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Alex Winter

By Alex Winter

Apr 3, 2024

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Endless Customers Podcast

Win More Business With 'The Selling 7' [Endless Customers Podcast S.1 Ep. 20]

Alex Winter

By Alex Winter

Apr 3, 2024

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Note: This transcript has been generated by AI and has not been checked for accuracy. 

 

Marcus
0:00:00
Selling seven's great because it gives you a very clear path of here are the seven types of videos that we know are gonna have the greatest impact on your sales team

Alex
0:00:10
Welcome back to the show. This is endless customers

Alex
0:00:12
I'm Alex winter and I'm joined today by Marcus Sheridan keynote speaker author partner here at IMPACT. Welcome back to the show, Marcus, good to see you.

Marcus
0:00:28
Here we go again.

Alex
0:00:29
Here we go again. So today we're talking about something that I am really partial to because I'm a video guy at my core. It's called The Selling Seven. And this is something that really is near and dear, I think, to you and to Zach Basner, who's been on the show as well,

Alex
0:00:43
as you've created this system, really around how to create content specifically with video to help businesses. So for businesses that are dabbling or getting into the video game, this is really that framework that's going to help them create content that's going to matter and help them. So to start things off, let's just go through the Selling 7

Alex
0:01:00
real quick. So we have-

Marcus
0:01:01
Yeah, can I tee up the history?

Alex
0:01:03
Yeah, you want to?

Marcus
0:01:03
I'll do two first.

Alex
0:01:04
Let's start there.

Marcus
0:01:04
Good call.

Marcus
0:01:05
Yeah, so if you look at the, like, why did we come up with this? First off, everybody knows at this point, pretty much, if they have a functioning brain, they should be doing video as an organization. Once we accept that reality, and we say, okay, we can't just tell it, we've got to show it, people want to see it, and they don't have a lot of patience if they can't see it because they're going to go find it somewhere if they can't see it. Then we say, okay, so what's the plan?

Marcus
0:01:31
What's the strategy? What's the process? Where should I start? Selling7 is great because it gives you a very clear path of here are the seven types of videos that we know are going to have the greatest impact on your sales team. Now this is what's unique about the Selling 7. It's not called the Marketing 7. It's called the Selling 7. Now does it help marketing? Yes, but it really helps your sales team. And so as we're talking about each one of these seven, I'm going to frame it from a perspective. And the way you should be thinking about it is, okay, what would happen if my sales team had that right now? How would they integrate that tool in their toolbox?

Marcus
0:02:15
What type of impact would that have with the prospect? What type of impact would that have on trust? What type of impact would that have on closing rates? Right? Right. So that's the beauty of the Selling 7. We have tested these 7 over and over again. And the other reason why we came out with the Selling 7 is because people too often waste money on videos that don't produce fruit, especially from the sales team. And the number one video that doesn't produce fruit, generally speaking, is the Dang About

Marcus
0:02:45
Us video.

Alex
0:02:46
This is going to say the About Us.

Marcus
0:02:47
It's the most classic video that you've seen over the last 20 years that people make. I don't think I've ever heard a prospect in the history of the world say, it was just their About Us video that just sealed the deal for me. I've never heard a salesperson say, you know what, if we just had a better About Us video, maybe I could close this deal.

Alex
0:03:07
Typically, when you work with an outside production company or video agency, that's the first video they suggest.

Marcus
0:03:12
That's the first one they go to. Yeah. Which I'm like, don't blow your entire dang budget on an about us video that your sales team is going to shrug their shoulders at and say, yeah, okay, but how's this going to help me? How's this going to help my prospect? So that's the lens by which we're going to review the Selling 7. Well said.

Alex
0:03:35
In this conversation. Yeah, no, I love that. for me to coming out of a video background to have this all boxed up and prepackaged in a way that's like, here are these seven types of videos that you can use that you know are going to be effective, that are going to help your sales team, that are ultimately going to speak to your clients and meet them where they are, it's very they ask you answer. That's great because then you're not just making these creative shiny objects that may

Marcus
0:03:57
not work. That's right. Right. So proven, proven. You do not have to guess. And that's why people love They Ask, You Answer. It is arguably the most proven digital sales and marketing framework out there.

