Our speakers, Heidi Sopczak Quaschnick (RVP of NA sales, Hippo Video) and Vlad Oleksiienko (Sales Leader, Reply), will show us the finer points of building a strong sales cadence and how to use personalized videos in sales and master this piece of your sales engagement game in this webinar.

Make your sales cadence inclusive 

Heidi: When you’re prospecting, you never know who you’re going to get on the phone with or what their preferences are going to be. As a result, it’s a good idea to include a variety of multimedia in your outbound communications to ensure that the person on the other end receives your content—your pitch—in the manner in which they prefer to learn about your products and services.

Gartner has a standardized report on how you should be engaging your prospects. And, they agree, a good mix ensures that you are going to get more leads, start more conversations by having a variety of touchpoints—chat, video, email, a cold call, LinkedIn, and more. Vlad, we’d like to know what your existing sales cadences look like—do you have a variety or do you just stick to a particular flow within your outbound?

Vald: It depends on your style, whether it’s aggressive or more polite. We stick to a more polite version, I would say. Our sequence lasts for 60 days, which is almost two months, and is email-heavy, focusing on high-priority, high-cost potential prospects.

We start by visiting their profile on day one, and that’s how we show up in their notification center. Then we send them a connection request—typically, a blank one, and it works like a charm for us.

After a few days, we send the very first email that is personalized, and in this case, you can use personalized video to make it even more appealing. As shown on the slide, one channel follows the other, and we definitely have a good mix of channels in our outbound cadence.

Heidi: Amazing! Continuing with your LinkedIn example, once they’ve connected with you on LinkedIn, you can send a video, either via Gmail or Outlook. Besides these, using Hippo Video, you can also send an active GIF through InMail. Maybe because some of your prospects are more active on LinkedIn than they are checking their inboxes, which is precisely why you want to have a good mix.

One-to-one Vs. Mass video personalization 

Heidi: Vlad, what do you think of reaching out to SMB versus enterprise prospects? How much does it make a difference in terms of touchpoints? 

Vald: Of course! It definitely makes a difference. When we talk about SMBs and enterprises, we take into account the most important metric, average contract value. For example, if your average contract value is like $5K, maybe $2K less than $10K, then we can have an outbound cadence with fewer steps. So you can probably send more emails, plus maybe personalized videos, in the middle of your sequence.

Heidi: Absolutely! You can probably use one-to-many personalized videos with variables such as first name and company name for SMBs. However, when it comes to enterprise, you definitely have fewer prospects and fewer accounts, and you have to be more creative in order to reach these decision makers, and you have to go through every possible channel.

Why video-first sales engagement matters

Heidi: Today, close to 59% of decision-makers and executives prefer to receive information about your products and services via video. What do you think about videos, Vlad? I understand that it can be challenging at first. So yeah, tell us about your first video experience.

Vald: I guess my video sales journey started back in 2017 or 2018. I recorded my first video, and it was awful. But, never mind, I had sent it, and I don’t remember what happened next.

But it’s now one of our primary outbound channels at Reply, not just for sales sequences but also for other purposes such as use cases and so on.

Heidi: I totally agree with you, Vald! And once you have gotten the hang of it, it becomes like a walk in the park. Plus, technology has evolved a lot too—not just in terms of ease of usage but also with regard to how you can use it.

For example, with Hippo Video’s Video Workflows, you can personalize your prospect’s video with their own LinkedIn profile or website in the background. And, if I were your prospect, and if I saw myself on someone else’s video in the backdrop, I’d probably click on that to figure out what this person was doing with me in the back, and you’d successfully get my attention.

How to use Hippo Video + Reply

Vald: Once you’ve set your sequence on the Reply platform and have your template ready, you just have to record a video, copy the link with the thumbnail, and insert it in the placeholders, and boom, it’s ready.

The best thing to do is sort of think about who you’re going after this week and finalize the videos that you might want to create and which ones you want to repurpose from your library.. And then, quickly personalize them with the merge fields from your CRM.

Other than the outreach use case, account handoff videos, pre-meeting videos, lead nurturing, and so on, these are a few other use cases where videos can be used to add a personalized touch, reduce no-shows, and keep your prospects warm.

Heidi: Yeah! And I’d like to add some best practices. First, utilize your space. You don’t want to be too close to the camera or  use your hands if you’re calling out. Second, keep your videos between 30 seconds and one minute. Third, use our teleprompter feature to look comfortable on screen and practice with videos by sharing them with your team members.Watch the complete replay of the webinar, “Video-first sales engagement in 2023”, here.

The post Video-first sales engagement in 2023 appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

“How can I hook my prospects in the first few minutes of the call?”

“How is the economic downturn affecting my prospects of connecting with prospects?”

