Video in the Sales Cycle: Leveraging the Power of Personal

In business, the most powerful, productive place to use video is during the sales process.

Lots of salespeople use video to introduce a product or offer a tour of a location, but there is almost no limit to the number of places you can use video in the sales cycle.

In this article, we’ll look at each stage of the sales cycle and talk about ways to add video to them. 

Let’s do it!

The Sales Cycle and Video

Stage 1: Finding Leads

Stage 2: Connecting with Leads

Stage 3: Qualify Leads

Stage 4: The Presentation

Stage 5: Overcome Objections

Stage 6: Close the Deal

Stage 7: Nurturing the Customer

Video in the Sales Cycle

The Sales Cycle and Video

The good people at Zendesk created this chart of the sales cycle:

Each of the stages of the cycle offers one or several places to use video to communicate, educate, inform, and forge a bond.

Stage 1: Finding Leads

There is almost no limit to the number of ways to use video to find leads. The list below is large, but it’s not even close to complete.

Video emails

A short video as part of a marketing email is an excellent way to make sales and build your brand. If you’re selling a high-ticket item, make a separate email for each recipient. This can be done simply and quickly from your phone or desktop. Make sure you speak clearly and plan a bit of a script. You don’t want to be seen rambling or stalling because you forgot what you wanted to talk about.

Video LinkedIn messages

Sending your client a personalised video through LinkedIn is a great way to create a warm connection and show your personality. Remember to keep it short and sweet, people are busy so keep it to 30 seconds and get your key messages across!

Video posts

Creating posts on social media for your products is an excellent way to attract attention. The key to this type of post is add value. If, for example, you sell cars, your video post might be about how to choose the right car for a family, then talk about your business and why they should buy from you. If you’re the product, such as a consultant, you can make short videos that just introduce you as a person. LinkedIn is a great place for these identity-building videos. If you’re posting to LinkedIn, which is designed to be a connections site, be sure to include some ideas of networking or invite people to connect and share.

Website videos

Anyone who lands on your website should be treated to high-quality videos of you, your team, and your product/service. NEVER auto-play videos on your website. It’s annoying and will get people to click away. The videos, as with most of these videos, should have closed captioning. Assume that someone is looking at your videos on a train, a bus, or in a coffee shop. Your website should have videos for each stage, item, or logical break. Please don’t just make your website videos, though. You need text for SEO purposes and not everyone loves watching videos.

Testimonials

People believe what they see and hear from people like them. A video testimonial is a great way to convert prospects. Create videos of happy clients explaining why they’re happy in their own words. Don’t coach them or even make suggestions. Let them be themselves. If you try to add points for them to mention, it will seem like they’re reading a script. If a testimonial isn’t great, you don’t have to use it. Ask your best clients for a quick video testimonial. In exchange, offer them something of value for their time.

Explainer or ‘how-to’ videos

A video that teaches someone to do something is a great way to get new clients. Go to YouTube and search for how to unclog a sink. You’ll find lots of plumbers telling you how to do it. If your business is local, like a plumber, your city or region should be in the description. “How to Unclog a Sink – Houston, TX plumber”. You can even make a complex video of how to do something if your service makes it easier for someone or you do it for them or it’s a complementary service, you’re marketing and will win customers.

There are more ways to use video to look for leads, but that should get you thinking.

Stage 2: Connecting with Leads

Using video to address your leads is a great way to build a bond. Especially with the increase of remote working, interacting online through video has become the norm.

After you’ve gotten someone’s interest it’s time to use video to contact them, “warm” them up, and move further through the sales cycle.

Use videos from your desk or even from a park bench to leave messages with your contacts. They should be short videos that deliver a sense of getting-to-know-you. Use a video messaging service that allows you to record a video as easily as you type a message. Your face and your voice build a relationship faster than any written message.

You can also use video to meet with leads. Again, the pandemic made this type of meeting the norm. It’s a norm we should hang onto. Video meetings are faster, easier, and less intrusive than needing to drive to someone’s office, wait for them to be ready, and then drive back to your offices. 

Because video is fast and simple, it’s the perfect way to stay in touch without boring emails or SMS messages.

Stage 3: Qualify Leads

This is where you turn leads into prospects. 

Here’s a simple truth that people don’t think of – most people can speak better than they write. That means that if you give them a chance to talk to you, you can get more from them faster than if you require written messages.

Offer your lead the opportunity to leave you a message that answers some fundamental questions:

• Is there interest in your organization for our product or service?
• Is there a recognized need for the product or service?
• Is there a budget for the product or service?
• Are you the decision-maker? Are there others that need to contribute to a final decision?

By allowing them to answer via video, you can save them time and effort. It will take a few seconds to answer these questions versus the amount of writing it might take.

Stage 4: The Presentation

Here’s a place where video can shine.

If your product is standard in that there are few customizations, you can create videos that show the product, how it works, and what makes it better than the competition. 

If you have a customized product or service, you will simply make a custom video. 

Video is ideal for this part of the process. It allows you to plan and include all the salient points. It also allows the prospect to rewind, pause, and discuss the information. While lots of sales people prefer the “in the room”, high pressure, decision-now kind of presentation, if you truly have a better product, the prospect will decide to go with you no matter what.

Be sure to include a feedback path for your prospects. You want to hear from them about concerns, positives, and willingness to purchase.

Stage 5: Overcome Objections

This is again a great place for video. You’re not only able to answer their objections, but you can do it with your body language and voice. 

Listen closely to what the prospect said during the feedback. Dig out their objections if they didn’t make it obvious. Then answer those objections with a video message meant just for them. 

Be sure to address objections as directly as you would if you were in the room. This will set the prospects’ mind at ease that you heard them and that you’re prepared to do it well.

Stage 6: Close the Deal

This might be a place for a one-on-one meeting. You need to avoid any issues if there might be some. If the prospect is 100% clear on the idea they’re buying, you can create a video that walks them through the contracts or payment. 

If there might be last-minute objections, you might choose to do it live. This is true for complex contracts or large sales.

Much of this will depend on how the client has been up to that point. 

For smaller sales, you can close the deal by video. If someone is considering buying a product or service from you, you can use video to direct them to where they can sign up and pay.

Stage 7: Nurturing the Customer

Now that they’ve bought, there are a couple of things you still need to do:

Follow-up: Leave a video message to make sure they’re happy. Follow up with them about issues that occurred or just to say Happy Birthday if that fits. 

Nurturing: Keep the door open for future purchases by sending periodic videos that talk about what’s new, what’s interesting, or simply useful information for their business.

Again, using video helps to keep the relationship growing and keeps your business top of mind.

Video in the Sales Cycle

As we noted at the beginning, there are few places where video can’t be used in the sales cycle. Using video allows customers to view it whenever they want. It makes your messages shorter. Because 30 seconds of talking can be two minutes of reading. It forges the relationships you need to make sales and keep clients.

How do you use video in your sales process?