It’s the time of year for hitting your number, bringing deals in, and making bold predictions. I recently did a webinar for Vidyard with Morgan, and it’s becoming more and more apparent that video is going to be a big trend in 2018. I think that the reps who have been leaving voicemails are going to be the most successful at using video in prospecting.

One reason that video has become so popular is that most of our communication is nonverbal. You may have heard me talk about the communication model by Albert Mehrabian. It states that only 7% of communication is what we say (Have you ever tried to be sarcastic in an email? How’d that work out?). 38% is tone, but 55% of our communication is done through expression. That’s why face-to-face communication is best but video is helping bridge the gap and includes their expression that you don’t pick up over the phone.

Why should you leave voicemails?

Over the last few years, I am increasingly asked if we should even bother leaving voicemail messages. I always say yes for three simple reasons:

• You’ve already gone through the effort of calling them, what’s another ten seconds?
• It increases the likelihood of an email reply.
• Calling someone eight times and not saying who you are is creepy.

With the increase of video in the sales process lately, I’m going to add a fourth reason.

• All those voicemails you’ve left have been excellent practice.

Be Aware of How you Sound

Even if your prospects can’t see you, they can hear how you feel if you’re slumped over with your head on your desk, or standing up and projecting confidence. This will only be exemplified when leaving messages through video.

Brevity is an Art Form

One mistake reps make when recording videos is that they are way too long. The average commercial is 30 seconds long and most people want to fast forward through them. If you want to have a prospect who you’ve never met watch a video, it has to be short and to the point. Blaise Pascal famously said, “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” The same goes for sending a video.

Apply the Same Skills You’ve Been Using By Leaving Voicemail

If you’ve been through my YouTube channel (which contains 90% of what I train for free), you may have come across some good and bad voicemail examples. The good voicemails, and now videos will start with “the reason” for your message. The reason for my video is, then giving a short, powerful, value-oriented statement or attention grabber. The good video messages will be short, clear, and have a powerful call to action.

Bad video messages, like bad voicemails, will be scripted, boring, unenthusiastic, use weak words and fail to get your prospects’ attention. Remember, the fundamental process of sales is AIDA. Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. If you can’t get your prospects attention, the rest doesn’t happen.

Want to practice your video messages? Shoot me a DM on Instagram or a Snap and let’s hear your attention grabbers. This blog post from Simple Strat, also has some great nuggets for using video in the sales process.

Make It Happen

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