If any or all of these questions are on your mind, you’ve come to the right place (page).

Cory is a renowned expert on B2B sales and sales management. He is the founder of CoachCRM and ClozeLoop and a partner in 2.12 Angels, a seed-stage venture fund. He has written 8 best-selling books on sales techniques and has experience building successful sales teams in various industries, from manufacturing to technology. 

In this podcast (and the following blog), Cory answers questions about effective prospecting, personalizing cold outreach, and the effects of the downturn on sales.

Listen to the complete podcast below.

Question: Most sales reps are consumed with self-doubt when it comes to cold outreach. How can they stop breaking into a cold sweat while making a cold call?

Cory: I think what people are scared of is not winning, and maybe that’s not necessarily losing, but maybe it’s being stagnant. And what we often find is that the best cure for hesitation, concern, and for call reluctance is winning. So the thing that organizations can do is equip salespeople with the messaging, the lists, the technology, the tools, and everything that they need to do to sit down, do their job and win. Because if they’re not doing that, then it’s gonna be hard to keep people motivated. And that’s really the answer here. It’s not something that you can just snap your fingers and do. But if you’re not winning, if you don’t feel like you’re winning, then things are gonna seem harder than they are.

Question: What’s one phrase or line sales reps can open with that will make the prospect want to talk to them?

Cory: Cold calls are common, and people may be tired of the same pattern. To better engage prospects, it is important to interrupt the usual pattern and pique their curiosity. One way to do this is to say something unconventional that hasn’t been said before. For example, ask if a query from CoachCRM sounded familiar in a negative format. If they don’t know what it is, move on to explain why the company is calling. It is important to avoid sounding like every other salesperson and not try to sell something immediately. This creates fear in potential customers, and they will likely just brush them off. Trying something new and different can help break away from the regular cold call pattern and better engage prospects.

Question: The world is slowly entering a recession. How can salespeople weather the storm? How can they sustain existing deals and build their pipeline? 

Cory: One could argue that the world is slowly exiting a recession, as it has been over nine months since we entered one on January 1st. An old saying claims that when cab drivers start talking about investing in stocks, it’s time to get out. This idea is reinforced by what many venture capitalists are discussing on their podcasts: good news for early-stage companies. On the other hand, some folks on LinkedIn are freaking out about the idea of a recession, which could mean they are nine months behind. Historically, recessions don’t last more than three quarters, although in 2001 it lasted for six. When COVID began, people panicked, but three to four months later, the economy was booming. This is why it’s important to be careful of what random people are saying and listen to the experts.

Despite this, when I drove to the bank recently, I received the biggest check our business has ever gotten. This was an uplifting moment, as it showed we were out of danger despite people still thinking that a recession might be around the corner. My advice is to keep an eye on the experts and not just listen to random people online, as this can help give you a more accurate outlook on the situation. The takeaway here is that recessions don’t last forever, although they can be painful while they do. As long as we remain cautious and trust in the experts, it’s likely that the world will come out of this period strong.

Listen to the complete podcast.

The post How To Prospect Like a Pro Ft. Cory Bray appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

According to Salesforce, Companies that personalize their CX across all channels can see 5% – 15% revenue increase.

However, in spite of personalizing their sales efforts, salespeople are stuck with longer sales cycles. The main reasons for these are lack of Intent Evaluation and Contextualization. And, in this webinar, Sales Engagement in 2023: Real, Scalable Personalisation is Here, our speakers, Sandeep TM (Heads Inside Sales at Outplay) and Karthi S Mariappan (Founder and CEO at Hippo Video), are going to unpack the What, the Why, and the How of Real Personalization, and how you can make it a consistent and scalable practice to produce extraordinary sales experiences in 2023 and beyond using technology.

Also, we’ve with us Jessica Baxter (Sales Team Lead, Genesys DX) and Sam Grimley (Global Head of Sales and Account Management, Horizom) as customer panelists, joining to discuss how they’re guiding their teams on their way to personalization.

Why should personalization at scale matter to salespeople

Heidi: We’re gonna focus on the what, why, and how to personalize. Because I know in my past, for my sales motion outreach, it’s always a challenge, right? How much time should I spend?

Sandeep: I’m going to keep it relatable to our audience here. As human beings we’ve evolved quite a bit. For example, with respect to television, almost 10-15 years back we were just watching what was relayed on cable. But today, with the advent of OTT, we’ve so many options and so much personalization going. We have our own preferences, and even when we log into any platform, we see things that are relevant to us.

We are groomed to that level of personalization and expect the same from every aspect of things in life. And, the same applies in sales. Everyone wants to hear something that’s very, very specific and very relatable to their environment.

