Video Across the Sales Cycle: An Interview with Trish Bertuzzi

If you work in sales, then chances are you’ve read an article, listened to a podcast, or attended a conference session about how video can improve your outreach. We know there are a ton of companies that are excited to use video to make sales more personal, but for the most part, video is still only being used by early adopters and in very limited ways.

According to a recent report by The Bridge Group, an inside sales consulting firm, “Video creation, distribution, and tracking remains in the early adopter stage [for sales teams].” At Wistia, video is baked into our sales process from start to finish — but this report made it clear that we’re not necessarily the norm. That’s why we reached out to our friend and inside sales expert, Trish Bertuzzi, to discuss what it might take for sales teams to further adopt video at their businesses. Let’s dive into our conversation and what we learned!

Trish is the founder of The Bridge Group and author of The Sales Development Playbook. She’s spent the last two decades helping companies unleash the power of Inside Sales. In our interview, we discuss whether or not video in sales is a trend, critique the most common ways salespeople use video, and share opinions on how video can impact a variety of points in your sales cycle.

How sales teams are using video

1. Awareness and prospecting videos

When done well, awareness and prospecting videos can help an outbound team stand out in a sea full of dull emails and banal voicemail messages. We’ve seen sales reps send quick (less than 30-second) videos introducing themselves and their product or providing a sneak peek at what would be covered in a demo. Ultimately, prospecting videos should lead to more meetings or faster disqualification — both are considered wins.

2. Decision enabling videos

Inbound teams are leveraging video to accelerate deals, add clarity, and tie up loose ends. These videos can move deals forward faster. Wistia’s own Sales team will often send a demo follow-up video that reiterates what was discussed on the call and outline a plan for next steps. We also have customers who use videos as to explain more nuanced specifics of their product or the deal itself.

“If you’re a sales rep, you know a best practice is to send a summary of the conversation. When you do a video summary, it can be shared across a large audience, and I think it’s a really good way to recap that takes you only a minute. Doing something that’s different really matters.”

Trish has personally seen success sending these videos herself. When it was hard to book time with key decision makers at a company, she sent a quick video to keep things moving along.

3. Relationship management and lifecycle videos

The goals of these videos are to continue the relationship and set the customer up for success in the long term. Think about a “handoff” video that introduces a customer to the success team or account manager who will be working with them moving forward. This approach leverages the power of video to build relationships at scale.

“You work your butt off to get the deal, and now you have to hand it over to Customer Success. You have a relationship with your buyer — they know your voice, they know you, they have a sense for you. I think this is a really interesting way to do a handoff, with a joint introduction video. It’s a beautiful human way to do a handoff that’s incredibly valuable.”

Thinking big about video and sales

Why salespeople are warming up to video

Your sales team’s success will increasingly rely on their ability to build relationships with your prospects and customers. Video can help convey authenticity and trustworthiness which is important since most of us want to buy from real people who care about our success.

Recording webcam videos is also a fantastic way to make content on-demand. For people who don’t have time to context switch throughout their typical nine-to-five, your videos can provide after-hours education. Reducing the friction between you and your prospect with video is a great way to ensure that you’re communicating with them in a way that suits their schedules and preferences best.

Gaps in the current sales conversation

As with any communication, it’s very important to know your audience. Modern Sales Pros, The Bridge Group, and Sales Hackers published an e-book that explores buyer preferences across different personas. They found that in terms of consuming content, sales buyers love videos while marketers generally prefer to read white papers. Any sales strategy should optimize for delivering value in the way that’s most compelling to the buyer.

“You have to figure out not only where in the sales process do you want to use video, but who in your buyer personas are most likely to want to consume video.”

How to get started with video

Establishing the right environment and culture is key to adopting video at any organization. Your team’s success starts with setting the right expectations. You can be supportive of your video champions while also acknowledging that making videos may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Providing training on basic public speaking skills and how to set up your office environment for a quick video can go a long way in terms of empowering your team.

“I think just a little bit of training around presentation skills would help. Just investing in the success of video would make a big difference for companies.”

Having a designated area of the office for recording might also help people feel comfortable on camera. Spruce up a conference room or explore investing in a low-cost production solution to ensure your videos are in tip-top shape!

Understanding video’s place in sales

At Wistia, we’re excited about how video can make sales emails more powerful and personal. When so much of our communication happens via text, it’s easy to lose nuance and all the things that make us human — and who wants that?

Video can help you build stronger relationships with your prospects, faster, and that’s why we’re so pumped to be building the tools to help power your sales team’s video efforts! We hope this interview inspires you to think more about how you can start adding video to your own sales process moving forward. Let us know how it goes!