We hear a lot about how video can help with marketing initiatives, but what kind of videos can help you actually close a sale?

Getting engagement and closing those sales with your prospects is getting harder. In fact, Richardson’s Annual 2019 Selling Challenges Study revealed that securing appointments and creating competitive differentiation are among the top challenges faced by sales teams today.

The good news is that video can help you stand out, grab your target audience's attention, scale response rates and close more deals. HubSpot’s The State of Video Marketing 2019 found that 68% of consumers prefer video to learn about a product, while Wyzowl’s Video Marketing Statistics 2019 report shares that 79% of consumers were convinced to buy after seeing a brand’s video.

But there are many video formats that simply won’t move your sales needle. How can you avoid these pitfalls and focus on creating video content that will help boost sales?

In this blog post, we’ll dive into what Marcus Sheridan likes to call, “The Selling Seven”, sales videos that, according to his research, produce an immediate and profound impact on your sales processes.

Here are The Selling Seven, or seven videos that will help drive sales and revenue:

1. The 80% Video

Most sales teams would agree that 70% - 90% of the questions they receive in the first sales appointments are the same, regardless of whether they are B2B or B2C. So the question is, why do we keep answering the same 80% of the questions over and over again?

How would the sales appointment improve if you were able to address most of the frequently asked questions prior to the meeting?

Video provides an opportunity to answer FAQs prior to the meeting, enabling your sales team to focus 80% more on creating a personalized approach in addressing the unique needs of the prospect, thereby increasing the likelihood of closing the deal.

Get together with your sales team and brainstorm on the most frequent questions asked on initial sales appointments. Choose the top seven frequently asked questions and create videos addressing each one individually. Then, do a mash-up of all seven in one great “80% video”, which addresses around 80% of the most commonly asked questions by prospects.

Introducing this video is as easy as saying:

Mr. Jones, I know you have a bunch of questions right now and probably some concerns about this purchase. You're not alone. We've seen this many times. I'm going to send you a video before our appointment that is going to address the major questions that you have. Feel free to share it around with other stakeholders who are going to look at this with you.

This way, prospects can learn and understand the answers to those questions, freeing up more time for your team to make the meeting much more efficient. This also serves as an opportunity to show that your organization has experience in doing this for other customers, thereby creating a sense of trust between yourself and the prospect.

2. Bio Videos in Your Signature

Speaking of trust, sales teams should aim to establish a trusting relationship with their prospects. How else can you create a sense of trust? One way is to enable the prospect to see and hear you, so the prospect feels that they know you, even before you’ve ever met.

How can you make this happen?

Let's look at a traditional email signature compared to a great email signature. Many salespeople have an email signature like the one below:

So the question is, how can make your signature more engaging and establish a sense of trust with the recipient? Why not include a small animated gif in the signature where the recipient can see who you are?

Your bio video should be around 90 to 120 seconds convey a little bit about you both personally and professionally. Marcus Sheridan found that their sales team at Impact received 20 to 30 views per month of just their bio video. Additionally, a report by Salesloft found that video in sales emails increases reply rate by 26%.

3. Product or Service Videos on Your Website

One common mistake a lot of companies make is having too much text and static images on their webpages. In our current visual culture, every major product or service on your website should be covered by a specific video. Why? Because, according to research mentioned in the beginning of this post, not only do consumers prefer to learn about a product through video, but video is also very effective in convincing consumers to make a purchase.

So what do you need to focus on in order to ensure these videos are effective?

One of the key factors, and something that might seem somewhat counter-intuitive, is to not only explain who this product is for, but also explain who it is not for. It’s crucial for you to qualify your audience early on in the video to ensure that only those for whom your product is a good fit will engage with our content.

If you can’t decide on which of your products or services should have videos, simply apply the 80/20 principle: start with 20% of the products that generate 80% of the revenue, or the products you believe to have the most potential.

Check out this example of how we discuss our webinar product in our video:

4. Forms Videos

One of the first and most basic steps of creating an effective landing page is to include a form where a prospect can sign up for more information.

There are four major mental obstacles people have when filling out online forms, which can have a serious impact on your form’s conversion rate:

1. They don’t want to be spammed with emails
2. They don’t want to be spammed with calls
3. They’re uncertain of what you’re going to do with their information
4. They’re unsure of the sales process

How can you help the prospect overcome these concerns? Simply create a short video to be placed next to the form where you explain exactly what will happen when they fill out the form.

Be sure to address their four main concerns, thereby demystifying the sales process for them.

Marcus Sheridan found that on average this results in an 80% increase in conversion rates on landing page forms. Let that sink in: what kind of boost would this give your company’s sales numbers if you managed to achieve an 80% increase on your form conversions?

5. Price Videos

We, as consumers, are obsessed with researching cost and price before we make a purchase. And when we can't find this information, we tend not to trust the company. We no longer want to call a company for information, and we certainly want to be well-informed before we agree to meet with a salesperson. Video is a great way to address these issues and remove any barriers the prospect may experience in the sales process.

Many companies, especially B2B businesses, are reluctant to address pricing on their website or early in the buying process out of concern that the price may need to change to meet a prospect’s unique business needs, or that they’d be giving too much information to their competitors. But that’s a decision that will impact on the prospect’s willingness to engage with you further.

How can you address these concerns, while at the same time providing important information for your prospects and making sure you stand out in the crowd? By creating a price video, of course!

Your price video should cover the factors that would potentially increase the price of your product or service, as well as ways to keep the price down. Comparing yourself and some of your competition would also be a great way to show transparency, which will go a long way in establishing trust with prospects.

Producing this type of video would help your prospect understand the true value of your service or product, and will help them make the decision on what most suits their unique needs.

6. Customer Journey Video

You might have quotes or case studies on your website, but that isn’t exactly what we mean by “customer journey video”.

The customer journey video has three parts:

1. The problem, need or issue that a customer or prospect had
2. The journey that they went on to solve this problem, including working with your company.
3. Where your customer is today because of their experience

Companies rarely create customer journey videos, preferring to produce quick testimonials, which many of your prospects simply cannot relate to. That’s where a customer journey video is different - it’s more focussed on the problems faced and experience in solving that problem. You want your prospect to see your video and easily see themselves on a similar journey to solving whatever problem they had, preferably using your product or service.

If you have happy customers, and have genuinely provided them with a valuable service, then most should be more than happy to participate in a customer journey video with you.

Check out this example of our customer journey video with Templafy:

7. Differentiation Video

Many companies, especially those who compete with one another, tend to make the same claims about why their product or service is the best. Eventually, all of these claims sound the same - so how can you stand out amongst the noise?

As a team, get together and write down those claims and ask yourself how many of your competitors make similar claims. Finally, and most importantly, ask yourself how many of these claims can you prove visually through video? Seeing is believing, so demonstrate it on video for your prospects to see. Not only will this help you stand out from your competitors’ claims, but will also contribute to establishing trust between you and the prospect.

Once implemented, The Selling Seven, as outlined above, should have a dramatic impact on your sales team and ultimately, the success of your organization.

For more information on establishing video across your organization, including content tips and best practices, watch our full webinar “How to Develop a Culture of In-House Video” with Marcus Sheridan here, where you will also get production, video content tips, best practices and techniques: