Karthi is the Co founder and CEO of Hippo Video – A Video Personalization & Distribution Platform. He is a senior Product Strategist, Marketer and Product Manager with 16 years of experience. In his tenure at Zoho he built several successful products like – Zoho Recruit, Zoho People, OpManager, Studio from scratch and nurtured them to multi million dollar revenue
Tibor is a sales leader who has led companies like Bell Mobility, Imperial Oil, Pitney Bowes to increase results and sell better. He is the co-author of an award-winning book and is recognized as ‘Top 30 Salespeople In The World’ by Forbes. Reuters listed Tibor in ‘50 Sales Experts And Influencers You Should Be Following in 2019’ and Top Sales Management Association voted him under ‘50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management’.
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In-Short:
Tibor: I know that the Hippo Video platform is integrated into most of the major accelerators and screams, do you find people taking advantage of it in their sequences?
Karthi: Yes, very much so. It has been a very important part of adoption for users, because as we know, the sales people are time-bound. They have limited time and they need the most of their time prospecting, calling people and messaging out there on LinkedIn so they don’t have to juggle between different products.
Tibor: What’s an example of somebody using the Hippo platform in an innovative way that you’re seeing that right away speaks to relevance?
Karthi: So one important aspect to start off with this relevance here, bringing the context of the discussion into that video or message is very important. And that is where we are brought in a very nice feature. What we call it has a dark side sweetness that you don’t just put the video alone but you can put it as a pep talk. We go there as well as some of the initial discussion points. It could be a presentation of the media on your product, the pricing that you want to send it across.
Tibor: What do you see as being the ability to engage differently emotionally on video versus other platforms?
Karthi: A text email is tone-deaf. It is not emotion. It does not empathize and communicate that you want to connect with them. So videos allow you to emotionally engage with them, get that context right out there and empathize with them, with the situation, they are able to help you do hope things kind of empathize with them, understand the business is going on. So that is what was missing and that is why videos are emotionally engaging.
Tibor: Does it have to be me or my face in the video? Are there other things that one can do?
Karthi: We have seen customers using, like stitching up custom demos or custom contacts they are building. So they bring up that screen through the screen chat recorded with their video or the video. But once all is there and create and send it across. So also it is available there, an important aspect is bring some explainer videos so that you can create with some added urgency.
Tibor: What are the things you’ve seen that are unique to the video element from a call to action point of view?
Karthi: I think one of the more subtle calls to action that I’ve seen some of my customers make with video specifically, especially when you can track the back end to ask them to share it, because sometimes, you know, if you ask them to do something with you, they may feel it’s a bit early. They may feel it’s a bit too revealing or whatever the case is.
But I find if I can ask them to share it with a colleague, you know, that this information might be of interest to them. It’s a great way to get engagement on the other side. And it’s a gateway.
Tibor: What are some other things that people can do from an actionable point of view within the platform?
Karthi: Yeah, we have to do what we call it, as you can imagine, the important actionable items. You can chat inside that page where they are viewing the video that they can quickly connect.
Video does help you stand out with the crowd. I don’t know, maybe you have the stats, but I’m certain when I’m writing emails, I’m certainly convinced that they’re being read on a mobile. When I’m making videos, even though I’m making them for LinkedIn, I’m assuming that people are going to see it on the mobile. That’s why right away I put in the subtitles because I know they’re going to be watching on public transit or something.