Marcus
0:04:14
It's like EOS is the most proven framework for businesses, for getting things done, right? And for getting traction with your business. Well, They Ask, You Answer is the most definitive framework for digital sales and marketing success.

Alex
0:04:28
I just see it over and over again. And if you haven't read it, you should. It's right here, it's right here behind me. It's an easy read, it's a fun read.

Marcus
0:04:34
You better ask somebody.

Alex
0:04:35
You better ask somebody. I also love that there's real world examples. So it's not just a theory of it, it's in practice. So there you go, there's the little plug for the Ask Vancer, but let's get back into selling seven. So the first video that's on the list is employee bio videos. So can we talk a little bit about why these are important and especially for salespeople, how this can help turn the dial when it comes to close rates?

Marcus
0:04:54
Right. So a couple lenses, we got to talk about this. Let's talk about the video itself and where you put it. So an employee bio video or biography video has two parts. And this is you start with your sales team on this, anybody that generally is customer facing. And so you want to talk about why the person does what they like, like their career. Why are they working here? And have them talk about it, right? So it's essentially, usually it's an interview with them and they're talking about, here's why I do what I do at work. So that's part of the video. And the other part of the video is,

Marcus
0:05:28
hey, when I'm not at work, here's a little bit about me, right? So you've got that mix of the personal and professional. Now this doesn't need to be a long video at all. Like 90 seconds, I would probably say, in most cases, is about the average. And now once you do it, where do you put it? And this is the key.

Marcus
0:05:42
Now, definitely you want to put it on your About Us page, in your team page, right, on your website. And in some industries, that's really, really important. But that's not the real, that's not the big, like, catch here. The main place that you want to put it is in your email signature, right?

Alex
0:05:57
Now. Now we're talking, yeah.

Marcus
0:05:59
Why your email signature? Why your email signature? Because your sales team is sending out, for lack of a cooler phrase, a buttload of emails a month right now. And what's really sad is most email signatures are completely disregarded. In other words, the salesperson doesn't give them any attention, but everybody notices them if they're done the right way. It's a tragedy because you know if I was grading out most email signatures for salespeople, I'd give it like a C-.

Marcus
0:06:32
Most don't even have an image of the person. So you should have their contact information. That's what pretty much everybody has. But then you should have an image, and once you've got the image, you should have the bio video underneath that. And then when you send them an email, now they have a chance to see your face, hear your voice, and get to know you. And that's always the goal. What we constantly teach folks is, when it comes to selling, an effective selling,

Marcus
0:06:58
that your prospect should feel like they've seen you, heard you, and know you before you ever shake their hand, before you even have that first call. Easiest way to do that is send a bio video in your email signature, and you can even mention when you're talking to the prospect, and oh, by the way, at the bottom of this email that I'm sending you right now, you're going to, there's this really quick video. It's only 90 seconds, but you're going

Marcus
0:07:19
to get to know a little bit about me. And this way, you know who you're dealing with as we go down this journey together. Right. And so like, that's impressive. And how many salespeople have a bio video in their email signature? Less than 1%. I can tell you. Yeah, I don't see many. There's less than 1%. And I've been talking about it for 10 years and I don't think I've moved the needle that much because people are just fundamentally just like, it doesn't make any sense. But the ones that do it, they stand out really quickly. So that's the bio video. It's really powerful.

Marcus
0:07:50
It works on an average. A typical salesperson is going to get 20 to 30 views a month if you just embed it in your signature. By the way, the tool that I'd recommend for that is Y-Stamp. That's the simplest tool, W-I-S-E, W-I-S-E stamp. And so that's how you can have a professional email signature without spending a lot of money.

Alex
0:08:09
It really personalizes it for people and makes the experience, especially for the buyers, that much more concierge. Yeah, really cool. OK, so the second piece here is landing page videos. So let's talk about what they are first and then how we can use them to our advantage.

