sales enablement

How to Build a Sales Funnel with Video

March 30, 2022March 30, 2022 David Beauchamp

Sales are vital to any business. After all, it’s hard to make money if you don’t sell anything! But even though they may be critical, they can also be quite challenging if you don’t know what you’re doing. This sales funnel with video guide will walk you through the basics of building a sales funnel with OneMob so that you can take advantage of opportunities and make the most out of your marketing efforts. Here’s how to build a sales funnel with video in five easy steps.

Why Video

Your customers prefer video. In fact, 92% of consumers say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. If you want to build trust and drive sales, you need high-quality videos that explain your value proposition and help users take action. Whether you’re working on building awareness, encouraging conversion or sending customers down your marketing funnel, creating videos is a great way to make an impact on your audience.

Step 1: Finding A Niche (and an email list)

Your niche (e.g., car insurance) is where you spend most of your time and energy. When you have enough traffic, you can focus on other niches (e.g., mortgage insurance). The key is finding an audience interested in what you have to say and then building that email list!

Step 2: Setting Goals and Objectives

It’s not enough to know what you want; in order to get it, you need SMART goals. They are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based (SMART). In other words, your goals must be clearly defined so that every step of your sales funnel contributes towards achieving them. This applies from top to bottom—from marketing campaign all the way down to each call-to-action on your page. A good goal is well-defined, quantifiable and actionable; but most importantly, it’s realistic—not too hard or easy for customers to achieve. Be sure that each element in your funnel is designed to lead people forward towards taking whatever next step gets them closer to completing their goal(s) before they leave without doing anything at all. This means better microsites, more effective calls-to-action and more targeted content throughout your campaign or microsite experience will help make sure they take those final steps toward converting visitors into leads into clients then repeat customers!

Step 3: Choosing The Right Format For Videos

The biggest challenge in creating sales videos is choosing what format is best. You have many choices, including live action video, animated or whiteboard videos, or even product demos done in PowerPoint or Keynote. It’s important to pick a format that tells your story most effectively. If you’re selling an e-book about weight loss for moms, for example, it makes sense to use an animated whiteboard video that’s easy on viewers’ eyes and keeps them engaged. After finding the right format, upload to your OneMob library and use it as your featured video on your microsite.

Step 4: Developing The Best Sales Copy And Microsite

If you want to create an effective sales funnel and convert your website visitors into leads and customers, it’s important that you understand how each piece of your online presence—from microsite, content selection, call-to-action and email copy—relates to one another. These elements must be complementary in order for people to take action. This means you need fully developed concepts that tie into each other so your prospects can follow through. The best OneMobs combine those elements within microsites. Follow best video practices for a good video that clearly shares what content you want your customer to interact with on the microsite and what action step you want them to take after engaging with the microsite.

Step 5: Build the top, middle and bottom of the funnel

Create Awareness at the Top of the Funnel

The awareness stage of your sales funnel is where you should establish brand loyalty and familiarize new prospects with your product or service. It’s essential that you do everything possible to get their attention, but also be sure that they can easily find out more information on their own if they choose. Your goal in these first moments of contact is simply to grab their attention—if people are interested enough in learning more about what you have to offer, they will take action. After all, one email address won’t put food on your table unless you start building relationships with others down in subsequent stages of your funnel. You need those people ready and waiting when it comes time for them to buy (or buy again). Your ultimate goal at this stage is simply getting people into contact with what you have to offer.

Put another way, they won’t know that your solution is ideal if they don’t fully understand what challenges they face. This stage is all about educating them about the problem. Here are some videos you can create to do that.

Educational Videos

Buyers lack information at the beginning of their journey to find a solution. This is where becoming their guide can pay off. And becoming a guide means creating videos that answer quick questions, as in the Watermelon Media video below. The video explains what content marketing is in a short, animated, easy-to-understand way.

Explainer Videos

Explainer videos are a staple in digital marketing. They discuss complex concepts in simple language, giving viewers a better understanding of what your solution offers and how it works.

Using visually interesting graphics and animations, this OneMob Video explains how OneMob can help businesses improve outreach by combining context, content and calls-to-action:

Short Video Ads Identifying Problems

Short ads can be highly effective when executed well. This 61 second ad reveals a problem truckers face and how much help Corinna is offering to solve the problem.

