“Tools like Zoom can be great, but if sales have no way to maintain the engagement after an online session, it’s hard to gain real traction.” says Glenn Eckard, head of client success and experience at Journey Sales (a long-time client of ours). Having launched their highly-regarded Salesforce-based digital selling solution, called Smart Rooms, in 2015, Journey Sales works with a variety of sales organizations, including some of the largest and most respected brands. So Eckard has been uniquely positioned to observe the urgent drive to master digital selling in real time.
“Salespeople need to make their presence felt, and they can’t do it the old way — by just dropping by. Add to that the pressure of closing, say, eight deals right now and simultaneously teeing up eight more for the next quarter. No-one has the bandwidth to do all this with online video meetings alone. This “asynchronous” side of digital selling is crucial for sales.
Eckard says video will play an increasingly a pivotal role in digital selling because of its put across a lot of information clearly, in short order. Here are five ideas for using video to increase the effectiveness and follow-up of online meetings.
- Online meetings on computer screens are video. Keep things moving by planning it out in segments, more like a talk show than a PowerPoint presentation.
- Add variety using props, video inserts, and meaningful backgrounds like charts or customer quotes.
- Make the “demo” segments into short stories about getting results. That makes them easily reusable in followup emails.
- Make short videos summarizing key insights in research reports and other publications
- Record subject matter experts giving expanded answers to questions that come up in the online meeting. You can use these videos to keep the conversation going and start new ones, in social media, for example.
ICYMI
Videos uploaded directly to social media (as opposed to links to videos hosted on platforms like YouTube) get higher engagement. Preferred formats vary across platforms and are subject to change. This Always Up-to-Date Guide to Social Media Video Specs should come in handy.
We hope your sales team finds these resources useful.
Stay well.
Bruce McKenzie & Lorna Pautzke
