On today’s episode of Sales From The Street, John Simpson, Director of Business Development at Covideo, talks to us about the value of video cold outreach.
Why video?
How sick are you of boring emails?
How many unsolicited emails end up in your spam folder?
The most important part of prospecting is building trust and helping the person on the other end of the email realize that you’re authentic. Being able to put a face with a name is a game changer.
Video is a strong value-add if you do it as part of your sequence. It’s not true, though, that video solves every problem.
Typically, the first outreach won’t include a video. It will be a simple value statement to someone who has never met us. Usually, it’s to a sales leader who might benefit from our product.
If we get no response, we’ll send another email, and then we’ll send the video. As soon as we get the view notification, we’ll pick up the phone and call them and try to determine whether we’re a fit.
Video is an attention grabber. `
Emails
The point of all this isn’t that emails are bad. You should absolutely still use emails.
You must have a strategy for your emails, and they must be part of your overall sales process.
The point isn’t that videos are always the right answer. The point is that everyone fails from time to time, and when you do, you have to re-evaluate what you’re doing.
Those failures can help you identify other avenues that you can take.
If you’ve mailed a prospect multiple times and he’s not responding, shoot him a video. Shoot him a text.
You’ve got to do something that stands out and sets you apart.
Sequence
Covideo discovered through trial and error that sending a video in the first cold email wasn’t usually best.
People weren’t responding to their efforts, so they changed their sequence and saw results. They learned from their failures.
In certain industries, they found that it was ok to send a video immediately. It depends on the person and the industry.
If you’re pursuing a CEO you’ll likely take a different approach than you would if you were pursuing a salesperson at a logistics company.
Conversation
Anytime you’re reaching out to someone, your goal is to start a conversation.
Instead of just spitting about your product, slow down a bit. Give yourself time to simply chat.
Instead of shoving your product down his throat, provide a solution to the problem. The concept of “always be closing” in Glengarry Glen Ross doesn’t exist anymore. The buyer has changed.
We sometimes try to put too much information into our emails and videos. Instead of trying to include a whole bunch of info, we just have to get to the next step in the conversation.
It’s always about progress.
Connection
Video allows you to engage all of your senses, where email only involves our sight.
When we engage with video, we use our hearing, our sight, and we’re cognitively responding to the body language in the video. Using multiple senses leads to a deeper connection.
We tend to misinterpret emails because we sometimes add tone. That won’t happen with video because people can see how excited you are to work with them. Video gets rid of the unknown.
The problem is that people have dozens of reasons for why they don’t do video: they’re uncomfortable, it won’t work, they don’t like the way they look.
Typically, though, video use builds organically through an organization. As people see coworkers succeeding with video, they inquire about what is helping them be successful.
No matter your industry, no matter what you’re doing, no matter what you’re selling, you should be willing to put new things out there to break the monotony.
Video mistakes
Don’t write a script for your video read it from a teleprompter, it will typically feel pretty awkward. Be yourself. Talk like you’re talking to another person.
You don’t “act” while you write emails, so you shouldn’t do it while you’re making a video.
People like to connect with authentic people rather than with a persona.
Make sure the lighting is good and check that there’s nothing distracting in the background.
“Video Cold Outreach” episode resources
Covideo provides a mobile app, a Google plugin, and a web-based recorder making it super easy to use. Because you aren’t actually sending a video file with your email, it diminishes the chances of your email being kicked back as spam.
Grab a free trial and try your hand at creating video cold outreach, or you can email John or connect with him on LinkedIn.
This episode is brought to you in part by Maximizer CRM, personalized CRM that gives you the confidence to improve your business and increase profits. To get a demonstration of maximizer, go to the sales evangelists.com/maximizer.
Click on the link to get a free demo of what Maximizer CRM can do for you. It integrates your marketing campaign as well as your CRM, and it works whether you’re a small organization or a large one.
This episode is also brought to you in part by prospect.io, a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. To learn more, go to prospect.io/tse. It will help you with your outbound to expand your outreach and it allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.
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