When should you use video for sales?

Video for sales. Sounds like a great idea, right?

All the stats and research tells you it works. 

Everything points towards video being the future, especially in business. e

Everyone in the video marketing and sales space is giving you tips for how to create your first video, giving you lists of essential sales and marketing videos your team should make, and telling you how much it costs to start with video for sales (it's cheaper than you think).

For those interested in getting started with a third-party video specialist, there's even advice on how much some of the tools - like Vidyard - cost to start with.

So you're all ready to start with your video for sales, but now you're asking, when in the buyer journey or sales cycle should you actually be using video?

And do videos work better in certain parts of the buyer journey?

The truth is, video works at almost every part of the buyer journey.

However, video may not be the best replacement for good old-fashioned cold calling. 

A random video from someone a prospect has never met, trying to sell them something, probably won't be any more effective than trying the same thing over the phone.

Our advice? If you're still using cold calling in your sales outreach process, but want to give video a try, maybe use this as an opportunity to follow up and put a face to the random name on your prospect's voicemail system. 

On that note, let's run through a few examples and best practices. 

When to use video: Email response to a download

We've all had those emails after downloading an eBook or guide on a website. They're all pretty much the same.

"Thanks for downloading our latest guide, hopefully you find it useful...."

Everyone does them.

And that's the problem. Everyone does them, and you're not going to stand out by doing them, too.

Instead, consider putting a video into the email. It sounds a small detail, but it does a couple of things.

One, it's different. Video for sales is still a novelty so getting an email with a video is more memorable than another text heavy one. Two, it starts to put faces to the names of the people your lead will interact with later down the buyer journey.

If you've already introduced yourself on video you can avoid those slightly awkward first minutes of a sales call.

When to use video: Product demos

Remember those old days when you wanted to book a product demo and it meant booking an afternoon out of your day to make time for a salesperson to come in, set up, run you through a product and then answer questions.

It was all long, drawn out and for the most part a waste of time.

Nowadays, videos mean you can do product demos remotely simply by sharing your screen or filming a video directly off your laptop's webcam. They're more efficient, can be more enjoyable for leads and don't take up hours in the day.

When to use video: Follow-up messages

How often after a kick-off meeting, sales call or pitch have you had to follow up with more information? And how often have you given leads or customers links to blogs, eBooks or webpages that they have to read?

Videos are a much more engaging way of sending this additional information-especially if you can send the information in the form of a demo.

Either way, as we've said, video for sales is still a bit of a novelty so receiving follow-ups via video is likely to go down better.

When to use video: Sales to service handover

This can be a tricky phase in the early days of the client agency relationship.

If you've not done this very well, the handover can be the first time the client has met their account team.

How many times have you spent the first 10 minutes of a kick-off meeting introducing everyone.

Instead, imagine sending a video over to a new client with their new account team introducing themselves and explaining what they do and what their role will be on the account team.

Again, this has a certain novelty to it because not many agencies are doing it. But it's also a good ice breaker and immediately creates more of a connection between a client and their account team before they ever meet in person.

When to use video: Best practices

Here are four things to keep in mind when you're filming an ad-hoc video:

1. Use headphones to have more crisp audio.  
2. Make sure your background is appropriate.  
3. Do your best to have good lighting. 
4. Grab attention with a play button or personal message on a whiteboard, like your prospect's name.