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It’s easy to become discouraged and frustrated when your prospecting videos aren’t getting watched.
You felt like you crafted the perfect personal message, rehearsed it to satisfaction, took care to look presentable, and carved out time in your schedule to record — only to find it remains unclicked with zero views. You might be tempted to abandon the process altogether — it’s easy to feel like the effort required to make videos isn’t worth it, or even worse, is a waste of time. But it’s important to not judge by a few isolated incidents, or stop before acquiring enough data points. It could be that your video came at a bad time for your prospect, when she’s preoccupied with an all-consuming project or a difficult personal situation — one where any kind of interruption is unwelcome. In that case, you could have sent a masterpiece and it would still be ignored. Don’t take such dodging personally if it only happens a few times — and don’t write off video as an outreach strategy. Doing so will only hurt your overall results and stall your progress toward reaching goals. However, if you find that your videos are consistently being overlooked, it’s time to examine your process and make some changes. Video selling pro Daniel Crouch says avoid these two common mistakes that make it less likely for your videos to stand out. #1 - Sending the video by itself. If you’re copying and pasting your video link or GIF into an email with no explanation in the body, you’re not giving your prospect a reason to watch it. While the mystery of a standalone GIF image might be enough to intrigue some prospects to click (particularly if they already know you), for others it just appears random and confusing. Standalone links are even worse — if prospects receive a link without context (even if they already know you) they automatically become wary and suspect spam. #2 - Burying the video at the end of a long email. While no context can be off-putting to prospects, too much can have the same effect. If you write a long, multi-paragraph email and stick your video at the end, you can’t assume that your prospect will make it far enough through the email to even notice it. Taking the Goldilocks approach to writing introductions — sticking with a few short sentences only —makes your level of context “just right” and increases the chances your prospect will click on the video. Instead of making those common errors, follow these steps for better video view results: #3 - Include a short subject line. Using some combination of your prospect’s name and the word “video” is an effective strategy — it can be as simple as “Kelli’s video” or “Video for Patel.” #4 - Use a personalized, “anti-spam” first sentence. Communicate right away that you’re not a bot so your prospect understands this just from the email preview. Mention something specific that you’ve learned about your prospect from researching their online presence or social channels, whether it’s work-related or not. Good examples might be, “I saw you run a dodgeball league” or, “Is this you singing on YouTube?” #5 - Transition to Ask. Segue from your personal icebreaker into your business request. Daniel accomplished this by asking for a meeting with his prospect about a different topic than the one he mentioned in his icebreaker. #6 - Invoke Curiosity. Pique your subject’s interest to learn more about you and what you have to offer by seeing you personally. Invite them to click your video and mention the short length (should be 60 seconds or less) to further entice them with a minimal time commitment.
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Perhaps the most frustrating and unexpected consequence of digital communication is the phenomenon known as ghosting. It’s not a phenomenon in the traditional sense of the word – no supernatural agent is at work, but the act still leads to mystery and leaves many questions annoyingly unanswered. Ghosting is when someone you’ve been in regular contact with for some length of time — typically a few weeks or months — suddenly stops all communication with you without warning and becomes unreachable. Calls, emails, and texts remain unanswered and every subsequent attempt to engage that person is unsuccessful. While once considered unthinkably rude or downright alarming, ghosting has infiltrated our social and business culture — now, it’s not uncommon to be ghosted by a prospect, a romantic interest, or even an employee. USA Today reports that many businesses say 20-50% of job applicants and workers have pulled the disappearing act on them. Since faceless and voiceless text-based communication has become the new norm, are certain social etiquette standards and expectations of common courtesy changing? The Psychology of Ghosting Just like the phantasm it’s named for, ghosting dehumanizes the recipient. As Dr. Jennice Vilhauer writes for Psychology Today, “People who ghost are primarily focused on avoiding their own discomfort, and they aren’t thinking about how it makes the other person feel.” Vilhauer, a psychotherapy program director at Emory University, also says that ghosting is more frequent among people who meet digitally due to their lack of mutual social connections. In other words, if someone behaved like an inconsiderate jerk to you in the past, they most likely belonged to a shared social, neighborhood or business network — and you could quickly tarnish their reputation within it. Without such an incentive to be on better behavior though, many people prefer to spare themselves the brief discomfort of an unpleasant conversation than provide the closure or explanation their associate needs. It’s confusing and hurtful when a ghoster is a friend or dating partner, but at least the effects of their Houdini act don’t threaten their victim’s paycheck or professional success. When it’s a promising prospect however, sales executives can feel like their productivity takes a major hit, and that weeks of hard work and resources are irrecoverably lost. The hardest part about being ghosted is dealing with its ambiguity — if a prospect hasn’t directly communicated disinterest, the salesperson can still reasonably assume that they might reengage at some point and that other priorities are simply dominating their time. How to Breathe Life into Business Ghosts Thankfully there are a few ways you can help prevent ghosts from haunting your professional life, and in some cases even bring them back from the dead. Since ghosting is a hallmark of impersonal communication, you’ll want to bring humanity back into your business relationships as much as technology allows with the following approaches: #1 - Introduce yourself with video. Using video as an outreach or prospecting tool establishes you as a real person from the beginning of your interaction with buyers. Shooting them a quick video message before or after they start engaging with you lets prospects meet you as a human instead of a faceless voice on the other end of a computer or phone. Sending a simple “I’m the one who’s been emailing you” video or an “I look forward to speaking with you” video before your first conversation can go a long way in endearing yourself to prospects personally, and setting you apart from the countless other digital relationships they maintain daily. Giving buyers a taste of your natural personality, spunk and mannerisms in virtual form makes you more interesting and desirable to work with in real life. #2 - Address ghosters personally with video. If you suspect you’ve been flat-out ghosted by a prospect, sending video has an impressive track record of resuscitating the relationship. Even if the two of you haven’t talked