A technology consultant contacted me recently looking for a video solution to his problem — spreading the word about some of his firm’s software solutions in order to start pilot projects for new applications.
What he had in mind was a 2-Minute Explainer® video — that’s what we’re best-known for. But it quickly became clear that, while his target audience can be defined with unusual precision, but, as yet the “product” and its value proposition hadn’t really come into focus.
There’s selling to be done, but is there a video solution?
The “Rule of Thirds” Standard for B2B Sales
Recent research from McKinsey & Company into how sales is done today identifies what they call a “rule of thirds.” B2B buying decision-makers say they are using a roughly even mix of three sales channel types at each stage of the sales process:
- Traditional sales, like in-person meetings
- Remote sales, like videoconferencing
- Self-service, like digital portals
94% of decision-makers say this ‘omnichannel’ sales model is at least as effective as what they were doing before the pandemic. (In April 2020, only 65% of respondents thought the new ways of selling were as effective as their pre-COVID-19 model.)
Conversational Video
“Hybrid sellers” is the term McKinsey uses for people engaged in these kinds of sales. Hybrid sales is like field sales, but more digital, less in-person. At each stage of the sales process there’s a conversation going on that would almost certainly benefit from visual support, including video. Self-service portals have always been the sweet spot for explainer videos — but there’s room for lots more different types of videos.
The technology consultant who is looking for pilot projects, for example, needs videos that illustrate the concepts and use cases that are normally discussed on video calls and searched for in web portals. He doesn’t need traditional videos as much as he needs animations that walk the viewer through a use case or technology innovation.
Sources for these visuals could be whiteboard sketches, PowerPoint or technical discussion diagrams, even internal demos and presentations recorded with Slack. Most demos can be edited down to bring out the most important points in a few minutes.
Hybrid selling is here to stay. Tap the talents of your video team to give customers more of what they are looking for.
