Video Prospecting — The Definitive Guide
Fill Your Sales Pipeline Using Personalized Video
This Guide Will Cover...
Why Video Prospecting?
When To Send Videos (and what tool to use)
What To Say
Prospecting Is Getting Harder
From 2014 to 2018, The Bridge Group studied close to 500 inside sales teams in B2B organizations across the United States.
Their study concluded that the number of quality conversations (a response to an email or cold call with “interested” or “not interested”) per day decreased from 8 in 2014 to 5.1 in 2018 [1].
But the number of contact attempts per prospect for a quality conversation increased from 7.3 in 2014 to 9.1 in 2018 [1].
The Case For Video
This graph illustrates the various channels Sales Development Reps are using to get in contact with prospects.
On the right (late majority and laggards), you have companies that are least likely to adopt new technology. This means that 50% of the companies prospecting are using email automation, dialers, and LinkedIn.
On the left (early majority and early adopters), you have companies that are most likely to adopt new technology. Very few companies are using video as a prospecting medium.
This means that, if used correctly, 1-to-1 personalized video can be a great way to differentiate yourself because no one else is really doing it!
Need More Proof?
SalesLoft ran a study of 134 million emails, 4.5 million of which contained an embedded video. They found that the average open rate increased by 16% and the average reply rate increase by 26% [2].
HubSpot ran a 45-day test with five of their Business Development Reps and they increased sales opportunities by 4x using video prospecting [3].
When To Use Video
The timing of your video is critical. In their analysis, SalesLoft concluded that video is most effective when used after day 2 and before day 20 of the cadence.
We find that sending a few emails to the prospect first, then waiting to see which prospects open your emails works best.
This way you're investing all of your extra time on prospects who are actually engaging with your outreach.
Send 1-to-1 personalized videos to the prospects who open but do not respond to your emails.
Tool Recommendation
Our favorite tool is Vidyard GoVideo. It integrates with Outlook/Gmail and many of the popular Sales Engagement Platforms out there.
Here are the instructions to get started:
- Download Vidyard GoVideo
- Gmail users: Visit Vidyard.com/GoVideo to create an account and download their Google Chrome Extension (it’s free)
- Outlook users: Login to your Outlook account, go to Manage Add-Ins and search for the Vidyard GoVideo add-in
- Open your email account
- Click the Vidyard GoVideo extension in your Chrome Browser
- Now it’s time to record!
What To Say In Your Video Prospecting Emails
Best Practices
We've sent thousands of videos for our clients and for our own prospecting. Here's what works best:
- Use a whiteboard or piece of paper to write the prospect’s name on (this image will be embedded into the email)
- Make eye contact with the camera
- SMILE
- Make sure you have good lighting in your room or office
- Don’t worry about using a professional backdrop
- Keep video length between 30-90 seconds
What To Say In The Video Prospecting Pitch
Here's a script of what to say:
Hi [prospect’s first name],
[your name], here. Wanted to send over a quick video to you!
[address a challenge your prospect is experiencing]
Wasn’t sure if this is a challenge you’re having at the moment, but one of the ways we help [ICP or persona] is [your value prop].
[CTA to hop on a call]
Looking forward to chatting!
Here are a few sample videos we've sent to prospects when doing cold outreach:
Podcast Pitch (click here to watch)
Prospecting Pitch (click here to watch)
Vidyard has a great resource hub for more ideas and examples of video prospecting. Check it out here.
What To Say In The Video Prospecting Email
In their analysis, SalesLoft concluded that “sales professionals who place videos after the first 10% but before the halfway point of an email see the biggest increase in replies.”
The bottom line is that the same principles still apply when writing cold emails with embedded videos. They need to be short, concise, and to the point.
Put the video as close as possible to the top of the email so that the prospect doesn’t have to scroll on their phone or desktop to click and watch it.
Hit send and you’re good to go!
Sources:
Want more?
Make sure to grab the PDF guide to video prospecting here.
More helpful resources:
- Using the REPLY Method to increase responses and set more meetings
- Jason Bay and Will Bachman talk about using customized video messages for business development on the Unleashed Podcast
- Jason Bay and Pat Helmers talk about How To Prospect for Leads Using Video on the Sales Babble Podcast
- Jason Bay and Jeffrey Gitomer and Jennifer Gluckow talk about prospecting best practices and video prospecting on the Sell or Die! Podcast
- Jason Bay and Donald Kelly talk about changing the email game on the Sales Evangelist Podcast
Think outside the script
Motivate your team, save pipeline, and arm your reps with fresh prospecting tactics
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