Marcus
0:08:22
Landing page video, for the context of this conversation, a landing page is any page of your site that has a form someone's going to fill out. The issue is when somebody's filling out a form there's certain fears they have. There's four major fears when you fill out a landing page form or any form online. Number one, are you going to call me to death? Number two, you're going to spam me to death. Number three, what are you going to do with my information? And number four, so if I fill out this form what's going to happen exactly? What's this process going to look like? Those are the four

Alex
0:08:46
major fears. That's exactly what happens in my brain when I land on a page like

Marcus
0:08:49
that. That's right. And so here's what you want to do. You want to put a video right next to that form on that landing page. Now, it's got to have a title that you should see on the actual page. Tons of people make a mistake. I mean, companies all the time, they put videos on their website, but you don't know what the video is about.

Marcus
0:09:08
If you don't know what the video is about, if you don't know what the payoff might be, you're probably not going to click on the video. So what should the title be on the page? See exactly what will happen if you fill out this form. Do not overcomplicate it. It is exactly what it is, because that's what they're thinking, what will happen if I fill out this form?

Marcus
0:09:24
Now, once you go to make that video, what do you say? Literally, you just tell them, here's what's going to happen, so let's pretend I was making the video right now. I might say something like, so you're sitting there right now and you're saying to yourself should I fill out this form? Are these guys gonna like call me or spam me to death and what's gonna happen? Well over the next three minutes, I'm gonna I'm gonna answer all those questions

Marcus
0:09:46
You're gonna know exactly what this process looks like and hopefully by the end You'll know if you should fill out this form who's not gonna watch that dude. Everybody's gonna watch that. Here's what's here's What's so powerful? we consistently see a 50 to 80% lift of conversion rates.

Alex
0:10:03
50 to 80%.

Marcus
0:10:04
Yeah. I heard that right. Yeah, which is crazy, right? That's like, imagine you can almost double the amount of people that are filling out your forms if you just take away the fear. That's all you're doing is you're taking away the fear, you're addressing it head on.

Marcus
0:10:22
It's extremely powerful, it works. And so that's the landing page video. And so how does it help your sales team? Because they're going to get a lot more leads and they generally appreciate that.

7
0:10:32
Yeah.

Alex
0:10:33
50 to 80% more form fills. That's correct. Sign me up for that, please. Yeah, that's great. Wow. Okay. So landing page videos. Definitely sounds like something that people need to be thinking about.

Alex
0:10:42
The next one on the list that I got is 80% videos, which is one of my personal favorites.

Marcus
0:10:46
Yeah. And this is one I actually say if you force me to say, which one should we do first? I'd say the 80% video. So how does this work? Well, if you go to most sales teams and you say, what percentage of the questions you get on a sales call, assuming it's the same product or service, are the same questions almost every time?

Marcus
0:11:02
They're going to say, 75%, 80% of the questions. So the majority of the questions we get, we already know what we're going to get before we even get there. So what would happen if, before you got there, they not only knew the answers, but they had heard it and learned it from you. How would that impact your sales meetings? I mean, you would get to the nitty-gritty a lot faster, right? You'd spend less time teaching, more time selling. And so what you want to do is you want to take each one of your major products and services, and then underneath each, brainstorm the top

Marcus
0:11:30
questions that you know you're going to hear every single time. Choose the top seven to ten questions, and then once you've done that, you create one video that addresses those top seven to ten questions. Yes, it's a little bit longer of a video. It's not going to be short, nor should it be short. Don't buy into that idea that every video should be like freaking TikTok or YouTube shorts here, folks. This person is the type of person that watches this, is they're getting further down the

Marcus
0:11:53
buyer's journey. They're thinking about writing a check, giving you their credit card information, whatever that thing is, signing that contract with you. And so if it's seven minutes, if it's ten minutes long, that's totally fine. I like it longer personally myself as long as there's no waste because they're going to be more invested and they're going to be more informed. All right. Those are powerful things. So that's the 80 percent video. And for those that know what assignment selling is, we talk a lot about it and they ask you answer. That's a process of a sales team very intentionally integrating content into the sales process.

