In this post we thought we’d highlight a common scenario some refer as the “Dead Zone”.  A prospect has indicated interest in some way and now you’re trying to connect.

It’s never pleasant waiting for the phone to ring and most successful people don’t. Everyone does occasionally wonder why some folks just won’t call you back. Are you struggling to get your calls returned? Are you becoming frustrated with empty promises to ‘call you back’? Try these five simple tips to increase your call backs:

Capitalize on Trigger Events

According to Craig Elias, the key to getting a prospect to call you back is to capitalize on what he refers to as ‘trigger events’. “When you cold call someone in attempt to sell them something, you’re interrupting that person’s day,” says Elias. “The dominant instinct is always going to be for that person to find any reason to get off the phone and get back to what they were doing.” At the beginning of the call or prior to it, you want to find out if there has been a trigger event – or whether or not they are already talking to the competition. If so, that means there’s an opening and you need to capitalize on this immediately.

Reference Referrals Up Front

According to Jill Konrath, the single best way to keep prospects listening is to start the conversation by mentioning the name of a respected colleague. If you do this on a message machine, chances are they will call you back.

Do Your Homework

Konrath further suggests that doing your homework – and letting your prospect know you did your homework – also increases the chance of a callback. “Let them know you prepared for this call by researching their business,” she says.

Use Your Script as a Foundation

Any salesperson knows that the script is an essential sales tool – helping you stay focused.  It’s a game of permission, so every word counts.  Your first statement earns you the next 15 seconds.  That 15 seconds leads to 45 more seconds. The first 45 seconds leads to the next minute and so on.  Scripts are guides – not the end all be all and must be used as a reference not verbatim.

Create a Deadline

Finally, as Anneke Seley points out, after every conversation you should end with an agreement from the prospect outlining the next steps. And always include a date for when these steps will be accomplished. That way, when the time for the follow up call comes around the prospect will be expecting it.

In the end combining all materials (triggers, referrals, homework, scripts, deadlines)  and their sub-components can earn you enough trust with a prospect to continue the discussion.

Links to reference materials on Amazon.com:

• Shift: Harness The Trigger Events That Turn Prospects Into Customers
• SNAP Selling: Speed Up Sales & Win More Business with Today’s Frazzled Customers
• Sales 2.0: prove Business Results Using Innovative Sales Practices and Technology 

David Meerman Scott just launched his revised & updated book The NEW RULES of MARKETING & PR (Click to buy).  If you haven’t read it you should.

In it David talks about the creation of a video category called business casual (page 252). He explains that video in all its forms need not be the high production difficulty and cost you’ve come to expect from “formal video”.  David goes on to make several points

1. You can produce simple low cost engaging content that works/converts.
2. Do not create poorly shot video, with bad lighting and editing – there is a baseline.
3. He is “convinced that the trend towards casual content means that consumers want to get closer to the organizations they do business with”.
4. Informal “telling it like it is – will make us more efficient”

One additional learning that David and our customers have stressed is -

Trust.

Business Casual video is honest. You’re standing out there on your own with no fancy backgrounds nor teleprompter.  People love the directness and the honesty that comes through the simple format.  We find that people appreciate it and are therefore willing to advance to conversation with such a forthright individual that’s focused on the content delivered.

Never forget that no matter how produced your video is – the content must be authentic and engaging. That is what converts visitors. The business casual content is easily produced on small high definition capable cameras (Cisco Flip, Kodak Zi8) that are simple to use and cost less than $80 to purchase. The quality is fantastic and as of this post Flip cameras are still online for sale.

Here is an example of business casual video content –

Today, when visitors see this business casual content they find it genuine and engaging. The results are excellent and the more you do it the easier it gets.

Bad First Date

There are many companies out there that provide the ability to create drip campaigns in marketing automation platforms (see: Eloqua, Marketo, Pardot, Silverpop). Supporting this capability are many sources that will refer to statistics.  These statistics say that anywhere from 7 and 20 repeats are required for any communication to gain consideration access.   Interestingly enough a personal dating stat from VIDA (Virtual Dating Assistant)  gave an “estimate of between 5 and 15 emails” before a meeting in person was accomplished.