Karthi: Yeah. I would continue with what Sandeep said. Thanks to this digital-first world, personalization has become a way of life and this makes the context of outreach the key. The contexts are many—either derived from previous interactions, based on the state they are in, etc.—displayed through what you show on the video or via text email. Indeed, personalization has grown very huge into different aspects of engagement and is going to be vital to stand out and connect with your prospects and customers in 2023 and beyond.

Heidi: How are you managing personalization within your organization? 

Jessica: Well, personalization is extremely important. As a customer myself, I aim to do business with people that actually know me. So, we’ve to step away from those ordinary sales experiences to show people that we know them. And, one of the ways that we’ve incorporated this in our sales cycle is by utilizing a lot of the sales features from Hippo Video. My favorite is video sales pages.  So when prospects are viewing our videos, they’re also getting assets personalized to their persona. 

Sam: I think it’s the main piece. If it’s not personal, don’t bother sending it. Because, what’s the end goal of your outreach? It’s to close a deal, to hit a certain revenue number. It’s not to hit a thousand emails today.  For example, If you’re in a bar, if you’re at a conference, do you walk up to someone and say, “Hello, {{first name}}, and then read a script?” No. You look at the surroundings, who they are, who they’re talking to, etc. and use that to make it a personal introduction, make it really relevant. Mail-merge or mass emails are a big red flag for me. 

Forked Road: Quality Vs. Quantity of Personalization

Heidi: What are your thoughts around guiding your own internal sales organization around sending out mass emails or one-to-one? 

Sandeep: Mass emails, in marketing it can be done from a drip campaign perspective, but in sales it’s a no. At Outplay, we tell SDRs or AEs to invest time in researching the prospect and knowing them to personalize the touchpoint—because the competition is high and it reduces the probability of email getting opened. However, a number of conversations also matter to us, which help us understand the market. 

Heidi: Do you guys, sort of guide the SDRs or AEs, on how much time should be spent on researching and doing this personalization?

Karthi: Yeah. At Hippo Video it’s intent-based, it’s not like a mass email that’s being sent. There is someone who is diligently working on your account to understand why they are reaching out. What is the purpose? Of course, including video is one part of the story, but how do you humanize that becomes all the more important about personalization? The criteria for this are two—1. What state they are in and 2. What kind of engagement they have with our marketing touchpoints. Because, how we personalize is one aspect, but making the prospect help them understand that there is a human behind this email is another.

Heidi: How do you personalize enterprise as opposed to mid-market? What’s that mix for your team, Jessica?

Jessica: Enterprise solutions, those are the harder people to actually reach. Their inboxes are way full. So, here LinkedIn plays a huge role. We try connecting with them here and send them personalized videos their way.

On the contrary, Mid-markets are comparatively easier on the phone. They fall under kind-of 1:Many segments, this where I’m anxious to see how that humanized AI feature comes into place. Because we still want it to feel personal. You know, we still want them to know that we are caring and we are giving the actual time, and we’re still gonna treat you just like every other customer. 

Also, one thing I emphasize on is videos. I believe our brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than it does text. Though people are nervous about using it initially, it’s the best way.

Karthi:  One small tip here. Though people are nervous to create a video and share it, it helps your prospect understand that you’ve taken that additional effort to reach out to them. You don’t have to be professional, but be authentic in connecting with them.

How to successfully personalize at scale

Heidi: Real personalization in sales engagement, is it possible? Are there any other platforms or tools that your teams are using to get to the nitty-gritty detail? Karthi, Sandeep. Any thoughts about this? 

Sandeep: Personalization happens at different levels. We don’t only just reach out to only the VPs or the CROs, but also to people on the ground doing the job. And, those ground level conversations, helps us in understanding what’s working and what’s not. And serves as great context to personalized messages to someone at the management level, which resonates.

Apart from this, we also use platforms like sales intelligence platforms, Whatsapp groups, LinkedIn channels, etc. where discussions are happening and prospects are sharing information. And, we leverage those and reach out to them via those mediums.

Heidi: So, Karthi, how do we personalize at scale so that our message resonates, but doesn’t look like it’s mail-merged?

Karthi: There are many ways to personalize. One could be through interactive videos, where you ask the prospect regarding their burning issues by giving them options to choose. And, based on what they choose, you get a context of their problem, which is a great data point to design your outreach. Scalable, yet personalized.

The other way could be to scale your video efforts through Humanize AI. Here AI creates a perfect audio-video sync of your videos and creates different versions of the same video with tweaks and helps you scale your video efforts effortlessly.

Make personalization more personal in 2023

Heidi: So to what extent can people look forward to personalizing messages in 2023 for their sales motions?

Sandeep: I think personalization will be all over the place. But what will come out as a winner is the quality of research that you’ve done, and how you put that into personalization will make a difference as to how you would stand out from the rest of the crowd.

