Selling with video

In the first two articles, we covered the framework of a great video and styles of video content.

Now we’re going to move into the video styles with the most significant impact on revenue and why.

We offer video production, and there’s one type of video that almost everybody comes to us asking for, and it’s called the about us video now.

It is funny because, while many businesses are asking for an about us video, this is not what we want as consumers. What we need to know and what we need to see as consumers is the information that helps us be more comfortable with the purchase we’re making.

Customers want honest, transparent content that speaks to our needs and wants.

Why would so many businesses think that they need an about us video? The answer is because that’s what everyone is doing on their websites. Selling with video is going to help separate you from all those companies.

We will create video content that speaks to the needs and worries and, following the fears of your consumers, will make a dramatic impact on revenue over the following seven videos.

We will break down each portion of the following seven videos and show you examples of what it looks like in action and all the tips and tricks you need to get started with this yourself. 

Let’s talk about the 80% video. Think about the most common questions you get on your first sales call. What percentage of those questions are the same every single time? The most common answer is? Eighty per cent of the questions are the same every time.

So our question is: if we know what those questions are, why should we wait until the first sales appointment to answer them? Why not make a video of them?

Let’s say how much does it cost to work with you? If you could answer that question in a video before that first sales appointment, what would the effect be on that call? 

Would it improve quality? Would the prospect have more trust in that salesperson?

So an eighty per cent video is taking those most common questions and addressing them all in individual videos but also handling them in one long video, which is the eighty per cent video. 

And this video is sent at the beginning of the relationship before that first sales appointment, and if done right, it will lead to shorter sales calls and a shorter sales cycle. 

It leads to more trust on the sales call and will ensure that your salespeople spend less time educating and more time doing what they should do when they are on a sales call.

Don’t be concerned with making this a concise video.

The goal and the purpose are to educate that prospect and to do that right. It is often going to take some time.

This 80% video will answer the most common questions, and at the end of the video, we ask them to please get in touch with us through our website.

When we send them to our website, they are still in the decision stage, they are very close to making a decision, and there’s one major thing that we, as consumers, are trying to figure out when we’re on pages like this. 

Is it a good fit for me? And for that reason, having good product and service page videos is very important.

It is about getting the six elements of a great product and service presentation right.

The first one is: what is it? What is the thing? What is the product? What is the service? 

Next, is it a good fit? In this stage of the video, you’re sincere and transparent and help them understand if they are a good fit or not; don’t be afraid of scaring someone away because they’re not a good fit. Ultimately, that’s a great thing.

You don’t want to waste your sales team’s time if they’re not an excellent fit for the product, and also, it’s going to make you look better to the people that are an ideal fit.

Next, we’ve got when I should buy it. Is there a specific time or thing I need to have in place? What will make the timing perfect for me to buy this?

Next is why I need it. What will it do for me now, or how will it solve my major problem, concern, or fear? 

Next, how much does it cost? This question is always going to come up. We can’t always specify precisely how much something will cost.

Lastly, we’ve got: how do I buy it? How do I buy this thing? Sometimes things are very quickly explained like you need to add this to your cart and check out. Other times there is a lengthy onboarding process.

If you get these six elements right, you will have a powerful product and service video on your website’s major product and service pages.

I’d reckon to start with the most popular or the best products you sell and work your way down.

Do you currently have these videos on your website, and how well are they converting? 

Did you optimise your landing pages? The problem with many landing pages is that many of us, especially with landing pages that ask for sensitive information, cause this emotion to bubble up inside us.

The fear of what will happen when I give this information?

We all had that experience of being spammed after we gave out our contact information, and it is this feeling we need to avoid at all costs.

Our task for the landing page video is very, very simple. 

It’s to ease the concern of those visitors that they’re not going to get spammed. It’s to communicate the value of what they’re going to download or what they’re going to get in exchange for their information, and this will ultimately increase the conversions we have on those pages.