Drive Consideration at the Middle of the Funnel

Marketing works best when it leads people through a sales funnel, starting with awareness, then interest, then desire and finally action. Building your product messaging at each stage of that funnel is crucial. For example, in that first phase—awareness—potential customers should understand what your product does and why they need it. During interest you’ll want them to get more information about features and pricing. And in desire you’ll want them to sign up for early access or pre-sale offers. Each piece of your messaging should build on one another until you get someone all the way through your funnel so that you can then convert that visitor into a customer.

Here you want to focus on specifics, including how your product works, why it works in a certain way, and even the alternatives available and why they aren’t the ideal solution.

Product Intro Videos

Videos that introduce your product and how it works are critical for buyers. The goal of this OneMob Video is to show how helpful it is to use OneMob. If you’re a potential buyer who’s strapped for time, watching a 1.5 minute rundown of OneMob is a quick win.

Tutorials

Tutorials provide prospects with a more in-depth experience of your offering. This type of video is ideal for prospects who are considering their options and want to take a closer look at what your product can really do for them.

This OneMob Video is to peel back the curtain on what buyers need to know about using OneMob. The video teaches beginners how to create a campaign in OneMob and share with potential customers.

Influence Decision-Making at the Bottom of the Funnel

Prospects are most likely to make decisions that allow you to move them down your sales funnel. This is when they’re beginning to come around, so it’s important not only that you present valuable information, but also that your sales staff can convince prospects that they’re on their side. If you don’t have access to sales people, give prospects something of value in exchange for their contact information—something no one else is offering. Something as simple as free advice or a $100 coupon code might be enough. Be sure that whatever you provide demonstrates how much better off customers will be after working with you (better than what they had before). Provide good content and customers will decide where to spend their money by themselves. You just need to show them how worthwhile your offer is and what it offers beyond its obvious benefits.

The Relationship Gets Stronger at the Bottom of Your Funnel: Even if everything goes perfectly from top to bottom, some potential customers won’t convert because they either lack time or money (or both) or just aren’t interested at all—regardless of what you do or say. At least then, though, you know where you stand!

This is where you have an opportunity for the sale, so focus on content that will help convert leads into customers. This often involves reinforcing ideas shared at the middle of the funnel.

Demo Videos

OneMob’s abilities and functions are shown in this short demo that reveals the true benefits within the software.

Customer Testimonial Videos

According to social proof theory, a person who doesn’t know the proper behavior for a certain situation will imitate the behavior of others and look for guidance for their actions. Using video testimonials at the bottom of your funnel is a great way to inject some social proof into your buyer’s journey.

But don’t just scratch the surface or be vague in your video. Give specifics and create a story that’s worth watching, especially for buyers looking to be convinced that yours is indeed the right solution.

In this testimonial video, Kevin explains how OneMob helps him reach more customers.

Bonus Step:

Getting Traffic To The Funnel

There are three primary methods for generating traffic—viral, pay-per-click (PPC), and SEO. Viral traffic requires you to convince people you know, like and trust that your product/service is something they would want to share. This kind of traffic comes at a cost, however: It takes time and effort. You have to be willing to give away your products or services in order for others to spread word about them. PPC is like viral traffic except it doesn’t rely on personal connections, which makes it easier but also more expensive. SEO means using search engine optimization techniques to get found by search engines like Google and Bing. While these may not generate instant sales right away, they do drive qualified prospects through your sales funnel over time. Research each method thoroughly before deciding what works best for you. Each business has different goals, requirements and limits so you’ll need to find one that fits just right. Now let’s build a successful sales funnel with your OneMob’s filling the front end of the funnel!

Email us at sales@onemob.com to learn more about getting your OneMob account to build your next great sales funnel.

LinkedIn closes $10K with OneMob

January 29, 2018July 27, 2018 Sati Hillyer

We believe there’s 3 fundamental tools to build a successful sales engine.

A powerful CRM that can really grow with your business and track all the interactions your reps are having with their prospects and customers. Our favorite is Salesforce.
A relationship engine. There is no reason whatsoever your reps should be selling cold, there’s just too much great data and people out there to make things a bit warmer. Our favorite is LinkedIn.
A communication platform that’s evolving with the time. Let’s face it, video is the new document and it’s sweeping B2B as the new form of outreach.

