The Challenge:
Bob, the CEO of a medium-sized software company that had a broad horizontal offering, wanted to double the company’s revenue in comparison with his competitors. He delegated the responsibility of identifying and fixing challenges in sales to his sales head, Sam.
Sam was a team player. He knew that the development and implementation of a strategic plan to achieve sales targets, will not only expand the existing customer base but will also increase revenue. Alongside he also knew that building and maintaining long-lasting customer relationships are extremely crucial.
After careful analysis Sam identified that in addition to lesser sales conversions, there were specific concerns that were to be addressed:
1. Catching Prospect Attention and improving responses to cold email outreach
2. Long sales cycle
3. Improving trust and building a relationship
4. Revenue target
Sam had to figure out a possible solution that would fix the above pain points and certain challenges pertaining to every department. Documenting, sharing and measuring customer data is the key to successful sales.
The Solution:
All of the above-mentioned problems were based on a few underlying issues that involved a lack of time, monotony and personalization or human touch to gain trust. Just then Sam recalled his conversation with Bob. Bob had indicated that their competitor acme trading had made their emails short and to the point. They had even used employees in the organization to research and tailor email content relevant to each prospect adding more personal touch to cold email along with building a relationship with their prospects even before they meet them.
That’s when it dawned on him that these issues could be sorted by the use of one powerful tool – Videos. This would hit the bulls’ eye by presenting short and crisp content, enabling not just personalization in words but visually and also build trust in the minds of the prospect.
Source: https://www.oberlo.in/blog/video-marketing-statistics
Salespeople have not been leveraging the advantages of the videos as much as they should. They have been thinking it is often a value add. But he also noticed that there were some interesting facts about using videos and decided to understand how the challenges of various departments around sales can be overcome by videos. His research on videos took him by great surprise.
Since sales cycles are a team effort, it is essential to cater to every department that works towards attaining the goal. He made a list of problem areas and fit videos in the process to circumvent the issue around.
Click here to see the six major trends that will shape B2B sales.
Sales Development Representative (The Hunter) :
The SDRs shed light on the challenges during the process of qualifying prospects. They pointed out two areas that needed help:
· Catching the attention of prospects
· Making prospects respond to their cold outreach.
Using Videos seemed like a perfect solution to this problem because videos consume less time to get the message across without compromising on the prospects attention span (videos use just 30 seconds to get the message across). Using videos for cold outreach means we are going to make it warmer by adding an element of personalization thereby helping the prospect attach a face and name to the person they are talking to rather than reading an automated template of text.
The Account Executive (The Closer):
The role of AEs is to close contracts, manage clients’ accounts to up-sell and maintain a strong relationship with their clients. They are responsible for the increase in the amount of business transacted with each client. All the leads coming from SDRs would be then turned to the Account executive teams. Further, Account executives do meetings, demos, and calls with a clear goal in mind: Closure.
AEs had the following areas of concern:
· Sales cycle was longer; creating customer trust was an important factor.
· With interactions limited to calls and online demos, there was no way to develop a rapport.
· Demos given online often reported many no-shows
· Prospects were not aware of all features.
Videos are going to be the missing puzzle piece that could work magic for all the aforementioned problems.
Longer sales cycles were a result of back and forth communication trying to educate the prospect about the product. They will now not only be able to see a short demo of the product but also the person who is behind the email talking to them- humanizing the process and developing the rapport.
Interactions are going to have a more personal touch by having a short recording of the whole demo sent over to the qualified lead who can pause, re-watch the whole thing at his own pace.
Demos are going to be in the inbox forever to be watched –how many ever times needed!
Product features are not going to be inanimate. With videos, we give life to the product and explain them with a dash of personal touch. Laser-targeting on the prospects needs and keeping only what is relevant.
Sales Representatives (Hunters and Closers):
Sales reps carry a lot of weight around and those on the front lines have many functions, such as:
· Engaging buyers
· Prospecting for new clients
· Supporting existing clients
· Building trust
· Managing client relationships, and much more.
The salesperson’s job is pivotal. Sam wanted to inform and get feedback from the team on the video idea ASAP. He asked the reps to gather around, so he could explain to where use sales videos that were going to make their jobs much more delightful. His suggestions included:
· The use of an initial outreach message or a “stalled idea” video email
· Sending prospects a personalised video that differentiates you from the rest of the pack
· Getting the prospect’s attention and then building trust using personalized sales pages.
· Booking meetings with sales videos using existing CRM
· Understanding that video is more exciting and memorable
Sam was well aware that the sales representatives department was staffed with creative, outside-the-box individuals. Video can be a game-changer for creative sales reps who can online video platforms to create, edit and distribute videos across multiple channels.
Bob & the Sales Enablement – The final step.
Sam felt that the measurement of a business’ success relates to the ability of the enterprise to make the profit they have identified as necessary for the current fiscal year. He was pretty sure that it could be challenging to get Bob-the CEO & the Sales-enablement department to agree on adding yet another tool to the many selling tools already in use.
That’s when Sam went into high-gear. He created a video of how worthwhile video would be for the company. He told the sales enablement team that they could actually fasten the sales cycle and make an impact on the average deal size. Videos would not only cost less, but they would generate leads in a faster and more controlled manner. Sam wanted them to know that:
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Training salespeople could include video training in their on-boarding.
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Videos could easily integrate into tools already in place i.e CRM, email outreach. They wouldn’t need to manage another tool separately.
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Videos could make the sales cycle faster at various processes in such as prospecting, booking meetings, closing, executing contracts – everything at a rapid pace.
He said the video tool for sales could personalize video emails from their CRM itself. He added that real-time analytics, along with an interactive CTA would help the team check sales engagement and plan follow-ups efficiently. Sam had stats to prove his point:
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SDRs have witnessed a 3x increase in response rates using videos
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71% of users said videos increased their sales engagement.
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69% of users generated more leads by using videos.
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81% saw an increase in sales after using videos.
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80% of people will watch a video but only 20% of people will read the text.
As Sam walked towards the door, the sales enablement team threw confetti and candy at him. Sam checked all the teams off his list and got videos for sales implemented in Bob’s company.
Sam partnered with Hippo Video to double the sales volume and in turn, capitalize on various other advantages of videos in the sales pipeline. Would you like to?
Hippo Video: Humanize Prospect Engagement with Personalized Videos.
At Hippo Video, we believe that videos are currently taking the world by storm and will continue to do so. We want our customers to have the power to make accessible and impressive sales videos. Our team is ready to assist you in generating more interest, more sales, and more customers. We know this can happen for your business through the use of videos. Want to know more about Hippo Video? Sam says to take a look at this video.
Check more and Book a demo for more information.