Sam: A hundred percent. I mean, it was when your video email first came out, you could send anything and you were completely different from the rest of the market.

Jessica: It’s definitely gonna be a quality-over-quantity year in 2023, I think. I know one of the things that we’re personally working on is kind of a story storytelling piece, but using video, and also walking customers through their own customer journey using video.

Karthi: So for me, do the right research, and bring the context. And to top it all, by humanizing your messages with videos—put a face to your name. So that’s going to be the best part of the personalization too.

Personalization is becoming pervasive. The best time to take action is now. Watch the complete webinar here.

The post Sales Engagement in 2023: Real, Scalable Personalisation is Here appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

It doesn’t have to be. 

Personalized video messages done right are how you can rise above the dejection of dodged calls, low open rates, or automated emails – giving you bigger, better opportunities.

As part of our Limitless Webinar series, we invited Becc Holland, CEO & Founder, Flip the Script, to explain how videos can help you hit the communication sweet spot. Living in San Francisco, Becc brings 15+ years of sales and marketing experience to empower sellers worldwide to dramatically improve their messaging and results, with incredible tips for cadences and workflows.

While you can watch the complete webinar below, here are some insights from that episode (scroll down to after the video)

Watch the Webinar

Q: Why are so many sales reps averse to using video as a channel for prospecting?

Polls during the webinar showed cold email, LinkedIn messages, and cold calling were quite ahead of videos as a favorite medium for outreach. Why, though, when videos work wonders in terms of breaking through the noise, getting responses, and booking meetings?

Becc shared some interesting insights on the audience’s responses. “My question is, ‘What is the aversion you have to video?’ ‘Why aren’t you doing it more?’ So we have several different answers here, ranging from “it’s just not my style,” “it’s hard to put myself out there, “and “I don’t know what to say,” “not sure if they’re actually watching it” and “I don’t know how to dress for the video!”

Heidi Quaschnik, Regional VP of Sales at Hippo, believes the primary reason is “I don’t know what to say. You know, when you see yourself for that first time on camera, and it can be a little bit intimidating and shocking. Like, oh my gosh, there I am. And it’s just you there talking to the camera, which can be a little bit uncomfortable.”

Becc adds: “You mean uncomfortable just because you’re confronted with ‘Wow, I look like that on the camera. Hmm. I don’t know if I like that.’ I know it’s hard to hear your own voice. So we have not sure if they’re actually watching it as number one. Don’t know what to say as number two. It’s hard to put myself out there as number three. And then we got a couple of others, including ‘I don’t want to appear to be full of myself to the prospect.'”

Q: How do you pick out a true reason for personalization?

Did you know 76% of customers get frustrated when they don’t get personalized interactions? Or that personalization typically drives a 10-15% revenue lift? That said, sales reps often struggle to personalize beyond a name, which is just the beginning. 

Becc shares why we must pick out a genuine reason for personalization and how to do it. “So when you’re using personalization within the video, the more specific, the better. You don’t have to be long to be personalized. So, for instance, if I said, ‘Heidi’s got a black shirt on with a gray and black scarf.’ That wasn’t a long tidbit, but now she’s positive I’m talking exactly to her.

So I would try to tease out some personalized premise of something that the person did, something that the person said, and the low-hanging fruit — if you just go to their LinkedIn profile and scan through it, you’re going to get something from them in the About Me section. And I would use some type of clip. What you can do within the video that really lit my team’s numbers on fire is, within the video, I would show me going to their LinkedIn profile. I’d say like, you know, ‘Hey Dave,’ for instance, and I’d say, some reason for my outreaches, and I would go to their link. ‘I was on your LinkedIn profile earlier, and I loved hearing when you said X, Y, and Z.’ It’s like showing Dave, hey, this is me talking to you.

So pick out something, you know, short, fast, but specific that interrupts the pattern where they think you’re just a mass blaster that is shooting these videos out. I want to say something to my prospect that they’re positive I’m talking to them specifically. For example, ‘I noticed that your company is growing, for instance. My CEO sent me your way. I’m really impressed by your profile. We have mutual connections.’

It should take you no longer than five minutes to tease out three personalized premises, but it interrupts the pattern to them that you know exactly who they are. People aren’t going to trust you’re going to spend their time wisely if you don’t from the start. So I would give some type of quip that you know exactly who they are.”

Q: What’s a sales tactic to abandon?

Breaking the ice with people we don’t know can be awkward and difficult. What do you say? Something lighthearted, perhaps? But what if it falls flat? Stroke the prospect’s ego? That can backfire, too! So, deciding how to come across as confident, interested, and competent while also being genuine and amiable is not easy. 