in months, reaching out with a video message reminds the prospect of your humanity and can stir up feelings of guilt or embarrassment for ignoring you. In fact, it’s not uncommon for prospects that have been dodging sales reps for six months or more to respond the same day after receiving a video message — after all, it’s a lot harder to ignore someone’s face than to leave an email or call unreturned. Even if you’ve never used video to reach out before and have only spoken via phone or email, sending video is still a smart strategy and often more effective for its element of surprise. Suddenly your prospect can put a face to your name and empathize with you in a way they couldn’t before — you’ve shifted your image from a distraction in their digital space to a human being doing your job, just like they are. Also, prospects recognize the extra effort, commitment and vulnerability it takes to go on camera and record a personal video (rather than fire off a quick email or text) and often reward it accordingly. Like stale candy corn and cringeworthy costumes, ghosts are only acceptable at Halloween – but next time you encounter one in your personal or professional life, just remember that they’re forgivably human too. A Resource for Creating Deals Gone Dark Videos:
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Make Sales Personal Again With Video4/5/2021 Buyers simply don’t trust brands anymore. Long gone are the days when consumers sat at the television set or flipped through magazine ads just to learn about products, unquestioningly absorbing the language and images projected. In the not too distant past, brands used to successfully position themselves as experts. For example, when Listerine coined the term “halitosis” in the 1920s, they convinced consumers to gargle more often – and sales skyrocketed a result. However, after being fed too many empty sound bites and false promises, buyers became wiser and began to think skeptically about the messages they were constantly spoon-fed. Now it’s commonly understood that advertisements can’t be taken at face value, and that they place the brand’s bottom line over the customer’s best interest. We live in an era where social media reigns supreme and influencers are paid generously by companies to appear to give genuine personal recommendations. With product reviews available at every online checkout, brands can no longer hide poor-quality products and services behind the allure of catchy slogans and creative marketing campaigns. Customers are in search of truth, which they only believe can be found through direct word of mouth — either in person or on social media. Restoring buyers’ trust in the sales process is critical to shortening deal cycles and prospecting effectively in an endless sea of digital outreach. Although buyers may not trust your brand as an overall entity, they are more apt to trust your employees as individuals — if they feel that your employees are speaking on their own behalf and sharing information that aligns with their own values. The Case for Employee Control Whether they’re prospecting through direct email or social selling, employees should present themselves as authentic humans and not heavily-monitored company representatives. Their message should seem fresh and personal, not filtered by multiple layers of authority and approval (even if some oversight has been realistically applied.) Delivery and presentation of the message is key here, and employees should feel connected to what they’re saying. Requiring them to regurgitate canned marketing speak they don’t understand — or that doesn’t resonate with them on a deeper level — sacrifices the authenticity they need to actually connect with customers, in somewhat of a control paradox. When companies rob employees of their own unique voices, they also rob prospects of the opportunity to learn about them as people and trust their messages as personal recommendations, akin to a social media influencer or friend. The latter goes a long way in speeding up the sales process, in contrast to mandating the use of filtered corporate-speak. When messaging is touched by too many hands, it becomes stale, perfect and sanitized — reminiscent of the “brand voices” that the public has learned to distrust after decades of being misled (if not downright deceived.) Finding a Fresh Voice Through Video Employee-generated video is one of the most effective ways to bridge this gap. When consumers see video on LinkedIn or Twitter that appears produced by employee instead of by the company itself, they’re more likely to regard it with interest and welcome it with a less suspicious lens. Suddenly your employee assumes the influencer position instead of the salesperson role and shares their hard-won knowledge to enlighten the general community. It’s the difference between the arrogant seller and the caring benefactor — an everyday worker who happens to have expertise in an area that can help others improve their lives in a significant way. Of course, it’s unwise for a number of reasons to set employees completely free to prospect in any manner they choose. Inexperience and poor judgment can result in convoluted messages, failed jokes, or important omissions that can mean the difference between ripening a prospect for conversation or alienating them completely. Fortunately it’s possible maintain a healthy balance of control — you can let your employees take ownership of a message and feel personally invested in its content while equipping them with the words, phrases, and ideas they need to accurately capture your company’s value proposition. The key here is providing them “loose” or suggested scripts that lay out all the important points while encouraging them to internalize and recreate it in their own language. This is especially important for video posts, where employees will be speaking directly to the consumer in their own voices (literally.) Offer scripts as a guideline and be clear about the general content, but otherwise give your employees freedom to restructure and present the message in a way that feels comfortable and natural. Some employees enjoy the safety blanket of using a script as they record but may exchange some words for synonyms they find easier to pronounce, or that carry more meaning for them personally. Others may feel more comfortable reading over the main points, internalizing them, and recording from memory without a script at all. Either way you can trust that your message’s core essence will be preserved but will be presented with fresh and authentic individual voices. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter (links above) for more great video tips! Key Takeaways: - Encourage employees to put their own spin on sales messages - Provide scripts to follow that are suggested, not mandatory - Choose a video platform that allows for easy administrator oversight How to Create a Personalized Sales Video Tutorial:
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Welcome2/27/2021 There’s no doubt our business world is changing, and the COVID-19 crisis of 2020 spurred a major shift to remote operations for many companies. As business continues to be conducted virtually, it’s critical that sales reps become skilled at communicating through video and not feel hesitant to do so. According to Wyzowl’s 2021 report, 84 percent of video marketers say video has helped them generate leads (up 1 percent from last year.) At Sales Video Experts, we're here to help your team quickly get prepared to tackle this brave new world of virtual video selling. This is a semester-long project for COMSTRAT 563 at Washington State University's Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. |