After all thats what we are trying to do right?..get that first meeting (date)?

More often than not drip campaigns are still created in an impersonal way and its difficult to “fake” an engagement attempt.  Marketers are considering it a time saving device as opposed to a conversation with people. Most marketers will try to change messages based on profiles, activities with varying offers creating more and more as the campaign progresses.  Drips need to be thoughtful and comprehensive based upon participants within the actual campaign in a well thought out manner.  If your just going to link a bunch of templates together, don’t – you won’t win a lot of fans – nor get a second date (unless your lucky).

I speak from personal experience (names are not used to protect the guilty).  I received an email after I requested a download from a site that I was interested in.  I have no problem filling in a form for a company that I would like to stay linked to.  The first email was the obligatory “Thanks” and was totally expected.  The second arriving a day later was way off topic to anything I was interested in.  The third (arriving the next day) was an offer I’m not ready for yet. The forth got annoying as I’m unclear if they really understand what I was looking for.  The fifth made me opt out as it had nothing of value.  As a consumer and a seller its on both of us to uncover whether we are a match. Sending a generic marketing mail is not going to help me make a decision unless you address MY concerns. One to one communication will work as long as it’s specific, relevant, and timed properly.

Please end the torture, treat me like a human being not a notch in you sales/marketing belt. I want a relationship not a date and if its a fit, great… otherwise move on.

CHALLENGE: GETTING MORE WEBINAR REGISTRANTS

As we all know, breaking through and getting prospects to respond to webinar invites is getting harder given the inbox overload that most people are experiencing.
For Building Engines, they were looking for new ways to draw people into webinars and adding video seemed like a cost-effective solution. The goal was simple and easily tested add a short video promo to their traditional webinar promotion (through email) and see if it converts more attendees.

SOLUTION: SEND A WEBINAR PROMOTION APP

Building Engines used the VisibleGains webinar promotion application with coaching and best practices for one of their campaigns. In just a few hours, Sarah was able to script, shoot, and build a webinar promotion video app to include in her campaign. She featured the video app in her email and on her landing page.

Click Here To See How IT Worked

RESULTS: LARGE GROWTH IN WEBINAR SIGN-UPS

For this campaign, Building Engines was able to generate an immediately measurable impact. The key results were:

• 13.8% click-through rate for the 11,000 email send which was almost double the prior webinar*s click-through rate of 7%
• Quadruple the number of registrants over the prior month with the second highest total registrants in a webinar to date
• 65% of the audience was Highly Engaged during the webinar

Since this first video app with VisibleGains, Sarah has created a number of other VisibleGains videos for her webinars with continued success.

CHALLENGE: PITCHING A SOLUTION TO THE RIGHT STAKEHOLDER

One of the hardest things to do these days is communicate your solution to the right business stakeholder especially when there is a gatekeeper that you need to work through.

For TimeTrade, they are focused on ramping up their business and they needed something that could quickly communicate their solution to enable them to get a first meeting with a prospect.� Within this communication, they wanted to cover what their product does, some of the key benefits, and the business impacts that a customer could expect.

SOLUTION: SEND AN INTERACTIVE SALES VIDEO

TimeTrade used the VisibleGains interactive sales pitch application to help get the first meeting with a prospect. Working with best practices and the easy-to-use VisibleGains builder, TimeTrade was able to combine a personal video intro with an animated overview to engage viewers for about 2 minutes followed by a set of actions including watching a demo, learning more from their website, and booking a meeting.

Click Here To See Gary’s Solution In Action

RESULTS: VIDEO SHARED TO TEAM, DEAL CLOSED

TimeTrade uses this video app for numerous prospects, but for a major retailer they were targetting, the key results were:

• One email sent to one person who shared it with 10 different people generating 14 views
• 10 Days later, TimeTrade had a booked meeting
• 90 Days later, TimeTrade had a signed deal

TimeTrade has expanded on their success to utilize video throughout their funnel in both sales & marketing communications as well as within their actual product for training and support.