“Don’t be gimmicky,” says Becc. “I’m probably going to be the only person in the market that’s going to say this. I make a lot of jokes. I am not silly, though. If I’m talking to an SVP over at Oracle, for instance, you might pattern interrupt with a joke. But you need to get to the point fast because they have 3000 other people who are trying to get ahold of their time.

You need to be someone who gets ahold of their attention but then immediately transitions into something that showcases to them that you know who they are and what their problems are, and that you can be an advocate or that you can help. So people want around them people who can tell them things and uncover things for them that they don’t know.”

Q: How can the push-pull method boost your outreach efforts?

Choosing which style to use when speaking with a prospect can be tricky. Even the slightest chance you come across as pushy or aggressive can halt a conversation before you can say, “Jack Robinson!” However, continually pulling away from the prospect means you won’t get the deal done. How to find the balance?

Becc believes recognizing when you need to push the conversation forward and when you need to pull back is key. “Have a clear ask. I can’t tell you the number of emails that I have seen that are like, ‘Hey, I noticed that you downloaded content.’ Or cold calls… you downloaded content. Yeah. Do you have any questions? No, see ya!

So, have a clear ask. A great way to do this is to use a push-pull line on the end. I would suggest using a push-pull line in every single video… You ask, ‘If you give me a shot Thursday at two to unpack X, Y, and Z, ask you a couple of questions and unpack X, Y, and Z. I promise I will never bother you again. (Push)

If you don’t see the value, still say, ‘Either way…I hope that you had a great, great long weekend. You can use ‘Hope that you’re safe with everything going on during this time’ and ‘I’ve been a big fan of your work so far.’ (Pull)

That’s where the compliment should go. Most people put them in the beginning. ‘Hope you’re well,’ ‘Hope you’re awesome,’ ‘Hope you had a great weekend,’… ‘Just checking in,’ ‘Just circling back,’ and ‘Just bubbling this to the top of your inbox.’ I would put all of that language into the push-pull near the end.

So, I would have a clear ask of exactly what you want. So they’re not confused. A lot of times, prospects will walk away confused. They had no idea that you wanted a meeting. Why? Because you asked them if you had any questions about their content, the content they read, and they didn’t even know that you wanted a meeting. So I’d have a clear ask, but I would end every video with ‘either way’ regardless.”

Watch the Webinar

The post How to Use Video as a “Pattern Interrupt” in Sales appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

In the last couple of years, the shift from traditional to digital has been massive for the go-to-market sales and engagement models. Video Selling has emerged as the top virtual selling approach to capture a prospect’s attention, fast-track deal cycles, and close more business as the world continues to go remote. In fact, according to a recent McKinsey survey, “globally, 61% of buyers say they can get as much value from meeting suppliers over video conference as they can from in-person visits.”

To dive deeper into how exactly sellers can make the most of this opportunity, we spoke with Shari Levitin as part of our Limitless Webinar series. A renowned global sales leader and the CEO of the Levitin group, she shared incredible best practices and tips on “Cracking the Code to Selling with Videos.”

Along with being a celebrated speaker and mentor, Shari is also a bestselling author of “Heart and Sell” and a contributor to Forbes, CEO Magazine, Huffington Post, and more. She has been recognized as one of the Top Ten Voices in Sales for LinkedIn 2018, 35 Most Influential Women in Sales, and Top 20 Global Sales Experts. Outside of work, she is an outdoors enthusiast!

While you can watch the complete webinar, here are some insights from that episode (scroll down to after the video)

Watch the complete webinar

Question: Why should you consider videos to improve outreach?

Using videos in sales emails, relationship building, and prospecting translates into better open and reply rates. And there are plenty of stats out there reinforcing this. But we wanted to hear from Shari about what her experience has been.

Shari: “Video is more impactful than, say, a prospecting email or a phone call or a follow-up email after a presentation. Number one, you get a higher open rate. So, if your inbox says, ‘Just checking in,’ or ‘Email from Jack,’ or whatever the case may be. You got about a 3% open rate. I will tell you with video right now, you’ve got a 3X open rate. You have a three times greater chance in terms of open rate. 

My experience after using Hippo Video has been like 10X. What happens is when I send an email, I put in the subject line: Video or Video Message for Heidi. The minute you click the video, it is right there. They don’t have to click on a link. That’s why you need a video platform. Instead of just, for example, sending a video on YouTube, the video actually shows up in the body of the email. So, it’s novel. People are intrigued. It’s kind of amazing. So again, think of the fact that your customers are crazy busy. They don’t want to answer their emails any more than you do. And then all of a sudden there’s this video that’s moving and catches their eye and they’re like, whoa, that’s as novel as the telephone was in the 60s.”

