The most influential tool for sales success in 2020 was video conferencing. According to Hubspot, “74% of leaders who outperformed targets this year said virtual meetings were “as or more effective than face to face meetings.” In the same article, a spokesman for Zoom assures us that video is 34X as effective! Anyway, we can all agree that video is effective.
More show-and-tell
People involved in the sales process are much more comfortable turning on their webcams than they were a year ago because putting your professional self out there can increase trust. They are using better lighting. They are paying more attention to what’s in the background. In 2021, the most successful presenters will add more show-and-tell — beyond PowerPoint — to the mix.
Anything that moves — video clips, whiteboard scribbling, objects held up to the camera, household pets (used judiciously) — can liven-up a meeting.
Salespeople as content managers
It didn’t take long for “Zoom fatigue” to enter the lexicon in 2020, and there’s no reason to think that people will be eager to take on a heavier schedule of teleconferences in 2021. So, to keep up a schedule of sales nurturing, more content will be needed. Especially if you’re selling to IT, the more information you can offer buyers, the better.
Obviously, video is a great type of content to share, and it’s easy to share short videos on a schedule. Just make sure they communicate valuable information.
Video FAQ galleries
Product pages, especially those for technology solutions, often list features and benefits alongside videos summarizing the same product features and benefits.
A better approach — more browsable for customers and useful for sales communication— would be to create a video explaining each feature/benefit clearly and concisely. They needn’t be expensive or elaborate. Animation is a relatively inexpensive way to break down hard-to-grasp concepts and show what it’s like to use a technical product.
Make video a competitive edge
In 2020, the pandemic forced everyone to use video more frequently in sales. Most companies found that it worked quite well. So 2021 is likely to be a year in which the companies making the most imaginative use of video in sales stand to gain a significant competitive edge.
