If you try and engage me with a serious conversation via email, you will almost always find me walking to your office or calling you on the phone. Verbal communication is usually the best form of communication for people who meet other people for a living. To people like us, we only prefer written text when confirming dates or answering 'yes' or 'no' questions. Surely, most salespeople are more effective when they have a face-to-face opportunity than when they depend on their writing abilities.

Nevertheless, we need email to help us breakthrough to people that we don’t know in order to get a face-to-face call. While I was at INBOUND18 in Boston this year, I made a point to attend presentations on how video can help me stand out with email prospecting and capabilities.

Video has become so prevalent that it is now practical to use on a daily basis and reps that use video in prospecting, relationship-building, and sales emails see 5x higher open rates and 8x higher open-to-reply rates. It works because it has a higher attention factor and is more personable to your prospect. So, video can also make you a better communicator. 

There are three reasons that now is the time to start practicing your video skills and implementing video into your sales strategy to improve sales results:

- WHAT'S MOTIVATING US THIS WEEK -

"IT'S NOT YOUR CUSTOMER'S JOB TO REMEMBER YOU. IT'S YOUR OBLIGATION AND RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE SURE THEY DON'T HAVE A CHANCE TO FORGET YOU."

-PATRICIA FRIPP

- WHAT WE'VE BEEN READING THIS WEEK -

Today, we're changing things up to bring you content only focused on video and how it relates to the sales process and sales performance. Enjoy!

<< If you only read one thing >>

Can I Embed a Video in an Email? — LeadG2

After an interesting talent feedback call, I had spoken with a sales manager who was dealing with a challenge that most managers deal with at some point in their career. Can you identify with the following situation – and can you learn from this story?

The good news: The salesperson he is managing is highly talented. She has a lot of natural ability, and when she is engaged, she’s one of her company’s top performers.

The bad news: She is not that engaged. She is occupied with other things outside of work and seems to lack the desire and drive to succeed in her job. 

We talk a lot at The Center for Sales Strategy about putting the right people in the right jobs and we believe that when you do that, they naturally soar with their strengths. Throw a fish in the water and it swims. Put Taylor Swift on stage and she belts it out. Hire someone who is born to sell, and they sell.

Except when they don’t.  

As sales professionals, we are trained to listen to our prospects’ needs and then create a tailored solution based on the products we have to sell. As managers, we coach our team on this daily, and as salespeople, we continually work to evolve and better this process. We present a solution, and then explain why these products make sense. But in today’s complicated world of marketing, there is a key piece we often forget — consumer behavior. What does your target persona do before making a purchase decision? 

You sold the campaign. You executed the campaign. Now get the credit you deserve! 

Creating a successful digital campaign designed to deliver desired business results takes time and expertise… not to mention a great deal of work! It makes sense to present a recap during the campaign—to make sure it is on track—and after the campaign, to get credit for a job well done.

The best way to do this is to create a campaign recap and present this to the customer. This process allows sellers to get the credit they deserve for a job well done as well as open the door to the next sales opportunity with a satisfied customer!

In fact, it’s better than OK. The reality is, in the course of any business relationship, something is going to go wrong at some time and it’s smart to get out front of it and to be very transparent.

Here’s a recent example of a problem we encountered in our own company we had to deal with, and an email we sent to the affected clients shortly following the incident as an apology: 

- WHAT'S MOTIVATING US THIS WEEK -

"THE ONLY LIMIT TO OUR REALIZATION OF TOMORROW WILL BE OUR DOUBTS OF TODAY."

-FRANLIN D. ROOSEVELT

- WHAT WE'VE BEEN READING THIS WEEK -

<< If you only read one thing >>

The Sobering Truth: Why You Can’t Sell to C-Suite Executives — Hubspot

Sales superpowers? Yes, really. To understand what I mean, please take a step back from the world of selling and focus instead on the process of buying.

The easiest way to wrap your mind around this is to consider a few common business-to-consumer (B2C) purchasing processes like buying a car, remodeling a kitchen, or selecting a college. Looking through that lens, it is easy to see how different the process of buying is today than it was only 10 years ago. I’m sure you would agree that the most notable difference is the amount of time the consumer spends researching in advance.

This sort of pre-purchase work is just as prevalent in the B2B world! Whether an individual is shopping for office space or office supplies, or selecting a bank, an accountant, a lawyer, or an insurance agent, chances are they will do a lot of pre-work before they ever engage in a significant conversation with a representative from any company. And when they do finally begin that conversation, they will come loaded with information and expectations.

We're partially through the 4th quarter of the year, and as planning is in the works for the following year, it’s a great time to do an account review with your team. After all, their success equals your success, so it’s vital that you help them set a strategy that helps them meet their goals.  

How many decisions does a sales manager make in day? 10? 25? 50? That number probably varies, but most people would agree sales managers make a lot of decisions each day as they navigate changing conditions, corporate demands, and plenty of persuasion from their salespeople about doing what they want them to do. Better sales managers make good decisions more often than mediocre sales managers. So, how do they do that?