many videos as possible until they warm up to the concept.
- At the end of the week, review the results as a team and use these to inform the next stage of the boot camp. Maybe one of your salespeople had enormous success with their videos? This is the perfect opportunity to work out how he or she got there. Did this person have any good techniques that can be shared across the team?
Once the salespeople see the positive results and feedback from prospects, you’d better believe they’ll feel more motivated to permanently adopt video into their sales process.
For more sales enablement tactics, join the webinar
If you’re considering adopting video as part of your sales outreach process, then this webinar is a great place to start.
Register free here (or access the recording) and we’ll show you everything you need to make the three-sale approach work for your business.