So when we had a chance to work with Jesse Rothstein and Robbie Goldberg from LinkedIn, we were so excited to see the results because they get it! We asked them to try out OneMob and tell us if it really helped them connect and sell.

The results were nothing short of amazing!

Robbie recorded 6 personal OneMobs for 6 clients that had gone dark. Isn’t that the worst? What happened? Why won’t you return my calls?!?! Regardless, this was the last attempt to reach out to these 6 clients to see if there’s a deal to be made. Here’s what happened next:

What really surprised them was the meaningful responses they received. Most of them apologetic for “dropping off radar” and impressed by the personal touch. But the real delight was within 3 weeks, a response turned into a breakfast meeting, which turned into a $10K proposal and ultimately closed. Nice work fellas!

Jesse later emailed us and said, “Robbie and I closed the…deal (10K) this morning…please note that we were able to re-engage and get the ball rolling with…after Robbie’s OneMob video.”

If you’d like to experience similar results to LinkedIn, give us a shot.

OneMob Heats Up Sales Enablement with Award from Aragon Research

December 15, 2015December 16, 2015 Sati Hillyer

DECEMBER, 2016 – While things are getting chilly in the Bay Area this winter, the Sales Enablement space is only getting hotter. That’s because OneMob was named a Hot Vendor in 2015 by Aragon Research. The technology research and advisory firm held their annual award ceremony earlier this month in Palo Alto, California, where they named the best Sales Enablement vendors who are helping sales organizations sell more effectively and predictably through innovative and cutting edge technology. OneMob was recognized at the event as one of the winners, where CEO Sati Hillyer accepted the award on the behalf of the OneMob team.

A huge thank you to Aragon Research for this award! To learn more about how OneMob helps companies like Cisco, Yelp and LinkedIn utilize video messaging in their sales outreach and customer engagement, contact us and get started with a free trial.

“After the Beep, Shoot Me an Email”

November 17, 2015February 9, 2016 Sati Hillyer

Cold calling. You’ve done it a million times, and will probably do so a million more. But we keep hearing same the questions pop up in trending sales discussions and articles everywhere. Is it effective or is it outdated? Will we ever move away from it? Is there a better method? A practice endangered to extinction, social sellers everywhere are pronouncing cold calling nearly dead. With so much back and forth, what’s a salesperson to do? The answer isn’t to stop cold calling- it’s to stop leaving voicemails.

The Challenge

As every salesperson knows, making initial contact is the hardest part. Picking up the phone has long been the first step in this process. If someone answers your call, great. But when you’re sent straight to voicemail, that’s where things start to go downhill. It used to take about three to four calls to reach a prospect. Given our increased mobility and new modes of communication, the number of attempts has doubled. On average, less than 1% of calls get returned and less than 2% of those calls result in booked meetings. So what does this mean? It means that there’s a fundamental hole in the way sales teams are reaching out to prospects.

Communication is Broken

Simply put, leaving voicemails is no longer very effective. We’ve all been in the situation where, upon seeing a missed call and voicemail from a friend or relative, you choose to call back without listening to the message. “Did you get my message?” they ask. “No,” you reply, “but I saw that you called.” Unfortunately, the business world doesn’t operate in the same way, and your prospect is not going to call you right back. According to Business Insider only 33% of people listen to voicemails from business contacts daily, and only 18% listen to voicemails from numbers they don’t recognize. Meaning, four out of five of your cold voicemails aren’t even being played. I’m not suggesting that you put down the phone indefinitely. Real-time verbal communication is absolutely essential. But when you do get sent to voicemail dungeon, you need to be more strategic with your follow up.

Resolution

As evidenced by text and email, much of our communication has evolved from verbal to visual. InsideSales reported that the top three forms of messaging that people respond to are email, office phone calls and cell phone calls. Clearly, people are choosing their email inboxes over their voicemail boxes. But even those are becoming inundated with mass amounts of generic messaging. As text becomes less compelling, what is the next medium that will catch, and hold, our attention?

