Sales Professionals Need to Do Their Own Video Marketing

Video is perhaps the most valuable tool for the sales professional today, and used properly can help establish you as an expert, evaluate your presence in the industry, and help you prospect. Think that is crazy talk? Well, I invite you to join me for this episode of my YouTube show Cap’s Car Cast. Enjoy the ride, and below you’ll find some more details on how you can turn your smart phone’s video capability into the single most important sales tool in your bag.

Yes sales professionals of the world. Your smartphone’s video feature will help you communicate your expertise, establish your presence in your target market, and make prospecting maybe just a little bit easier.

Expertise

In 2010 Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon authored a book called The Challenger Sale (you can check out my interview with Brent Adamson here). The book was well ahead of its time, introducing sales professionals to the concept of being aggressively prescriptive. I would encourage you to read the book, but the simple concept is that the pain solution game we’ve all been playing since the early part of the century is getting stale. And oh, by the way, everyone plays it. Adamson and Dixon suggest that not only are buyers educating themselves well ahead of engaging in any sort of sales process; they simply expect that solution providers can solve the pains that they have. It is the lowest common denominator of a buyer’s expectations.

To differentiate in this commoditization of pain to solution landscape Adamson and Dixon suggest that the sales professional has to be aggressive with a prescription that matches not the current pain that the customer is experiencing but the pain that they didn’t even know they had. Tell them something about their business they don’t know.

To effectively do this we have to be more than conversant in our customer’s field and business. We have to make it clear that we know something about their business that will be of value to them. An idea and concept that they might not have considered. We have to be experts.

The best way to communicate this expertise? Hit record on that High Def video device you call your phone. Share your wisdom and publish it. Don’t worry about where, the platform doesn’t necessarily matter at first. Just start recording.

Presence

I have been in marketing most of my career. I’ve been paid well to support some of the best sales teams in the world. But guess what? I didn’t sincerely truly understand sales until I stepped out to build my own business and had to start selling myself. Let’s just say my appreciation for the sales profession has exponentially grown since I’ve carried my own quota.

In my quest to sort out selling I found out quickly that prospecting is tough business. But you are a sales professional most likely, and I don’t have to tell you that. But what if your prospect sort of knew who you were when you started trying to get them into your sales pipeline?

Let’s be honest: prospecting is a little bit easier if your target has some idea of who you are. Well, guess what, you have the ability to help your prospect get to know who you are by leveraging video.

What do you talk about? It almost doesn’t matter as long as your orient your video production towards something that has to do with the business you are in. For instance, some experience that you had with a would-be customer that has an issue you just know you’ll be able to help with. A take on some industry event that your prospects might find interesting.

Add this sort of video production to your weekly workflow. Platform here doesn’t matter at first. So I’d suggest using the social media app you are most comfortable with and hit record.

Prospecting

Speaking of prospecting, let’s take a closer look at how video will help you here. If you are uncomfortable with putting video out in the public sphere might I suggest using video in your actual prospecting and sales efforts? Have something that you want a would-be customer to hear? Hit record and briefly talk directly to them through the lens.

There are many tools out there that let you send video via email, or you can just host your videos on Youtube as unlisted, send a dropbox link, or even text it to them if you know them well enough. I use video all the time in my efforts, and it works. I’ve sourced guests for my podcasts, booked speaking gigs, and landed that coveted first meeting. Give it a shot. It works.

Video is a powerful tool that you carry around with you just about everywhere. It is time to start exploiting it for its full potential. So go ahead and hit record.