Question: How do you run discovery calls in a way that draws your prospects in?

While we all have our own checklist of questions for executing a good discovery call to wow the prospects, there is perhaps no foolproof process. Or, is there?

Shari: “We have a framework that we teach at the Levitin Group — one we’ve actually taught for over 20 years, which is very effective, no matter what you’re selling. And it’s called the skin, bone, heart, and connective tissue framework. 

Skin questions are surface-level questions. They’re fact questions. For example, ‘How long have you been using X software?’ ‘Where are your other offices?’ … Bone questions uncover problems or challenges that the customer is having. So a bone question might be something like ‘If you could change anything about X, what would it be?’…

We’ve got to ask the skin questions, but better salespeople ask bone questions, and the best salespeople in the world break past the skin, through the bones, and into the heart. Heart questions are questions like ‘If you could increase your sales,… and earn an extra $5,000 a month because you start implementing video. What would you do with the extra money?’

Skin and bone questions are usually who, where, and when questions, and heart questions are why questions. There’s a new kind of question that you need to ask, particularly, if you have a complex sale, and that’s a connective tissue question. If you have a lot of decision-makers, you want to ask, ‘What are your criteria for decision-making?’”

Question: How can you revive dead deals?

Don’t we all want a chance to revive dead or stalled deals? Sure, there are ‘off days’ for all of us, and some deals are not meant to be. But a well-thought-out, personalized approach significantly ups your chances of reconnecting with a prospect who has gone ‘cold’.

Shari shares how tailored video messages can bring a deal back to life. “Videos are great CPR for dead deals. You know, you’ve got somebody who went dark. They’re in your pipeline, and the deal’s dead. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sent a video and, kind of, resurrected that deal. As a side note, if a deal’s really dead, I send a ‘breakup email’.

If I haven’t heard from somebody in a long time, I’ll put in the subject line ‘Are we breaking up?’ ‘Haven’t heard from you in a long time.’ Or, ‘Good luck. It sounds like you’re going to use somebody else to be your keynote speaker. There are plenty of great speakers. Happy to even give you a referral.’ ‘Looks like you’ve gone in a different direction.’ It’s showing you’re being a good sport. But if you do that by video, that breakup email is even more powerful, and it works almost every time.”

Question: What’s a sales process fundamental that is an absolute non-negotiable?

Despite its many benefits, virtual selling can be tricky. When you’re already competing for their attention, time, and interest, perfecting your approach is key. Once you’ve executed a great discovery, what can you do to improve your chances of closing the sale?

“We will never get off a call until we confirm the next call; my mentor taught me this 25 years ago — a very silly phrase called HAM, BAM. That is, Have A Meeting, Book A Meeting. So, if you’re doing a one-call close, of course, this doesn’t apply. But if you’ve got a sales process, that’s maybe 1, 2, 3 calls, or maybe five calls, you want to book that next call while you’re on the call. Why? Because you don’t want to play chase games. It’s no fun. It’s exhausting for everybody and it’ll waste a lot of your time. So, one of the things you do in your follow-up video is you confirm that time that you both agreed to.”For more information on Shari’s unique four-part sales framework, great use cases for videos, pro tips, and how Hippo Video can help, watch the entire conversation.

The post Cracking the Code to Selling with Videos – A Webinar by Shari Levitin appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

Amy Franko is a top sales leader and the founder of Impact Instruction Group. She has built a successful B2B career in sales with tech giants like Lenovo and IBM and after that she launched an entrepreneurial career with the training company, The impact Instruction Group. She has been named as LinkedIn 2019 Top Sales Voice, her book The Modern Seller is an Amazon bestseller and The Modern Seller is named as top sales book and highly recommended read by selling power.

Amy was featured on our Limitless Webinar series on May 05, 2020.

Watch the complete webinar:

In-Short:

Question: What are the capabilities of Modern Seller?

Amy: There are few capabilities that I see when we are able to build these five capabilities. It is going to make us better at our everyday selling activities.They are Accelerated ROI and Decision by committee.

Question: What is the definition of a modern seller?

Amy: A modern seller is someone who was recognized as a differentiator in your client's business. You are seen as someone who makes a tangible difference to their business. You're not just selling a product. You're not just selling a service whatever your particular situation. The mission is you are seen and recognized as a difference-maker in your client's business. 

Question: Can you give us the best advice to sell during complex times? 

Amy: My experience has been any way that people are pretty overwhelmed with email at the moment lots of different emails coming in and especially related to the pandemic that's happening but picking up the phone as a differentiator for me and you know using video email like we've been talking about early on as Hippo shared.

Question: What are the four high impact relationships?

