Close Deals With Video

👋 It’s a fun1 today. We have a special guest from Workweek discussing how he closes deals using video.

Cringe-inducing tactics aside, let’s dive in! 🚀

📹 Close Deals with Video 📹

Today’s Revenews is written by Ryan Vincent, Brand Partnerships Manager at Workweek. This insight is genius, including footage of Ryan’s infamous teddy bear video hack. Stap in…

What up, Revenews readers! Workweek is a creator-first B2B media company helping business leaders across every industry have a more productive – and fun – work week.

I focus on helping brands partner with our creators in the HR, Healthcare, Franchise and Fintech verticals. I started my newsletter-selling career 10+ years ago at Simplify Media.

As an avid reader of Revenews, I am a big fan of the last issue where Brian D’Erario of Payload discussed the most wonderful time of the year for us ad sellers - Q4, and I couldn’t agree more. With the focus on filling your current inventory to close out the year, and setting up new upfront deals for the new year ahead - I’m here to give you three ways to spice up your outreach using video.

So many sellers are reluctant to use video - with reservations that they may come off cheesy or even intrusive - and this somewhat baffles me a bit given a big part of our role is to meet with clients on Google Meets/Zoom to kick off the initial discovery.

Using video can be incredibly powerful in helping you build rapport with prospects faster, and here are three ways I use video.

❄️ Cold Outbound

Whether you’re looking to reignite an old flame (you found in Salesforce) or target a new prospect, here’s one fun way I use video to grab their initial attention - and that’s using Snapchat filters!

Snap provides a wealth of fun filters you can use in video - and nothing breaks down barriers more than the use of humor in your outreach. 

But I don’t have a video provider, what do I use, Ryan? I got you. While I do use Vidyard for recorded video and embedding in email, this specific tactic can be done simply with your phone.

In Snapchat, you can record a video with any filter and save it to your phone - in vertical format. The LinkedIn mobile app allows you to send that video in a direct message, as long as you are connected (I’m not a big fan of InMail).

My outbound step one with email includes a cold connect the same day - no message - and I see terrific connect responses, which then opens up the direct message channel. I am a huge proponent of using LinkedIn in a non-formal way, the kind of tone as if you are texting a friend - and it works so well to start a conversation.

For example, I was cold prospecting the VP of Marketing at Vidyard last year and my outbound cadence wasn’t quite doing the trick - he then accepted my cold LI connect request. I recorded a quick intro video where I:

• Introduced myself and Workweek

• Made fun of myself for reaching out in this fashion

• Drew direct context between my newsletter, the creator’s audience and his current promotion in the market

• Asked directly if this sounded interesting - check your inbox for more detail

This didn’t work on the first send, so we sent a follow-up video a few days later using a Snapchat filter featuring a pink bear that was hugging me from behind.

Given the no response, I used the “bears” filter to express that junk mail was holding me back from his inbox - and it opened up a terrific conversation with him where we scheduled more time to chat.

He was so pleased with the way we approached him that he posted about it - check it out.

📝 Sending Proposals

Another great way to use video, and one of my personal favorites - sending your proposal! 

The time has come for you to deliver your media plan. You have done the deep discovery, aligned with their goals and KPI’s, and have agreed to a budget range and timeline - the key here is to make it easy for your prospective buyer.

I like to record a quick video that features me screen sharing the media plan and then walk them through it. This provides them with deeper context on the plan and have fun with it - show off your excitement. The body of your email has all the details, video gives you an added layer for your buyer to fully understand what you are proposing.

**Dan again: I’ve done this before and it’s great! Especially for large/more complex buys.

🛑 Pattern Interrupts

We’ve all been there - ghost town - where your prospect goes dark, no longer answering emails and you're left to wonder where it all went wrong.

Video can be a saving grace here, and it’s worked so many times for me that I have to share it with you. Again, this works best if you have an open channel outside of email such as LinkedIn:

1. Open Snapchat and choose a filter - be funny and look for anything that may relate to your initial conversation (ie. met at a tradeshow in Texas, cowboy filter?)

2. Record a video no longer than 60 seconds, shorter if you can - focus on making fun of yourself and asking “Did I completely miss the mark?”

3. Upload the video through the Linkedin mobile app directly to the DM

You can also use this in email, which I do a lot (thanks Vidyard) by embedding the video within your email.

Clients and prospects will appreciate your videos when they arrive, especially when done in the right context and environment. It can be a breath of fresh air and help you stand out from the crowd - after all, that’s what’s all about. Differentiating yourself from the crowd.

As cliche as it is today, I’ll quote big Steve here, “Think different”.

How can you be different using video? Drop into my DM’s with a video if you have any questions.