This is the second of a series of posts on how to tell a video sales story. Here’s where to see Part 1 and Part 3
How to tell a video sales story? As noted last time, there’s evidence that a lot of salespeople don’t have a good handle on the circumstances under which buyers might want to reach out to them. That’s according to an OpenView B2B Buyer Insight survey.
One of the motivations salespeople tend to underestimate is “to replace a solution that isn’t working well.” For someone creating content for sales engagement, this suggests that it might be a very good idea to help out the sales team with with videos that anticipate the question “How should I replace my solution that isn’t working well.”
This audience is different — and it’s not you
Let’s take note of the following about the potential audience we’re trying to address with these videos
- They know they want a solution
- They are inclined to take action to learn about the solution
- They may or may not know about your solution, and
- What they think they know may be wrong
As a marketer, you naturally evaluate a video on how much you like it, and whether it keeps your attention. I think this is one reason that many “explainer” videos start out with a display of empathy for the viewer’s problems. Because, without problems, there’s not much of a storyline — and stories are what we all like.
But keep in mind that you are not the target audience. It’s quite possible that the empathy is misguided, that the viewer does not define her problem the way you assume she does, and that finding a way “to replace a solution that isn’t working well” will be more important than learning how your story comes out. That is, if you take up half of the video rehashing the problem, viewers may lose patience before getting to your solution.
“Here’s why our solution works” vs. “Here’s your problem. We can we fix it”
The video below, for example, is designed to appeal to IT managers of organizations like theaters and concert venues. Many of them non-profits who solicit donations and host fundraising events. The underlying assumption is that many of these executives are looking to overcome problems arising from lack of integration. But the video never actually mentions any problems — the whole video is is devoted to the solution.
“Here’s how our solution works” vs. “Here’s your problem vs. Here’s how we fix it”
In the next example, the target audience is IT executives who, it is assumed, are keenly aware that, whatever solutions they’ve tried in the past, they just aren’t keeping up with the increasingly prevalent “BYOD” phenomenon where workers demand to use their own mobile computing devices at work. Instead of sympathizing with these beleaguered executives, this video simply presents the thinking behind the CompuCom solution, and how it works.
Top of the funnel — or not
Both of the video examples here would work for someone who had never heard of the solution provider behind the video. But they are just as appropriate for a buyer researching solutions from vendors that are well-known to him or her. This is because, instead of going out of their way to show how the solution fits the problem, they simply present the solution, assuming that a solution is what the viewer is looking for.
In part 3 of this brief series, we’ll look at videos that can support sales engagement using another motivation that prompts customers to reach out to sales: aspiring to bring about a major change in the organization.