Marcus
0:12:22
So as to eliminate those redundant questions and move people down that buyer's journey faster. Well, the 80% video is the number one piece of content you should include in your assignment selling if you're a sales pro.

Alex
0:12:38
That's fascinating to me. It's so simple in its concept, but nobody does it. If they just did it, how much more would it help your bottom line? How much more would it help with conversions and qualifying people and prospects, the whole deal.

Marcus
0:12:49
And if they do it, it sounds almost biased, like, you know, why should you buy such and such product? No, it's like, you know, like answer questions like, who is it not a good fit for? That's a really good question that you should be addressing. But if you're listening to your prospects, to your customer, you know what should be in there because they're repeated over and over again. I used to go on sales calls back in the day when I was a pool guy, and I'd hear a question, Alex, and I would say to myself,

Marcus
0:13:14
why are they asking that question? Is it because I haven't answered that? Is it because I've answered it, but I haven't made sure that they saw it? And if I kept hearing a question, it would drive me crazy, because it meant there was a flaw with the way that I was doing my messaging, either on the sales or marketing side,

Marcus
0:13:32
I had to fix something, right? And so this is so powerful, it's simple to do, it's gonna make a major, major impact.

Alex
0:13:41
Yeah, and I think for a lot of businesses too, that are like, we're not sure what the questions are, you most likely have an FAQ section somewhere, a frequently asked questions section, where you could at least pull from there to start.

Marcus
0:13:50
Yeah, but Alex, they don't know the questions, they stink. I mean, they have lost touch with their business. If you're a CEO and you don't know those fundamental questions that your customers are asking on sales calls, I would argue that you're very out of touch and you're not doing your fiduciary to protect the company's best interests. When I have ever had a CEO or even a marketing team say, I'm not sure of the questions, my

Marcus
0:14:19
next question is, when was the last time you observed a sales call? And almost always, it's been a long time.

Alex
0:14:27
The answer is it's been a long time.

Marcus
0:14:28
I can tell. You cannot do your job as a marketer if you're not observing sales calls. You cannot do your job as a CEO if you're not observing sales calls.

Alex
0:14:35
Yeah, gotta keep your finger on the pulse. Totally, couldn't agree more. Okay, next one we got here is cost and price videos. So 80% is the setup for assignment selling, now we're getting into more of like the actual nuts and bolts.

Marcus
0:14:46
So sometimes people say, well, Marcus, wouldn't cost and price be in the 80% video? You could, but I suggest you make it separate. And the reason why you want to make it separate, it merits plenty of time and attention. So to do a cost price video well, and look, we're not going into all the reasons why you should here, folks.

Alex
0:15:05
That's a whole other can of worms.

Marcus
0:15:06
I mean, that's called golden rule. You know you want it. You know everybody wants at least a range. So dag on it, give it to them. Otherwise, they're going to go look elsewhere. Okay, so let's not, I spent like 20 pages breaking that psychology out and they ask you answer.

Alex
0:15:21
That's a fact.

Marcus
0:15:22
The thing about it is, when you do this type of cost price video, there's five major parts to that video. Just like if you wrote the article. What drives cost up in the industry for that product or service? What drives cost down? Why are some companies so expensive? Why are some companies so cheap? And then roughly, where do you fall?

Marcus
0:15:41
That's it. That's what you do. Now, that video is probably 5 to 10 minutes long. It's not a short video, nor should it be short because this is really where you're building your value proposition. Because what you have to understand, it's really interesting, when you're doing marketing well that they ask you, answer, way, you want to address cost and price early in the buyers journey so that they say, okay, now I feel like I can move forward because you know they're looking for it.