It’s time to take a step back and re-examine our methods. Don’t let an unreturned voicemail slow down your sales cycle. Following up with email is still more effective, but even those can get lost in the mix. So how can you ensure your emails are not only being read, but eliciting more and higher quality responses?

Personalize Your Outreach

Putting a face to a name goes a long way. When someone sees a smile and hears a voice, a sense of trust and a layer of objectivity is established around that individual and their context. Not like in an email, where a text-based barrier makes it difficult to accurately express yourself in letters, fonts and whitespace. And more often than not, your messages are being misinterpreted. With video, this is unmistakable. You’re essentially unmasking yourself and gaining more credibility with your viewers. People don’t want to be sold to. Buyers want to be engaged on their own time, in a new way that’s more dynamic, less about products and more about their business application. They’ve gathered enough information on their own to form an educated opinion. What they need is an expert, trusted advisor and source of guidance. So how are you going to elevate yourself, get more attention and receive more responses? By personalizing your outreach.

Thankfully, we live in an age where new tools and technologies are making communication easier, more engaging and enjoyable. Video messaging allows people to record, send, watch and reply to each other whenever and wherever it’s convenient for them. Technology has advanced enough to the point where we’re not limited to recording videos on our webcams and uploading them to YouTube. Nor are we required to own expensive DSLRs to record high-quality videos. Look no further than to your smartphones. You use it every day, in x amount of ways. The practice of moving the phone from the ear to the front of the face is becoming less of a novelty, and more of a norm.

At OneMob, we practice what we preach. By incorporating video into our email outreach, we’ve seen increases in our open rates, click-through rates and higher quality responses. See how our customers are getting results with video messaging and contact us to learn more.

Announcing OneMob for Android Mobile

November 10, 2015November 10, 2015 Sati Hillyer

At OneMob, we are firm believers in the union between mobile and video; hence the Mob, or mobile, half of our name. OneMob thrives in mobile, allowing users to maintain an unlimited level of communication on the go. In addition to our iOS, Cisco DX Series and web app platforms, we are excited to bring OneMob to Android mobile users everywhere!

Now Android users can enjoy all the perks of video and voice messaging from their mobile devices. Record and send personal, company branded messages with in-app activity, tracking and analytics to Salesforce. Favorites include logo placement, clip trimming, thumbnail selection and more. Plus, OneMob recipients can reply back with video in the response form, directly from their devices.

With this release comes an Android exclusive feature: Pending Upload. This allows users to record as many videos as they like, no connection required. This way, your creations won’t be lost in case of interruptions, such as an incoming phone call or lost signal. When you regain connection, all your videos will be queued up, ready to go.

OneMob for Android is available now in the the Google Play Store. Download the app today to start video messaging on the go!

Watch Me OneMob – Pt. 1, Sales

November 4, 2015February 9, 2016 Sati Hillyer

Welcome Watch Me OneMob, a three-part series bringing you all the best ways to use OneMob across the entire customer lifecycle. Check out the video below to learn how you can start selling with video.

Breaking In

Make that first impression count and get that first meeting.

Prospect cold outreach: Warm your prospect up to you with a video that shows you’re not an automated robot- no phone required
Welcome an inbound lead: Introduce yourself as a person and a resource for their needs and questions
Follow up to an unreturned call: Send a video reminder that they can watch on their own time.
Final outreach before “closing file:” Make your last shot your best show with a personalised approach
Revive dead leads: Get yourself back on the radar. Take it from these reps at LinkedIn
Introduction after referral: They know who referred you, now it’s time to know you

Building the Relationship

Now that you’ve got the ball in motion, keep the momentum going.

Introduction: Make a smooth handoff from the SDR to Account Exec
Confirm meeting with AE: You’re less likely to get stood up
Agenda set for an upcoming call: consider it a warm up
Summarize meeting: follow up with a quick recap and visual/verbal reminder
Trial status update: Save time by verbally summarizing reports and progress
Share best practices: Show them what works to increase activity and engagement
Stay top of mind: During long sales cycle, don’t let yourself be forgotten

Closing the Deal

The buck doesn’t stop when pen goes to paper.