A small trust-building video could be like this:

What’s up, guys Craig here with HiFi audio listen, we’ve all had that uncomfortable moment when it’s time to submit our contact information online, and we wonder, am I going to be flooded with spam emails? Am I going to receive a million phone calls from different folks trying to sell me something? Well, the answer is not in this case.

So what will happen when you submit this form? You will have opened a line of communication between you and a project about to launch, but you’ll receive one confirmation email informing you that we have received your form. You’ll receive a phone call within forty-eight hours to discuss with you when it’s the best time to move forward, so I invite you to fill out the form and hit the submit button to get a warm welcome from our team.

What do you notice about the way that Craig was able to talk about their offer? Did you see how he could ease the concern of somebody who might be concerned about sharing their information?

Two important things happened in this video that we should take note of the elephant in the room was called right out into the front. We’ve all had that moment where we’ve had to share our information, and we’re concerned about what will happen.

We call the elephant out in the middle of the room. Second, Craig was very clear about what would happen next.

The funny thing is that they didn’t change how they reached out or followed up with people.

They said this would happen when you fill this form out, and because of that level of transparency, they were able to increase the conversions on a crucial page, which is the request, a quote page.

All we need to do is ease those concerns. The best way to reduce that concern is to address it before it becomes one.

All you have to discuss is what will happen when somebody fills out that form, and by doing so, you’ll ease their concerns.

The same is the case with the first initial sales appointment: here’s the problem. We’ve all been in this situation before. We go to a store, and somebody walks up to us, and they say hey. Can I help you with anything? 

What’s our first reaction to that if you’re anything like me: it’s no fun! I’m just browsing. I’ll come to find you. If I need anything, the funny thing is.

We all react this way, and why? Because we’ve all been in a situation where we felt pressured, especially in a sales situation, we feel pressured.

Because we don’t want the seller to influence us, we automatically put this guard between the person selling to us.

For those who work in sales, it is our task to build as much trust as possible.

It is a home run if we can do that before they even meet us.

A great bio or an 80% video will include everything a prospect or customer should know about that person before they meet them, things like the philosophy they bring to their work.

What are the problems that they help their customers with? What are great case studies or stories that they have about what they’ve done in the past with customers? 

These things allow that prospect to see and learn and therefore know that team member before they work with them.

These little nuggets are also an excellent fit for email signatures.

Having these videos on your team page is also an excellent way for the customer to learn about the other team members and will be great if they need to transition to another team member. Ultimately, having this video in your arsenal will be one more tool to help prospects see, hear and know you beforehand.

Excellent service understands your client’s goals and objectives and can execute on those, so my job is to be able to do that and surpass their expectations.

Many claims are being made on your website right now. And how many claims are being thrown around in your industry? Major claims are made continuously in almost every industry.

Claims like:

• We’ve got the best people.
• We’ve got the best customer service.
• We’ve got the most innovative products in the market.

The problem arises when many industry companies are fighting over the same claim.

It doesn’t mean much to the buyer.

It becomes noise because so many people are saying it on their website and not showing it.

You might also be showing those major claims right now on your website.

You might think. I can’t think of a big claim we’re making on our website right now. If you take a look at your sales messaging and take a look at those key competitive differentiators that you talk about all the time, you’re going to find what your claims are.

How do we show this better than anybody else in our space? That might sound kind of difficult to do.

You might have an intangible thing like, let’s say, for instance, we’ve got the best, most experienced staff in the world, it’s hard to show experience besides having some certificate or something like that.

But actually, it’s straightforward to show experience.

How do they have so much experience? What have they done to become trained and educated? How many years have they been doing this? one thing you can always talk about is the factors that surround that claim you’re making, and therefore you are showing it, and consequently, you’re going to own that in your industry.

Let’s take a look at some claims:

• We believe that your challenges are our opportunities.
• We believe in going the extra mile the same day and shipping your order. We believe we save you time by helping you do what you do best.
• We believe in your continuous improvement.
• We will not let you down.