Marcus
0:16:11
But once you get on a sales call, you don't address cost price until the end. Because if you address it early, you can't build the value proposition throughout and the only focus becomes a number without a foundation. So you give the foundation and the 80% when they're vetting you to death, they have a sense for what the range is probably going to be, then you have the sales call and because they already know, you don't have to sit there and disrupt the flow of the sales conversation because they already have a sense for it and therefore you give them the actual price, the proposal at the end of the sales appointment, not at the beginning.

Marcus
0:16:50
You see? So there's a dichotomy between the two that you have to understand. Some people misconstrue that when they read the ask you answer, like that's not the way that we sell. I'm like, oh, this is the way it needs to be done if you want to attract the most leads and have the highest closing rates.

Marcus
0:17:09
I'm not saying change the way that your sales presentations work.

Alex
0:17:11
Sure.

Marcus
0:17:12
Cost and price, the proposal, that should come at the end. But they shouldn't be dumb. They shouldn't be ignorant. They shouldn't be uninformed. It's your job to make sure they've got a sense for things going into it so that they're not saying, what? I had no idea it was that much. You have to establish the value first.

3
0:17:28
That's right.

Marcus
0:17:29
Yeah. And there's a lot of times that we actually, we just had Brian Casey on the show not too

Alex
0:17:32
long ago and we were talking about this exact thing where if you talk about as a salesperson or professional, talking about price up front or if you ask someone what their budget is right up front in the conversation, you're shooting yourself in the foot because you're not getting a chance to establish the value. The conversation might end right there if the budget isn't in the range it's supposed to be

Alex
0:17:52
and if you have an assignment sold to them. There's all these pieces as to why I totally agree that that should be towards the end and they should already have an idea so that you can establish the value

Marcus
0:18:00
and then you have that conversation and boom there it is. Yeah it's like it's like meeting somebody at the bar and in the first five minutes you say how many kids would you like to have? Yeah check please. I mean this is really yeah there's just not ready that's not ready for that there's no foundation for. Totally. All right so the next one on the list that we have is product

Alex
0:18:24
product page or service page videos?

6
0:18:26
Yeah.

Marcus
0:18:27
So look, we know that usually after your home page and after your cost price page, the most viewed pages of your website are your service product pages. Right. OK? If you're a service-based business, you've probably got some core service pages where you're discussing those services that you offer.

Marcus
0:18:45
Same thing with a product company. Now, here's the thing. you want to create a specific video for each one of those service slash product pages. Now, here's the important part of that video. Don't screw this up, folks. It's got two sides always. Who is that service or product for? Who is it not for? You've heard me talk about this many times, but I call it the law of the coin. A coin has how many sides? Don't say three, because that means you're nerdy and you're just trying to be funny. It's got two sides. It's always got two sides. Coins got two sides. And so when you're doing messaging, pitching, etc., it should always

Marcus
0:19:21
have two sides. If you want to disarm the reader, the viewer, etc., present both sides. Here's who's this for. The perfect buyer, right? But here's an example of who this would not be a good fit for. You don't do it in a snarky, a funny way. You do it in an honest way. Because generally, there's always an honest answer. Somebody comes to us at IMPACT and says, well, OK, we'll find it, Marcus. Tell me, who's IMPACT not for?

Marcus
0:19:48
Oh, that's really easy.

8
0:19:49
That is easy.

Marcus
0:19:50
IMPACT's not a good fit for you if you're looking for an agency that will produce all of your content for you. You want someone to write your articles. You want someone to produce your videos. You don't want to own it in-house. You don't want to be in charge of your own destiny in that regard and hold the paintbrush. Right, the very traditional approach. You're looking for a traditional marketing agency with

Marcus
0:20:11
straight deliverables, then IMPACT's not a good fit for you. I can say that in a in a second, right? Totally. And so that's why you need to learn how to say that. It's very endearing to those who are and are not a good fit because everybody's now saved time.

Alex
0:20:26
Yeah, and psychologically, the piece behind that for me is like, you're not trying so hard that you have to get this deal, you have to make it happen. It's like, hey, this is who we are a good fit for and this is who we're not. And hopefully you are, but if you're not, that's okay too. We're not trying to sell you something that isn't gonna work for you.