Show a demo: Whether it’s a product or experience, showing goes farther than telling
Introduction: Make a smooth handoff from Sales to Customer Success or Account Manager
Trial summary: Reinforce the value that you deliver with statistics and improvements
Closing proposal: Be less pricey and more personal. Create a relationship and not just a transaction!
Thought leadership: Share meaningful content or messages from executives
Thank new customers: This is the perfect way show appreciation to customers as well as get referrals and introductions to new opportunities

Why Video Works For (All) Sales Reps

November 3, 2015January 25, 2016 Sati Hillyer

OneMob Head of Sales, Randy Yabes, has been in the B2B sales game for 15 years. Here’s how video messaging helps him perfect his outreach and ultimately close more deals.

The B2B landscape is continually changing. Since the 2000s, we’ve seen the birth of social media, smart phones and SaaS. We’ve also seen the decline or end of the flip phones, rolodexes, fax machines and mostly everything dealing with paper. In order to succeed, you have to adapt. Call it survival of the fittest. Today, sales orgs are inundated with new tools for sales enablement on the daily. Seasoned reps stick to the tried and true since they know what works. But there are some unique ways out there to stand out from the noise. These ideas aren’t only applicable to progressive millennials, and shouldn’t be ignored. Every rep has their preferred methodology, and my new outreach method is video. Here are 5 ways that implementing video in my sales methodology has helped me adapt, break in, form lasting relationships and ultimately close deals.

1) Gives Cold Calling a Break

Cold calling is monotonous and energy draining. It’s awkward, impersonal and often inconvenient for the person on the other end of the line. Reaching out via video is a successfully proven alternative. In this on demand age, sellers need to understand that buyers want to buy on their own time, so why not present information in a way that they can receive whenever they want? Video allows you not only to pitch your product, but really yourself- as a professional, an adviser and as a personality.

2) Shows More Empathy

The tone in your speech affects people’s perception, instantly. Many times, sellers forget what the experience is like for the buyer. Reps are so concerned with delivering the pitch so perfectly that they forget to ask enough questions and really learn about the buyer and their needs. During the middle of a sales cycle, I use video to re-state the purpose of our partnership. Summarizing gets all parties on the same page. Can I do this via email? Probably. But there is no “empathy” font. There is no “insert joke” button (and no, emojis don’t count). Video allows me to deliver a message in a way that says I am here to help, but in a more personal way than text. Stop treating deals like transactions and more like relationships. Showing empathy affords you trust and credibility, which is key to maintaining relationships and ultimately closing more deals.

3) Affords Honest and Direct Feedback

Once I’ve established credibility with my contacts, communication becomes much more direct and efficient. You’re guaranteed to get more direct feedback from someone that knows and likes you – even if it is a “no”. I just want to avoid the two statuses that all salespersons dread – “maybe” and “gone dark”. It’s easier to blow off a response or beat around the bush with someone you don’t know on the other end of the line. Video provides that familiarity. Receiving direct feedback and quicker answers unsure that both of our our times aren’t being wasted.

4) Improves My Pitch

Every salesperson has their signature style and approach. After years of practice, it’s comfortable to get stuck in the same, “proven” routine. But remember, we have to adapt. Since the ways in which we buy, sell and communicate are continually advancing, can you truly step back and see if you are caught up with the times? Training to enhance your routine is best done through video. It’s a crystal clear mirror to see how you look and sound. Golfers record their swing to analyze that hitch. Singers record their voices to hear those flat notes. Why don’t sellers record their potentially stagnant presentations? Seeing my pitch forces me to listen to how I present, poking holes in my normal speech and highlighting possible bad habits and making improvements. It also gives me the opportunity to try something new, such as a new line or sign-off.

5) Keeps Me Optimistic

Selling is one of the toughest jobs because your success is instantly measurable, and success is dependent on buyers making decisions that are in your favor. It’s daunting. It’s tough. But remember this; you are the tip of the sword. You are the first impression that your company makes in a partnership. What inspires me about using a video is this statistic alone: that the average person receives 121 emails a day, a number that is still on the rise. Sending a video itself is already entirely fresh approach to initiating those new conversations and fostering communication. I’m confident and optimistic knowing that I’m delivering something unique from other sales reps because I’m reaching out in a way that’s sincere, unexpected and engaging. The positive feedback that I get from prospects affirms this.

