Boost Slumping Sales With Video

Business-to-business sales organizations that regularly employ video technologies tend to perform better, faster, and more effectively than those that don’t, research from the Aberdeen Group indicated. Best-in-class performers are 26 percent more likely to use Web and videoconferencing tools, according to the research, which was part of Aberdeen’s 2015 Sales Effectiveness survey. Furthermore, video-enabled teams reported 9 percent higher customer retention rates, and 8 percent more reps reached their quotas when video was used.

“The numbers don’t lie,” Peter Ostrow, an Aberdeen Group vice president and research group director, confirmed in a mid-February video presentation. “On a year-to-year basis, companies that support their sellers with video improve CRM adoption more than others, and are above the line in terms of growing deal size, growing customer retention, and improving their sales forecast accuracy.”

Conversely, sales teams that don’t use video are “just not cutting it,” Ostrow noted, and added “their performance is diminishing on a year-to-year basis.”

What is it about videos that make them so helpful to salespeople? Video enables salespeople to stand out from competitors who are still relying more heavily on phone conversations and email containing static photos of their products. Additionally, video-tracking software can help gauge interest by revealing if, and when, a prospect has viewed a video.

This is music to many salespeople’s ears, as the amount of time wasted prospecting uninterested leads is one of their top concerns. In fact, more than half (52 percent) of companies listed this as their leading nuisance, according to Aberdeen’s data.

“The digital body language we get from the data…combined with the physical and literal body language can be very powerful as a tool that helps sellers be more efficient in terms of [deciding] which rabbit holes not to chase down,” Ostrow said.

But even if a prospect is not interested, all might not be lost. To regain positioning with an uninterested lead, salespeople can leverage video to add a personal touch to their conversations. Ostrow stated this will ultimately increase the likelihood of re-engagement.

Some videoconferencing and collaboration products available now include Cisco WebEx, GoToMeeting, Adobe Connect, PGi’s iMeet, and ClearSlide’s Email Pitch.