Creating Videos to Support Your Sales Team

by Michael Litt

If your sales team isn’t asking for an in-house video producer now, it won’t be long until they do. Video is huge, and studies show that using video as part of the sales cycle drives bigger and better deals. As IDG Knowledge discovered, 95 percent of B2B technology buyers watch tech-related videos, and 78 percent share them with their colleagues.
Not every video your marketing team produces needs to have a sales focus, but there are easy ways to build content that drives sales and converts viewers into buyers.

Here are five tips to create more sales-oriented video assets:

1. Film Customer Testimonials for Every Industry With a Use Case
Every B2B buyer is looking for a solution that solves a specific problem, and the best way for them to recognize you’re the best choice is to showcase how you’ve solved their problem before. Get your existing happy customers on camera for an easy win.
When working with your customers to craft testimonials, make sure to ask questions that dive deeper into the specific problem you helped solve. If they can share stats, get those on the record too. Results always trump rhetoric. When editing this content, make two cuts: one as a shorter, more general message that you can share on your website, and one that’s in-depth, so your sales team can use it to back up their pitch time after time.

2. Make Videos Covering Complex Product Features.
Most complex software or service platforms have two levels of functionality: the easy-to-use areas that customers interact with day to day, and the more complex portions that may only need to be set up once and maintained occasionally. Most companies focus on covering the easy-to-use features of the product because it’s the sexier portion of their offering, but the devil is in the details.
Create videos that help prospects through the more complex areas of your product, and your sales team will field less support questions and can focus on converting new customers. Your sales team will also be in a great position to anticipate complexities and provide helpful content before it becomes a problem. Everyone likes being a hero by providing a perfect video to help at the right time!

3. Record Product Walkthroughs, and Make Them Easy to Find
When you are selling to larger teams, there won’t always be an opportunity to meet with everyone. Even if you are selling to a team of four, chances are you’ll only get half of them to tune in to your sales demo.
If your prospect is serious about implementing your offering, anyone who missed the demo is going to want to catch up. Providing a private link to view a recap of the product demo gives everyone who will eventually interact with your product the opportunity to see a tailored walkthrough and follow up with questions. You can password-protect the content, and it will impress prospects that your personalized recorded demo is available to make their experience with your product as transparent and easy as possible.

4. Know who’s Watching, and Make Sure your Sales Team Does too
Modern marketers are using marketing automation and CRM systems to track how leads interact with their content, and video should be no exception. When a lead views a video — whether it’s a demo, customer testimonial, or even your year-end blooper reel — make sure sales has access to that individual viewership data in their CRM when they are making calls.
Knowing how a prospect has interacted with your videos is crucial for a salesperson trying to understand context. If you sell five types of software, your sales team should know when a prospect has watched a video for a specific product, as this detail outlining interest can make or break a sale. Detailed video viewership data like this is available in a video marketing platform.

5. Know Your Audience — and Tailor Your Content
Every buying cycle has different key players: those who will be using your product day-in and day-out, those who sign the checks and those who reap the results. It’s not always easy to tailor your content specifically to each person, but having an idea of what questions each is going to ask will help you cover all your bases with video content.
Creating videos tailored to multiple buyer personas in your target industries means your sales team can follow up with each individual in the buying process with a video that addresses their unique concerns.

Videos are powerful sales and marketing tools. If you ensure each salesperson has a utility belt full of your best, most convincing content, they’ll be ready for anything that comes their way.

Michael Litt is the CEO and co-founder of Vidyard, a video marketing platform that helps marketers measure the impact of their video content. Thought leader, surfer and serial entrepreneur, Michael is passionate about content marketing and changing the way we engage and purchase with video. Chat with Michael on Twitter or LinkedIn to learn more.