Amy: There are four high impact relationships that you need to build in every prospect in every client opportunity. So I'm going to run through these forms and as I'm running through them. I think about your prospects and clients and where you're strong and where you perhaps have some opportunity to make some improvements with these relationships. 

The first high impact relationship, the second group is your decision-makers, your next high-impact relationship is your center of influence. And then lastly strategic alliances. 

The post The Modern Seller – The 5 Skill Sets You Need for Sales Success with Today’s Customers appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

Amy Oplinger Singh is a senior consultant at the Crevalle Group. She is an expert in Salesforce end-user training. She has a wealth of experience across different industries of different sizes, and she is also one of the well-known speakers of Dreamforce. Needless to say, she is the best person to talk about today’s topic – Making Salesforce adoption easy for your sales teams.

Amy was featured on our Limitless Webinar series on Mar 24, 2020.

Watch the complete webinar:

In-Short:

Question: How can we make Salesforce easy?

Once we are building with the end-user in mind, all of these things will kind of come into place. You got your processes in order. You have a consultant there that can translate your thoughts of these into Salesforce functionality and your consultant is working with the end-users to find out what they do their job and how they can automate certain parts of the end-users job. 

Question: What is an Adoption Dashboard?

So that management still gets the data that it needs. But your salespeople can be what they're there for and that's the self. Oftentimes KPI measurements for sales targets are in place. However, the management when they get Salesforce might not have an idea of adoption. So just the same way that you can measure but you want to put on target for yourself people you can set a target for adoption and your implementer your admin can set up an adoption dashboard when you're trying to impart to your end-users important Salesforce with is. 

You can take a look at this adoption dashboard and keep track of the people that are using the system you can see very quickly and easily where Salesforce is working, who is not working it, and so forth. 

Question: What are the guidelines for Change management communication?

Amy: Change management is very important. You can't epic fail for a team. You can't just go in and change people's jobs and not tell them right. So most companies have a release schedule. They have good communication around that oftentimes when a release happens, a communication or a lunch and learn takes place. That's what I would recommend that the interested or the affected parties join the lunch and learn. That's a great way to communicate change management. 

Question: How to communicate the limitations of certain out-of-the-box Salesforce features? 

Amy: You have to understand who you're talking to. Oftentimes I find that when a user is asking for something. It helps to not be very technical because if I say well that's just a limitation of out-of-the-box Salesforce often times that that's okay with them or conversely if they push on that then I would get an estimate from my developer as to how much that would cost and that's pretty clear for most people so I try not to get into the weeds. Like, oh the OWD is private looking fly and that meant I try not to get into that level at all of the explanation with an end-user. I just tried to tell them that you know Salesforce. Well, it is a great tool. It does have some limitations, but I would be happy to talk with the developer to find out the cost and level of effort to implement this request. Typically. That's a good answer for most people. 

Question: How do you get the users to capture a sales activity right after a meeting?

Amy: It depends on your salespeople. So a lot of people are and how you're kind of into if you're inside sales at the rapid kind of day. Most inside sales reps I know are taking those madly like crazy and you'll see that entered at the end of the day again, I would have to take a look. I would recommend taking a look at your process and your training and maybe having a kind of hey. Ideal day and an ideal way you should handle conversations of your contacts. 

The post Making Salesforce adoption easy for your sales teams appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

Limitless Webinar Series brings yet another webinar where we share industry experience, strategy, best practices and most importantly actionable inputs that you can readily implement.

Download Ebook: Winning Strategies That Help Close The Sale, From Top 18 Sales Leaders

Featuring Sandy, marketing and communications specialist at Hippo Video, this webinar helps sales professionals on how to re-imagine their sales strategy using videos. Let’s dive in. 

The webinar is all about re-imagining your sales strategy with videos and we have covered 

• strategies for remote-working sales teams, 
• how to use video to increase productivity in your sales outreach, 
• improve your prospect engagement with personalized videos, 
• pointers on tracking and closing deals with effective video communication. 

Register here to watch the complete webinar now. 

In-Short:

Question: Why should you re-imagine your sales strategy?

The situation we are facing right now is unprecedented. It is one of the biggest news stories right now. It has affected various industries from travel to industry events to global supply chains. None of us has seen anything like this in the last 100 years. Be it governments or businesses, there is no playbook or manual on how to handle this situation. While the governments are discussing trillion-dollar stimulus packages, businesses have to try to keep their head above water.

Question: Why is it time for businesses to be brave and creative?

With social distancing having become the norm, sales teams have no other option other than selling remotely. So sales folks need new tools, new  strategies and new tactics to adapt to this situation. The idea is not just to survive but thrive and come out stronger. It is essential that sales professionals have to find new and creative ways to sell. 

Question: How to re-channelize remote selling?

There are a couple of things here. There are some things you shouldn’t do. A big No to some of the things we have already been doing. 

