Imagine a salesperson that doesn’t call in sick
Imagine a salesperson that never calls in sick
by: PAUL BRENT
Are you “blessed” with a complex service or product offering that doesn’t lend itself to a 15-second elevator pitch?
Creating a virtual salesperson who doesn’t get sick, tired or quit for a higher-paying job, can be just the answer to pitching that complex product.
Marrying the power of pictures (in pre-Web days they were worth a thousand words each) with the cost effectiveness of the internet, web-based videos enables companies to cheaply communicate complicated product benefits. Consider it a big stick with which to whack larger rivals who, with an army of salespeople making cold calls, always won.
Hiring a “salesperson that never sleeps” to explain a product’s benefits and applications to potential clients anytime, anywhere, paid off for Interchange Solutions Inc., a Markham, Ont.-based provider of customer relation management software sold under the Salesnow and Salesplace names.
In terms of return on investment for a marketing spend, the online Flash demos have probably been the best we have ever had,” says John Durst, vice-president of sales and marketing with Interchange Solutions. Interchange has been using online salespeople since 2006.
“One of my sales strategies is to drive people to watch the video because they can experience it at their own pace,” Mr. Durst says. “Anytime I talk to people it is ‘Okay, go see the video.’ Everything we do— e-mails, broadcast or subscription—I am always putting the [video URL] in.”
Recently, Mr. Durst purchased one-gigabyte USB memory keys and loaded a version of its video to hand out to potential customers. However, he cautions putting your company’s best face forward on the Net is not cheap if done professionally.
Interchange Solutions’ videos cost about $20,000 apiece when scripts, actors and professional compression and formatting for seamless streaming are tallied. “A lot of the impression a customer will have of us will be from this video,” he says.
In the close-knit world of CRM software, Interchange Solutions has received praise from rivals Mr. Durst says should be copying the strategy, but can’t muster the corporate will to plan, budget and produce similar efforts. “You need a great script, you need to do a lot of thinking to keep it clean and not too long, it has to be generic enough to have staying power because it is expensive. We are in the software business so we are changing daily not weekly so we have made it so it covers the core concepts.”
Interchange Solutions has used off-the-shelf programs to create its videos but found the quality was not comparable to professionally produced product videos and that they frequently froze up computers of people viewing them.
Its video was produced by eMotion Picture Studios of Burlington, Ont., a big believer in the power of the Internet to enable smaller companies to go up against larger rivals and win.
“Video on the Internet surpassed television for total minutes watched worldwide and in fact YouTube single-handedly surpassed all television worldwide for total minutes of video watched,” says Scott Wilson, president of eMotion.
While TV viewers tend to flip channels or leave the room to avoid commercials, they are more pre-disposed to well-packaged product come-ons when they appear on a company’s Web site, he says.
While eMotion’s bread-and-butter business is producing videos for businesses, Mr. Wilson has some tips for do-it-yourself video presence online.
K.I.S.S. (Keep It Short Stupid) If the video is a marketing tool make sure the total length does not exceed 90 seconds. “We have statistics that show high bounce rates after 90 seconds of marketing message. Training or product demonstration videos can be longer as viewer patience is greater.
Remember you are selling. Create a call to action throughout the video and always finish with a call to action.
Push “play” for viewers. Although this contradicts what many online marketers say, there is evidence creating auto-play on the video, if done correctly, can improve your visitor usage times and your conversions. This can be risky because videos that auto play with a loud or aggressive beginning have high bounce rates. Video that auto plays with a pleasant start has the opposite affect. If you add auto-play, closely monitor your analytics or log files to ensure the video is helping, not hindering.
Don’t be a repeat offender. If you do use auto play add script that places the video into pause mode if the user revisits your Web site. It is annoying to have the video restart everytime you land on the page.
Financial Post
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