Wednesday, June 7, 2017

How I Use Video to Build Trust and Accelerate My Sales Cycle

As a salesperson, no matter how long your sales cycle, one of the most important things that you need to build with your buyer is trust. Actually, I’d argue that you will never get a deal done without it. If someone doesn’t trust that you have their best intentions in mind, that you can help them solve their challenges, and that you are an expert in your field, they will not buy from you. Period.

On LinkedIn today, you tend to see a lot of articles being written about spammy sales tactics, cold calling ineffectiveness, outbound sales fails etc. Why is that? 

As buyers become more sophisticated and well-researched, maintaining trust throughout your sales funnel is more important than ever. Spammy tactics and spray-and-pray messaging evaporates trust and kills your credibility as a salesperson, and it is nearly impossible to recover from that first impression. The bottom line here is this: modern buyers have higher expectations of the customer experience – they want salespeople to focus on adding value and being helpful, not pitchslapping or trying to force a deal.

In my experience, strategically leveraging video in your sales process is a game-changing way to build trust, establish authenticity, and strengthen relationships with your buyers.

After sending hundreds of videos to prospects and existing customers, I’ve found that video moves the needle for me in three key areas.

  1. Speed of execution
  2. Intelligence through analytics
  3. Increased context and personalization

Read on and check out the videos below to see how these three benefits come into play:

When Should I Use Video In My Sales Process?

I’ve experimented with customer-facing videos while running full cycle enterprise deals for PostBeyond. There are definitely nuances to maximizing the effectiveness of your videos, depending on your relationship with the buyer and how far they are along in the sales cycle. Here is a breakdown of how I think about using video across the funnel:

How Do I Make My Videos Feel Authentic?

Video is a new medium for most salespeople, and if you aren’t comfortable on camera it is natural to be a bit hesitant to get started. I’m willing to bet that once you do though, you won’t look back. I view video selling as the next evolution of social selling, so here are some tactics and tips to help you get in the groove:

Want more tips? Check out Lesson 3 in the Video Selling Institute: “Best Practices for Creating Videos for Sales”.

This All Sounds Great, But What’s The ROI?

Just like the hesitations I’ve heard towards embracing social selling, you may be thinking:

“My buyers are old-school – sending them videos will freak them out or make them feel uncomfortable. This medium won’t resonate with them.”

Believe me – if you focus on being thoughtful, adding value and going the extra mile to personalize your content, the responses will be overwhelmingly positive no matter who your buyer is. Here is one success story from a customer in an older demographic working in a very highly regulated industry:

Do you have questions or ideas on how to improve on the tactics I’ve shared above? Please share in the comments – I’d love to hear your feedback.

The post How I Use Video to Build Trust and Accelerate My Sales Cycle appeared first on Vidyard.



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