We are always on the look out for good examples of different formats for using video in B2B sales and marketing.  Tim Washer, a member of our advisory board and member of the Cisco marketing team,  shared this example of fun video with us a while back.  I say fun, as in this case the goal is to bring a smile to your face, tell a story and be memorable.

In this video the goal, is fun versus funny.  It is worthwhile to note that this is a very simple video.  It tells the story with images and voice over.  Not difficult to produce, but requires your creative juices to think about what will draw your audience in and accomplish your marketing and sales goals.

Have you done or seen a fun video that you can share with us?

AOL recently announced that they would team with Mark Burnett (Producer of popular TV show Survivor) to produce video versions of CliffsNotes (John Wiley Publishing).  The concept is to engage the audience by using video with a comic approach.  Although there has been much criticism regarding the further destruction of literature appreciation, this approach is rather focused on engaging an audience so they can comprehend and retain the information.  I believe that this idea is a variation on our theme of  “Business Casual Video”.

There were a couple of interesting takeaways for me:

• Short is getting shorter -  CliffsNotes were the original way to take long form content and shorten it.  Video makes it easier to make short even shorter, as the story can be told more quickly with site, sound and motion.

• Video increases retention -  Studies show that we absorb and remember content much better when it is communicated with pictures, sound, and type together, rather than simply text alone.

• Fun is fun -  Comics are a great medium for engaging an audience.  They are not necessarily easy to make–but it is much easier to be fun than to be funny. Comics can provide a great way to tell a story, and make content digestion much easier for viewers.

So, when you want to mix it up, think about a short video that is simple, with pictures and a fun voice.  These drive engagement, comprehension, and retention, leading to higher and better conversion.

Do you have examples of other ways that traditional written information is being transformed in video?

(Image from http://www.cliffsnotes.com)

Video is a wonderful medium for digital marketers to use when communicating. Properly employed it increases engagement and conversion.  When stepping into the world of using video for sales and marketing,  it is helpful to understand the different formats that can be employed.   In general there are three approaches to creating video

1. Talking head,
2. Voice Over,
3. Animation.

They can be used individually or in combination.  Most important is to understand which format works best for each marketing and sales goal

Talking Head:

• Approach -  Person, often an employee, speaking on camera
• Benefits    -  Puts a face and some punch into the message.  Authentic, helping to develop trust.
• Examples  -  A customer sharing their success story.  Product manager addressing frequently asked questions.  Chief Technology officer doing a “chalk talk”.  Sending a video holiday card to your clients.
• Cost -  Inexpensive, as you can self produce this content.  Important to simplify approach to make it easy to produce.  Often can combine with Voice Over to make it complete.

Voice Over:

• Approach – Use of images with narration over the image
• Benefits -    Easily engage viewer by combining pictures (including words) and sound (often voice). Great way to simplify a message (and force you to do it).
• Examples  -  Demonstrating a complex product (but not needing an end to end video).  Telling a short (60 second overview) of what your company does, especially for product companies (including those with virtual and physical products).
• Cost/Time  -  Very inexpensive.  You can get stock graphics and photos, use a person within the company as the “voice talent”.  Not hard to iterate and can be done pretty quickly.

Animation

• Approach -  Like drawing a cartoon, but it has “full motion” with sound or voice
• Benefits -     Very engaging, when done well. Similar to images with voice over but a bit more complex and rigid
• Examples -   Similar to those for image with voice over.
• Cost -           This requires an outside expert (unless you have an animator in-house) with longer lead times and expense

The beauty of video is that it enables the business marketing and sales teams to use pictures, people and sound to engage the viewer and create a personal connection.  This is an advantage over just using the written word.  Watch a few news shows and you will see the first two formats used individually or together.  See how effective they are and also how much information is communicated in a short time.
If you have other formats, ideas or examples,  it would be great to have you share them.

Interviewing customers can be a very good source of content, but it can also be challenging getting the unscripted quote you’re looking for and getting them to approve its usage.  When approaching customer interviews, it is often easier to work backwards from:

• What are you trying to produce?
• How much time do you have with the customer?

