When it comes to creating effective sales tools, where do you start? You need something that your sales team actually wants to use. You have to deliver the information accurately. It needs to be straightforward, easy to distribute, and scalable.

In the past, many companies relied on printed materials to meet these needs. They could write straightforward copy, design a layout, and then print as much as they thought they needed. That said, we’ve all seen these materials stacked in dusty boxes in an empty cubicle or conference room in the office. Lots of wasted paper and energy.

So what do you do? What medium can be interesting, informative, persuasive, encouraging, easily distributed and updated, and effective? Enter video.

Maybe you’ve made videos for your team in the past. Yes, it was easy to send to people or post on your server or intranet. But no one watched it. Or used it. Or liked it.

Let’s talk about some ways to harness the value of video for your sales team and make a sales or marketing video that works.

Your next piece of sales content should be a video because video:

1. Uses emotion to drive engagement and effectiveness
2. Distills complicated messaging into clear takeaways in minutes
3. Is more shareable than other sales enablement content
4. Brings the digital and physical worlds together

Videos use emotion to drive engagement and effectiveness

When you think of sales videos, you often think of boring explainer animations describing a product or service in technical or process-driven terms. While these videos might get all of the information in there, it makes for a pretty uninviting way to spend 5-10 (sometimes 20) minutes. Instead of making a video with a laundry list of RTBs or steps in a process, spend some time thinking about how to frame the information in a way that inspires emotion and drives action.

The part of our brains that processes emotion (limbic system) works faster than our rational brain. In fact, the emotional brain processes in about one-fifth of the time of our rational brain. That means appeals to our emotions grab our attention first. For your brand or organization to cut through the clutter, you must grab people's attention. Your video strategy needs to focus on creating an emotional appeal.

In addition to impacting individual thought processes in the moment, emotions also drive communication between people. A study found that only 10% of our emotions are kept secret/not shared. That means if you want to get people talking about and engaging with your organization — speak to their emotions. Create a video that inspires happiness, sadness, fear/surprise, anger/disgust and watch people connect, engage, purchase, and advocate for your brand, products, and services.

Sales videos allow you to distill complicated messaging into clear takeaways in minutes

Video is great for distilling complex sales messages down to understandable, relatable, and engaging content.

Let’s say you’re releasing a new AI-powered solution that will change the world of supply chain planning and fulfillment. And you need to quickly educate your consultants on the solution, how it works, and how it can deliver more value for your clients. You could write up a bunch of copy with some visuals/graphs/charts and toss it on your website and intranet. Or send out an email blast with a PDF attached.

Or, you could take your thinking a step further. You could come up with an analogy to describe what the new solution does. Maybe comparing it to a command center that moves all of the right pieces and parts without oversight. Then, you could leverage that analogy to make an action video that follows the journey of a command center as they solve a supply chain/fulfillment crisis from start to finish.

Seem like a really specific example? Yeah, because we did that. Watch the resulting spot below.

Which approach to the messaging and medium is going to be more compelling? Which distilled the solution into a simple, compelling format for your sales team to remember, reference in quick chats, and easily use as an opener in pitches?

‍In fact, 69% of online consumers prefer to watch a video. That means your colleagues, prospects, and customers, too! I'd be willing to bet that number would shoot even higher if you told people the topic was supply chain planning and fulfillment, and the alternative to watching the video is reading a 20 page report. Meet your audience where they are in order to get them where you want them to be. Video is the dominant form of communication at present and for the foreseeable future. Take advantage of it!

Video content is easily shareable

Have you ever had a friend or colleague show you a video and immediately asked them to send it to you? Or referenced a study or written material during a presentation and had to tell a prospect “we’ll send this as an attachment later...”? How much easier would it have been to quickly show or send them a video? In my experience — much easier. While attention spans aren’t necessarily shrinking, people are becoming more selective about the content they engage with. Make your content easy to pick! Make it accessible and entertaining. Make a video.

Videos can also support your clients as they try to sell your solution to key stakeholders. Instead of banking on their memory or notes from a sales call, clients can easily show people your video. It ensures the information is presented in the way you intended, with only a minor investment of time and effort falling onto your client's shoulders. This makes your client's life easier, your messaging distribution more accurate and poignant, and results in a more targeted sale and close.

Sales enablement videos bring the digital and physical worlds together

Virtual/augmented reality are providing new avenues for connecting with audiences in marketing and advertising. VR/AR takes video to a whole new level with experts testing the medium to simulate real-life situations for training, providing deeper, more personal experiences for property and resort tours, and helping people engage with products like never before. Seeing how a dining room table and chair set fits and looks in your living room or participating in a hands-on training exercise brings a lot more to your experience than reading the table specs on a website or watching an explainer training video.

And early reports show much better recall for experiential approaches (see it/do it) vs more traditional content (read about it/watch us do it). The trails being blazed with video and experiential content are just starting to come into view. Keep this in mind as you explore the best ways to approach your sales content.

When all is said and done, it comes down to one question – why video?

• Video provides you with the most effective way to create a story and evoke emotion for wide-ranging topics.
• Video is a great way to take complicated messaging and simplify it in a way that your team can understand, remember, and accurately/consistently explain to prospects and clients.
• Video is easy to scale, distribute, and update when needed.
• Video opens doors to newer tech and experiential marketing, allowing you to explore virtual reality, augmented reality, and whatever comes next.
• People want to watch video!

‍

If you're ready to make your video, check out our buyer's guide to video production companies.