About the Author: Since the early 2000s Randy Yabes has been tasked with building pipelines, growing sales teams and developing structures for companies like Staples, IDG, Extole, Experian Information Solutions, and now OneMob. Connect with him on LinkedIn to see how he’s adapted in the SaaS sales world at startup’s and the Fortune 500’s.

Send Emails that People will Actually Want to Open (and Watch!)

October 29, 2015February 9, 2016 Sati Hillyer

Can you remember the last email that stood out to you? Given that we receive so many emails that are solicitous, transactional and dry, it’s hard to recall. As any professional, this is the last way you want your messaging to come across. Luckily, there are ways to rise above the rest. Taking a few minutes to spice up your emails has proven to make a big difference. The numbers don’t lie- personalised emails deliver 50% higher open rates and 22% higher reply rates. Here are some themes to keep in mind that will make people remember, reopen and refer on your emails

Be Straight

Cut to the chase. Our attention spans are short, so you have a limited amount of words and time to catch and keep someone’s attention. A simple message, without too many ideas and directions, is the easiest to remember.

Make them Unexpected

People expect lame emails and pitches. What they don’t expect is a sharp subject line, a funny GIF or a dynamic video- and those are what stick out. Be counter-intuitive and send something unexpected.

Stay Authentic

Forget the technical jargon, product features and bulleted statistics. Images and videos bring an email to life and encourage engagement. Visual content is substantial, and can translate an idea or experience instantly into a memorable and meaningful concept.

Establish Trust

With consistency comes credibility. Sending current and relevant content on a regular basis builds up your integrity with customers, and will make them more likely to pay attention to and engage with your content.

Evoke emotions

A successful company doesn’t just sell a product, they sell an experience. In the B2B space, it’s buying into relationships as well, which are formed through discovering mutual commonalities and connections and take time to nurture. It’s not enough to communicate and engage through text. Step up your messaging with engaging content in a dynamic format that will truly resonate.

Tell a Story

Relating to my previous point, emotional appeals increase engagement and build rapport. Creating a narrative around your brand captures these emotions and experiences, and takes your viewer on a journey. Make your story about the customer and tailor the information to the individual. This will encourage not only reaction, but action as well.

There are many mediums out there that can capture these ideas, but only one is capable of embodying all five- and it’s video. Video puts a live face to the name, connects sounds and visuals to the story and triggers emotional reactions through the senses. A dynamic video will inform and engage your audience, keeping relationships strong through the entire customer lifecycle. It doesn’t require a lot of time or resources either. There are a number of video platforms that you could choose as your host, but only OneMob gives you the tracking, analytics and freedom of mobility. For tips on how to improve your emails and examples of video use cases, check out our support page.

Video Messaging – the New Kid on the Block

October 27, 2015November 12, 2015 Sati Hillyer

If the rumors are true, then Sales Enablement 3.0 is upon us, and this puts us sales and tech professionals at yet another split in the road: to continue down the current path with our social selling and email tracking, or take a slight left at the bend and see what new concepts have surfaced.

If you’ve had your ear to the ground lately, you’d agree we’re moving towards heavier sales automation, predictive sales intelligence and video messaging. Given sales automation is the most established, and sales intelligence is difficult enough for the wisest and most experienced — take a go with video messaging.

Primarily, we need to understand what video messaging is to the B2B space and then what value it provides to sales messaging and pipeline generation.

What is it?

In its simple elegance, video messaging is recording and sending sales and marketing messaging via email. Sending video in B2B sales, as prospects have told me, is a novel concept. The goal is to create a video for your audience, whether it’s to set a new meeting to a specific person or to promote awareness for your event/cause to a broader audience.

How does it work?

There are a small handful of video messaging platforms for recording and sending video messages. Features and quality vary, including CRM integrations, mobile apps, corporate branding and even DNS set-up for the enterprise crowd. With OneMob you can have all of these features, plus the technology for a recording and sending solution that is both trackable and scalable.

Why would I do such a thing?

1) Video thumbnails deliver the highest CTRs

This is where message differentiation comes into play. The majority of buyers already think you and your competition are more-or-less the same (via The Challenger Sale). If your messaging looks alike, then they’re ignoring your email all the same. That being said, there’s no better means of driving high CTRs than a video thumbnail (MarketingProfs). So if you need your initial message to be received, include a video. This is a personal, digital approach and is best for top tier accounts. Since great sales people take the time to know their audience and tailor their message, do yourself the favor and give your great messaging the best odds of being seen.