Second, we need to re-think the selling channels. We can definitely learn some things from the countries that are 2-3 weeks ahead of this. We can look at the things businesses are doing and we can learn a lot from them.

Most importantly, we need to rethink the way we prospect, we nurture, generate leads, qualify leads, and close them.

Question: What has changed in sales?

All your prospects are working from home and so are you. You might have had a target of getting X number of meetings in the month of May. That is not happening.

Almost all the events and conferences are either canceled, postponed, or have gone virtual. So almost every salesperson is an inside sales representative. You have no chance of meeting your prospect in-person.

Question: What you should be doing to increase sales?

First thing is to have empathy. Second, be authentic. Third, genuinely try to help. 

Register here to watch the complete webinar now. 

The post Re-imagining the sales strategy – What makes it the need of the hour? appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

Sangram Vajre is the co-founder and chief evangelist of Terminus. Before Terminus, Vajre led the marketing team at Pardot through its acquisition by ExactTarget and then Salesforce. He’s also the author of Account-Based Marketing For Dummies, ABM is B2B and is the host of FlipMyFunnel podcast.

Sangram was featured on our Limitless Webinar series on Mar 04, 2020. It was an insightful session and here are the key takeaways from the webinar.

Watch the complete webinar:

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

[02:00] What does it take to become a modern CMO?  

[11:11] Should marketers also own parts of the customer’s success?

[13:55] How does a CMO overcome the skill gap in marketing?

[26:32] Does marketing get more budget when the revenue goes up? 

In-Short:

Question: What does it take to become a modern CMO?

Sangram: A modern CMO, I think, is someone who is really empathetic to the customer and just says that they actually do it right. So it doesn’t matter what you do. So to be up more than seeing it more, you have to talk to your customers every day. And only then you’ll be able to empathize with them. And that’s not necessarily mean you’re on call every single day. That just means that you are engaged.

Question: Should marketers also own parts of the customer’s success?

Sangram: I don’t think you need to, but what you do need and what I’m seeing through the whole account-based marketing lens is one of the greatest areas. 

Question: How does a CMO overcome the skill gap in marketing?

Sangram: Early-stage startup is going to be really, really hard for you to be a CMO. If you’re someone who likes team building and likes making sure that a bunch of people do other things, events at a massive scale, and stuff, then maybe it’s a bigger organization that you should go for. So the skill set Sinjin up really depends on the type of the size of the company and also the type of personality most people have got to totally understand.

Question: Does marketing get more budget when the revenue goes up?

Sangram: t’s tied to marketing and sales is tied to the hip. So you like it or not. This is not an honest philosophical conversation. No. Nada. It is a hundred percent a conversation of truth. The truth is marketing and sales are tighter to her. If you’re in B2B and it’s one line item in most financial statements. So if you’re tied to the hip, your job as a marketer, everyone who’s listening to your job as a marketer is to do that incrementally or exponentially grow sales, period.

The post How to lead like a modern CMO appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

John Barrows has held every position in Sales including inside, field, channel, executive management and ownership. He continues to sell every day using the techniques he trains to some of the world’s leading tech companies including Linkedin, Marketo, HP and Salesforce. He is also the bestselling author of ‘I want to be in sales when I grow up’.

Download Ebook: Winning Strategies That Help Close The Sale, From Top 18 Sales Leaders

John was featured on our Limitless Webinar series on Feb 26 2020 at 11 AM EST. It was an insightful session on personal branding and here are the key takeaways from the webinar.

Key takeaways from the webinar:

• The 2 different sides of social selling
• The power of personal brand building and what it can do for your career
• How to build your brand in an authentic way
• How to integrate personal brand building into your routine

Watch the complete webinar:

In-Short:

Question: How can sales reps be themselves despite marketing wants to control the message? 

John: I think that’s the challenge that I see a lot of times as marketing is a little bit too controlling. They don’t want sales reps to do anything. And that’s where I think you have to like don’t try to do it kind of outside and not really about your business. Just do it about the industry and those types of things. So, the easy way to do it with marketing in mind is to take the marketing content.

Question: Is there something called content overload then sharing too much content? 

John: Yes, I think chewing too much content that’s not valuable is bad. I think this is where you get in danger of just, oh, I’m gonna post every day and you start posting stuff that is just weak. Do you know what I mean? Really weak and not very valuable in any way, shape, or form. That’s where I think it’ll hurt you.

Question: How can a marketer go about building a brand for the sales team?

John: Yeah, I think it’s about giving. I think it’s about being selective with the content that you share, like bringing content to the sales reps to help educate them and sharing it with a context. 

The post How sales reps can build their personal brand to sell more deals appeared first on Hippovideo.io.