Cast your mind back 22 years to 1996. Even if you haven’t seen the movie Jerry Maguire, chances are you’re familiar with the catchphrase “Show me the money!”
The sales process has come a long way since Cuba Gooding Jr. uttered that immortal line. Not only is it far more subtle, but it has also gone digital. Where once the focus was on building relationships over a game of golf, trip to an NBA game or a meal at a fancy restaurant, today it’s rather different.
Many businesses nowadays close deals remotely, even with the deployment process – if it’s a software sale – which can be handled remotely in the cloud. It’s possible to work on a complex contract with a client, without ever meeting them in person.
A whole ecosystem of smart selling tools has sprung up to service this digital sales model. There are existing tools to help sales teams with prospecting, for example, when building a cadence of emails and phone calls, teams can utilize platforms that identify patterns in successful sales calls to help improve future success rates.
However, the problem with such a remote approach is that the human touch is downgraded, and while a digital selling strategy is clearly more cost and time-efficient, it can often lack that little extra sales sparkle that comes with face to face contact.
This is where video can help sales teams really stand out from the competition. Video is as potent a sales tool at the start of the sales cycle as it is for meetings (video conferencing) later on. Watching someone on video instantly adds an extra dimension, a more authentic interaction. Plus, video generally generates more of an emotional response than any other means of remote communication.
Video for sales prospecting is already gaining traction in the corporate world as business leaders look for new ways to get higher conversion, build stronger relationships with prospects, and improve closing rates. For example, using video technology for video-based prospecting, and post-meeting summaries. This includes sending personalised video email pitches at the prospecting stage, as well as summary videos after the initial discovery meeting. These video summaries might include a demo for prospects to view on their own time, a talking head of an additional team member answering some of the unanswered questions raised in the meeting, and some additional slides that can help to clarify any confusion or reservations.
There is also the bonus of being able to analyze usage and validate the ROI of video – as you would do with any other sales tool. We see this when integrating video into your sales, and marketing workflows, and then use email notifications, and engagement stats to quickly focus on prospects that are showing interest, eliminating the guessing game. This data can also be used to inform future video campaigns and help sales managers to assess how individual team members are performing, and put in place remedial action when necessary.
All in all, putting video at the heart of the sales process is a sure-fire way to boost sales success by making a better first impression than is possible with a standard email or LinkedIn message, and also makes it possible to build a stronger bond with prospects and clients in today’s digital sales world.
If Jerry Maguire were being filmed today, maybe Cuba and Tom Cruise’s characters would be shouting, “show me the video!”
Dana Poleg is Vice President of Marketing at Kaltura, where she has been instrumental in revolutionizing the way the company targets potential customers as well as greatly expanding the company’s global reach. Before arriving at Kaltura, she served as head of Global Demand Generation at the NASDAQ-traded Big Data software company NICE. Previous marketing roles have included portfolio marketing, product marketing, and strategic marketing at Siemens, Comverse, and McCann Ericsson. She holds an MBA from the University of Jerusalem in marketing and finance. Passionate about marketing for sales, Dana believes that marketing should be an integral, driving part of the sales process.