Another great way to own your claims is with reviews. We’re all pretty obsessed with reviews.

We all look for reviews when buying anything, any product or service. We’re often looking for great customer testimonials. Even if you’re on amazon, you’re, looking for a great product review or customer testimonial done by somebody who’s bought the thing we prefer to hear from other buyers.

But if we had the opportunity to pick, would we rather hear a bunch of nice things from a customer through a testimonial, or would we also like to see and therefore experience their journey of attaining that product, service, or solution? 

Many people would prefer the latter, and here’s why we identify with the customer journey.

We can see ourselves in that story and sometimes go, yeah.

You know what? That’s what I’m experiencing. That’s exactly how I’m feeling; therefore, we can relate to and identify with that experience.

If you look at the customer journey, it is very similar to the heroes if you’ve seen pretty much any Disney movie.

That is the hero’s journey.

It starts with some difficult hardship, something to overcome, and it goes on this journey of reclaiming one’s independence or freedom or generally ends up in a happy place.

The reason we love those is that we identify with them. We’ve all had hardship in our life, and that’s why we identify so much with Disney movies.

In the same way, when we can see somebody who’s going through what we’re going through, we can identify with that.

A great customer journey video will allow any prospect, any buyer, to see themselves in that other buyer, that other customer.

You can facilitate these stories through great storytelling and great interviews with your customers.

But ultimately, the goal is to tell the story well enough that somebody else could experience it the same way that that person did, so find your customers’ happiness and figure out their journey.

What story could we tell here and see if they’d be willing to have you interview them and share that story? 

These personal experiences are also great if they come up in the sales process.

Then there are the cost-related questions that we’ve got to answer, and this is our opportunity to do so with honesty, transparency and education and ultimately earn more revenue with more trust.

However, most businesses aren’t willing to discuss cost and price on their website. 

They’re afraid of the competition figuring out what they charge, are worried they might be too expensive and scare customers away, or the ultimate fear is that we can’t talk about it because it’s always different.

All three of those reasons don’t make any sense. They are excellent opportunities to use video content to educate our prospects on the cost factors.

A prospect is going to find out what they want to know and by you not taking that opportunity and being the first to thoroughly and honestly tell the whole story and build trust is a huge lost opportunity. You might think I need to get them on the phone to lure them into my pitch, but most prospects will leave your site and look for their information with your competitors.

Plus, once you get the prospecting’s attention and they give their email address, you can use the whole marketing arsenal to nurture them with all your marketing material, such as checklists, webinars, newsletters and follow-up calls.

You can offer your buyers something substantial and suggest what to do next.

The best thing to do next is to go and download this checklist that you could use while meeting with other contractors. Because of the strong call to action, they will have more leads generated from videos like this, leading to more revenue.

An excellent cost video will prove very valuable in the sales process. It will educate prospects on cost factors and, at the same time, educate and build trust.

I’m not saying you need to make a video. That’s all about your pricing model and how much it costs to work with you.

We’ve got to get good at talking about those factors, educating the marketplace on cost and being the true experts when it comes to cost within our industry.

Now, you may have been telling yourself, wow, this would be valuable, but this is like a lot of work to get all these videos made, and you’re not wrong.

It does take time, energy and work to get all these made, but I can assure you this: if you take the time and energy to get these made to do them right, they will pay off.

They will pay off in sales, revenue and trust, and if you’re wondering where you should get started, I recommend starting with your eighty per cent video.

You start with your product and service page videos.

You start with your cost videos, so your assignments after watching this are to get with your sales team.

You figure out what those eighty per cent questions come up on every first sales appointment, and how can we address those in a video before that for a sales appointment and radically improve the quality of those sales meetings? And if you do that, I can promise you this.

Those sales meetings and sales cycles are going to be shorter. And you’ll find that customers have more trust because you’re concernt with their journey.

Video will be much easier to implement once you’ve seen the fruits of something like the eighty per cent video.