THINK OUTSIDE THE SLIDE: Video Presentations and the Future of Sales

A sales presentation nowadays isn’t what it used to be. The stereotypical boardroom sales pitch festooned with slides, charts, and those awkward, strategically-placed jokes has become a thing of the past. Making a sales proposal today is a multimedia event that requires a creative strategy and bold vision to make an immediate and lasting impact on your potential business partners. And with 52% of marketers now saying that video content provides the best ROI, it’s no wonder that the video sales pitch is becoming as trendy as it’s been effective.

In this article, we’ll first walk you through the various types of video presentations used in today’s sales world. From there, we’ll explore the effect that videos are having on the marketing funnel and just why it is that they’re inspiring such commitment from businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Most Common Types of Sales Videos

The Personal Introduction

Email marketing has proved to be one of the most effective outreach methods for B2B marketers. But with dozens of emails loading up inboxes each day, composing an email that draws in recipients is the real key to an effective email campaign. Studies show that adding video alone will increase click rates by a staggering 300%!

As far as email marketing goes, the personal introduction is the first step. The concept here is simple. In no more than 60 seconds, a member, or several members of their team will introduce themselves, and their value proposition in the simplest of terms.

Keep It Simple

Think of it as a teaser. With no much more than a laptop or phone camera, or a simple tripod setup, you can instantly put a face to your business and make the first step a memorable one.

Putting a Face to Your Pitch

The secret within videos is their ability to immediately connect viewers with a face. After countless text-driven emails, a personal introduction via video is bound to attract not only attention, but the viewer’s retention. And while, it’s not a full-on pitch, personal introductions have become one of the most effective forms of videos used in email marketing campaigns.

The Product/Software Demonstration Video

Whether you’re using a YouTube channel or another video content platform, demo videos are proven, indispensable resources for your audience. For sales outreach, product (or software) demos are great ways to walk the viewer through the ins and outs of your product. Before making a big buying decision, consumers often look to video for reassurance. Tubular Insights reported that 64% of consumers watch video online before making a purchase. Delivering information is one thing; but proving that your product is easy, intuitive, and actually works is what buyers are really looking for.

When making a product or software demo, make sure you put in the time and effort to make sure your video looks nice and is free of distractions. So if you’re recording a demo via screen sharing, make sure you have all your tabs open, notifications turned off, and the demo process is laid out ahead of time. Many people make the mistake or rushing their demos and throwing in jargon that may confuse the viewer. So, it’s important to imagine that you are teaching people with no familiarity of your product. Scripts can really be a video’s best friend. Use them!

The Marketing Pitch Video

If there’s any video that has overtaken the slides of a sales presentation, it’s the marketing pitch video. While a marketing sales pitch video could be anything from an extended commercial, to a testimonial, to a product, the dynamic possibilities and demand for marketing videos are leading them to overtake—and even augment—traditional sales pitches.

Biteable’s research shows that 59% of executives would rather see video than read text. When it comes to nailing a presentation, the possibilities are endless. How to serve up the right video to intrigue your audience is up to you, but the best proposal videos seem to offer a bit of everything. Mixing together elements of testimonial interviews with statistics, and educational information is a good place to start. From there, the best marketing pitch videos are ones that appeal to the viewer on an individual level, without talking down to them.

The Pre-Recorded Pitch

It wasn’t that long ago when PowerPoint reigned supreme as the platform of choice for sales presentation. Though the traditional sales pitch does still exist, new applications and platforms are setting out to rethink how we make our video presentations. The most popular of new features is the pre-recorded pitch.

Software programs like Soapbox, and many others are reinventing the sales presentation through new tools that help the sales pitch become more personal. Plenty of the features in such programs revolve around video. Through selfie cams, screen grabs, and transitions, the pre-recorded pitch is a natural evolution of the sales pitch. Only with it, video is no longer just supplementary, but now vital to the recorded presentation.  

What Else Can Videos Offer?

In 2019, 81% of businesses said they used video as a marketing tool (up from 63% the year before). Video content is shareable, relatable, and above all, a powerful method to reach audiences on a personal level. Simply put, videos tell stories better. But why does that matter when it comes to sales? Aren’t the numbers the ones which should be telling the story?

Real Life ASL Example

Recently, ASL Productions collaborated with Royce Global, an international chemical and color business, to create their company story video. The video takes us through their 90 year history and showcases their unique, family-driven success story. When pitching to potential clients, Royce’s new video conveys their products, services and values while connecting to their audience in a way that traditional presentations do not allow. When you’re showcasing this level of content in your video presentations, it goes without saying, it makes an impact on your audience.

Videos Show a Wider World than Just Charts

Beyond attaching a face to a product, video presentations attach people, places, and things to a business. The full scope of storytelling is on display. So why risk putting the pitch in the hands of an uninspiring speaker with a pie chart, when you can dazzle perspective clients with a sharp, imaginative video?

They Build Confidence Through Real Stories

We mentioned already how videos are a favorite tool of executives as well as consumers at home. With mobile video consumption rising by 100% each year, videos are reaching more and more people everyday. Social media’s meteoric rise is played a part in making marketing more personal than ever. And with authenticity playing a bigger role in marketing than ever, stories matter! Through testimonial videos, business profile videos, and branded video content, marketers are connecting their experiences with their audiences’, and video happens to be the preferred method.

People Retain Information Better from Video

According to Insivia, viewers are likely to retain 95% of a message when seen in a video versus 10% retention through text-based messaging. For sales teams, this is not only a good way to reach potential clients, but also a sure-fire method to make sure your name is remembered down the road.

Videos are More Likely Inspire Action

Calls-to-Action, or CTAs, is vital to the life cycle of the sales funnel. Driving the viewer to further action, whether it’s visiting a website or making a phone call, is the final step before a buying decision is made. Forbes’ studies show that 65% of viewers are likely to visit a website after watching a marketing video.

So whether it’s through a new email marketing campaign or a pre-recorded sales video presentations, the impact of sales videos is proving to be an asset that is surpassing the imagination of any salesperson drudging up another PowerPoint stuff with bullet points and bar graphs.