Generally speaking, here’s what you can expect if the customer is comfortable on camera and the shoot goes well:

If you have up to 5 mins of their time, you can likely produce:

• A few quotes that can be used to support other communications
• A quick highlight reel that you might be able to use in a blog post

If you have 5 to 15 mins of the their time, you can likely produce:

• All of the above, plus…
• Up to a 2 minute Customer Testimonial with a focused storyline that
• can be used on the website or in some sales follow-up scenarios

If you have more than 15 mins of their time

• All of the above, plus…
• A deeper case study that can be used to educate prospects and to differentiate against competitors.  This is likely to address multiple benefits and cover notable portions of your offering
• Video clips useful to other stakeholders in the business (e.g. Favorite Service/Feature, Feedback on Offering, Project Lessons Learned, Competitive Differentiators, etc.)

APPROACH FOR THE INTERVIEW

In order to capture great inventory, here is a process to consider:

1. Make a wish list
   • Identify the topic areas and quotes that you would love to get
   • Test list against the key benefits, differentiators, common questions, and buying anxieties associated with your offering
2. Prepare open-ended questions to elicit wish list responses
   • Start by reviewing the questions on the next page and re-word as necessary
   • Craft additional questions to get at specific elements of the wish list
3. Have a preparation call with customer
   • Discuss general topics, but don’t tell them the questions as this can impact authenticity
   • Identify any items they need to research or prepare (e.g. success metrics)
   • Assess their experience level with being on video
4. Consider doing a dry run
   • I f you have not used the equipment before, then do a test and confirm that the output is good.
   • If you have not filmed in that location before, consider doing a scouting trip
   • If the customer has not been on video before, then consider a webcam interview or similar
5. Use best practices during the interview
   • Ask the customer to re-phrase each question into their answers.  E.g. “The key benefit from using XYZ was…”
   • If the customer provides a long or unclear answer, let them finish and them ask them if they could restate the answer to that question in one sentence.
   • There are others, but fundamentally it takes practice to hone interviewing skills

QUESTIONS TO ASK

Ideally you want to ask open-ended questions that elicit authentic and focused answers.  The following set of questions is a starting point that should be customized for your inventory goals…

Not too long ago, our very own Chris Carroll mistook the VisibleGains Twitter account for his personal account and tweeted something called “Fatty Post” to all of the VisibleGains followers. He then turned the small mixup into a nice ‘what to do when…’ post on our blog. Not a catastrophic failure by any means, but still a mistake that was turned into something positive with some simple actions.

A short while later github, a popular source control repository hosting service, accidentally destroyed their entire production database during a routine run of their test-suite. They were forced to recreate the database from their last backup, a process that took some time. More importantly, it meant that any changes committed to any of their 1,446,000 repositories within the period of time since the deletion and the backup were lost. How is this a good thing? Well, of course it isn’t, but the way that they handled it turned a potential storm of outrage into a shower of supportive hugs and understanding.

Once the immediate situation was under control, github had to provide an explanation to its thousands of customers. They ended up making a blog post about the error and explained exactly what happened, why it happened, and what they were changing to ensure the mistake didn’t happen again. At the same time, they apologized to their users, gave insight to what had happened, and proved to a large userbase of extremely technical people that they had learned from their mistake were sure that it won’t happen again. To put it succinctly, they were honest and upfront about their mistake.

Skimming through the comments on that blog post, I did not see one angry or upset comment. Almost all of the comments, in fact, were either praise for the honesty or a supportive ‘it’s ok’ and ‘people make mistakes.’ The failure turned out to be great publicity for them, with posts on social sites such as reddit sharing the same empathetic sentiment as the commenters. Thousands of people were able to see that this particular company cared about its users and knew how to learn from it’s mistakes.

Paraphrasing from reddit user Netcob, this is the simple way to handle a failure–as exemplified by github–that should be adopted by all businesses:

1. We messed up.
2. Here’s what happened.
3. Here’s what we’ll do so it’s unlikely to happen again.

Have you ever experienced any public failures (catastrophic or not)? How did you handle them?