2) It doesn’t get more personalized or trustworthy

Sales automation has made sales people seem like robots. There’s minimal room for personalization, so most emails look the same at first glance. Seeing a smiling face, a company logo, plus physically hearing and seeing the sales person carries weight — the type of weight sales people long to replicate via their rare and invaluable face-to-face meetings. If I had a dollar for every time a prospect noted I’m “the guy with a beard from the video” as we began our first meeting, I’d have enough dollars for Chipotle for me and a friend, plus guac.

Keeping in Mind…

Video is an additional outlet to phone calls and emails that go hand-in-hand with any sales position. In a time where sales automation is becoming bigger than ever, video is pitching value via a wider and more consistent net. While phone and email aren’t going away anytime soon, video is looking to be the next accepted addition, creating the Big Three in foundational sales outreach. So, while the sales effectiveness space is preaching volume, video is singing personal touch.

About the Author: Devin Reed is the newest member to the Sales team at OneMob as a Sr. Account Executive and author of The Reeder. Having spent his career in technology sales, specifically on ROI-focused software selling at the executive level, he credits audience analysis as the success of his outreach, along with overcoming the fear of clicking “Send” on those not-so-ordinary emails to top executives.

Your Emails Are Terrible

October 23, 2015February 9, 2016 Sati Hillyer

Yeah, we said it. Here are five, all too common ways that plain text emails are bringing your sales down. The good news? Video helps turn them around.

Vague Voice

You can only say so much about yourself in an email. Words limit our ability to not only convey, but interpret emotions. In fact, studies show that over half of emails are misinterpreted. This means there have been times where you’ve come off in a way that you didn’t intend to. From a sales perspective, this can be detrimental. When selling becomes less emotional, and all about logic and facts, the connection is less personal and thus diminished.

Solution: Video is better than a phone call because it allows you to express yourself verbally and physically. Yes, body language is still important. Show that you mean what you say.

Mechanical Messaging

Cold calling is the more personal attempt to reach out, but can be awkward and end in a harsh hang up, bruising your ego. It’s easier to say “no” when you don’t know the person on the other end of the line or email chain.

Solution: Video is a much better alternative, letting you introduce yourself and make your point, without interruption. Your prospect can puts a face to the name, and it shows rather than tells others about you. A visual along with a voice makes you more likeable and proves that you’re not a robot. Nobody wants to be a robot.

Pointless Replies

You’ve been in that frustrating situation with a client where after a confusing email exchange, it’s just easier to explain verbally. And to add to that, you’re playing phone tag and it’s getting you nowhere.

Solution: An easy and instant medium to explain yourself, videos can be watched on a person’s own time, as many times as they want. If they still still have questions, they can shoot you a video back as well (hello, new video reply feature). Problem solved.

Idle Conversations

Have you ever liked someone just by the sound of their voice? It’s the intonations, cadence and emotion that bring a name to life. You can tell if someone is interested or not, which is why phone calls have traditionally been the base of selling. Buyers like to know and trust who they’re buying from. With so many missed calls and connections, it’s hard to keep up.

Solution: Sending a video of yourself keeps the conversation stimulating and dynamic, helping you foster trust and maintain a solid relationship– which will ultimately get you that deal.

Prolonged Sales Cycles

With our inboxes flooding on the daily, it’s easy for messages to go unnoticed or have delayed replies, holding up the sales cycles.

Solution: If you can’t meet in person or talk on the phone, video is the next best thing. It speeds up communication. OneMob has proven to shorten the sales cycle by increasing response rates tenfold.

The way we consume media is becoming less text based and more visual. We’d rather watch the news than read the paper, send a snapchat over a text and chat via video rather than phone. So it’s only natural that our business practices align with our personal ones. But before any of these innovations, (even writing) communication was done in person. In an increasingly global and digital age, this is no longer as possible. Video is the next best way to maintain personal connections. Using OneMob can help professionals connect, build trust and ultimately make better sales. You’re not a robot, so don’t sell like one.