The new year brings new opportunities and new challenges. In 2009, we will all be working harder to attract prospects and land sales. We will need to be more creative to establish and maintain top-of-mind presence.
No matter what our profession, we all do one or two things many times. Video yourself doing it once and put the video to work. Whether it's marketing, customer service, training, or consulting, video allows you to say it once, say it well and be persuasive and consistent.
Delegate step 1 of the sales cycle to a video to handle FAQs. Remember the 80-20 rule? In this case 80% of your prospects go to your website or call you to get the answers to the same 5 questions. Shoot and edit a great video of you perfectly articulating the answers to each question.
Video yourself and staff. People do business with those they like and trust. They can get comfortable with you and your company with video. Another benefit of video is that as you watch yourself on tape you will be able to improve your sales pitch, body language and overall presentations.
Qualify your prospects. After the prospect watches the video two things will happen:
1.Those who are uninterested are weeded out without wasting your valuable time, because
2.Those interested will contact you directly. He or she will be a more educated prospect and more willing to get down to business, thus shortening your sales cycle. You will be able to focus your time on more fruitful sales activities --- growing relationships and closing sales.
Once you bring in the new client, keep them happy and manage your time with videos. In 2008, how many stock brokers and financial planners received the same frantic phone call from 80% of their clients? All of the ones that I know! What I recommended to one financial planner was to create a "market update" video and email it to all his clients. He told me later that not only was call volume cut in half but many clients appreciated his personalized explanation. His clients were so pleased that they forwarded the video to their friends and several became new clients. Video stimulates word-of-mouth advertising.
You probably aren't a financial planner but you do communicate updates, seasonal specials and other information to your clients periodically. Time is still money; send a video.
Next month I will discuss how to create your own web video.
