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#1 On-the-fly video: a fun, asynchronous way to generate revenue
More than 95% of buyers are more likely to engage with a salesperson after consuming a video that informs them about the company’s concrete value proposition.
Additionally, 52% of them desire interactive elements in this format, such as a clickable call-to-action at the end of the video (source). And who better than a skilled salesperson to produce it?
Don’t panic: buyers are not necessarily very concerned about quality, background, or animations. For 55% of them, apart from the content, loading speed matters most. A simple short video shot on a smartphone will suffice.
Adam Rataj, a salesperson at HubSpot, proves this by example. In 2017, he was tasked with reaching out to prospects who had subscribed to a free tool at HubSpot to help them extract maximum value and potentially upsell them to the premium version.
So, he spent most of his time sending emails and trying to schedule appointments, with somewhat mixed success. After being prospected by a video editing software publisher, he gave this format a chance. He started creating short videos with whatever means available: demonstrating a feature, announcing a new development, creating tutorials for tasks, making personalized appointment requests, etc.
The results were simply overwhelming:
- Appointments increased fourfold;
- The customer retention rate rose to 94%;
- The click-through rate (CTR) was 77%;
- Our friend has been offered a job as a Sales Manager at HubSpot.
More broadly, salespeople would benefit from integrating video into their toolkit, especially for their existing client base or after establishing initial contact with a prospect. It’s a fun (75% of buyers are now Millennials or Gen Z), practical, and asynchronous way to generate revenue.
#2 Take a little time to write rigorous business cases
According to a DemandGen study, the business case is the preferred type of content for 8 out of 10 B2B buyers. This format surpasses whitepapers, blog articles, and ebooks, yet these other formats are more widely produced by companies.
Yes, business cases typically fall under the domain of marketing… but salespeople are better positioned to provide the nuances, details, and insights that make this format powerful.
Starting in January, revisit the client cases that have left a strong impression on you, gather KPIs from relevant teams, collaborate with Customer Success where applicable, and compile your insights into notes. These will serve as a foundation for marketing to produce the business case.
A few tips:
- To optimise your time, avoid producing two business cases on the same sector of activity or with the same messages/insights;
- Qualify your business case with the points for improvement identified, the friction, the resistance encountered, etc. The business case is not (just) an advertising format. It must demonstrate a degree of transparency and honesty if it is to remain credible;
- The best business cases use some elements of storytelling, in a reasonably conversational tone.
Business cases can be used throughout the entire funnel, but their contribution is undoubtedly much more relevant in the middle of the Funnel.
#3 An AI chatbot (ChatGPT or Character.ai) to simulate a customer meeting
B2B buyers now spend only 17% of their time on sales (Gartner). And as they contact an average of three to four service providers, you will only have 4 to 5% of their time. So you’re going to have to make a (very) good impression very quickly. And it’s all about preparing for the meeting. And what if you were to experience the meeting beforehand?
Character.ai is a free chatbot developed by former developers at Google’s LaMDA. The platform hosts thousands of “characters” with whom you can chat in the language of your choice.
In the platform’s search engine, enter “Sales Coach” and start a conversation in French. Ask the chatbot to play the role of a demanding and difficult prospect in the sector of activity of your choice. Feed the tool with the context data available to you (previous exchanges, product the prospect is interested in, etc.), and conduct the conversation. This will help you to identify objections and ideas to help you prepare for your meeting.
ChatGPT-4 can also play this role. It will undoubtedly be better suited to sectors of activity that are a little more specialised. OpenAI’s chatbot can have other applications for the sales force:
- Offer a “non-judgmental” learning environment, where sales staff can go back to the basics of their job and revisit the fundamentals in a fun and intuitive way;
- Learn about the prospect’s sector of activity: specific features, challenges, difficulties, etc. ;
- Feed the chatbot business documents on the sector (market studies, analysis reports, press articles, business cases, etc.) and ask it to generate a concise summary in a few bullet points to quickly understand the key issues in the prospect’s sector of activity and refine its sales pitch.