Marcus
0:20:42
Yeah, I mean, I call that the walkaway paradox. So what's wild is when someone knows knows that you feel so strongly that fit is so important, that if the fit's not there, that you're always willing to walk away, that is very endearing and empowering. That gives you more authority, your product, your service, your company, your brand, etc. So that's the paradox of it. By knowing that you will walk away, that you're totally fine with it, that you're not so emotionally connected with the sale The magnetism becomes much greater to your product to your service to your brand so true. Yeah, very true

Alex
0:21:24
All right So the next one the list that we got this customer journey videos, which I love filming these These are one of my favorite ones to go and we have some great clients We've captured customers or any videos but for those people out there that don't know what is a customer journey video and how do you use it?

Marcus
0:21:38
Yeah, I mean, you've created some amazing ones, not to toot your horn, because you don't need it, but it's like, we've got some great ones at IMPACT. The customer journey video comes just really from the hero's journey, which you see with Disney. And to break the hero's journey down into the most simplest form is three parts,

Marcus
0:21:55
which is the problem or the day, the day it went wrong, right, for the main character right and then there's the journey they went on usually in Disney with a guide right in this case if it's for impact impacts the guide right if it's customer journey video for your company for listeners you're the guide your company's the guide and then finally where they are today because they went through that journey ie happily ever after right right so those are the three parts. What's the problem? What's their journey they went on and with whom? And where are they today? So this is more than just a testimonial video. You got to dig in. You got to really find out what

Marcus
0:22:40
was their state. What was the issue? What was the concern? What were the fears? What were the frustrations? Right? And then what was the process like? Why did they decide to go with your company? Like all those things. You know, what was easy about it? What was hard about the journey? And what's the payoff been? OK, so you do that.

Marcus
0:23:01
It's really powerful. And the idea is that salesperson talking to a prospect, and prospect says, prospect explains her situation, and salesperson says, you know what? We've had somebody just like you. In fact, we have a video that shows they have your exact same problem. And I want you to watch it so that you can see you're not alone. People have gone through this before.

Marcus
0:23:22
We've helped them just like you. And so that's really powerful for a salesperson. That's like gold for a salesperson. But again, I stress these are longer videos, not uncommon to be seven to 10 minutes long.

Alex
0:23:33
Yeah. Yeah. And I think my favorite part about this structure particularly is that we talk about the pain, where as most testimonial videos, for the most part, it's all rainbows and skittles and everyone's happy and talking about all the positive, and that's great. But what caused you to need this service or this product? How did it help you?

Alex
0:23:51
What was the problem that made you go to find this thing in the first place? That's where you really start to unearth that relatability factor, that other people watch it and go like, yeah, I have that problem too. And that's where the power comes in. So for salespeople, they can use it in their toolkit. Where on your website should this live, or should this be

Alex
0:24:05
on YouTube?

Marcus
0:24:06
Where would you place it? All these videos can live, certainly, on YouTube, other than the landing page videos. So these should be on YouTube. These should be on your site. It's like the customer journey ones. In your learning center, you could have customer journey videos as a page, right?

Alex
0:24:31
Like success stories.

Marcus
0:24:32
Or customer reviews or success stories or case studies. I mean there's all different types you could call it. I would highlight that on the home page as well, probably a few of these, because they're very, very powerful. And social proof is a big deal, and this is the best social proof you get. If you look, if you think back to the infomercials, especially of like the 90s, where they slayed is the customer journey video sections. It's like, here's the struggle that we were going through as a couple and then we discovered, you know, Tony Robbins is, you know, like, like

Marcus
0:25:04
mastering the power within or, you know, whatever the thing is called, right? And then Tony's like, and what happened next, right? And then the person says well, you know, we went to one of Tony's events You know, he walked on fire coals and like everything started to become different. Where are you today? It's like on today like our our marriage has never been happier And you know, we're millionaires and it's like totally, you know, and Tony's like there you have it folks, right? Come to my next show. Yeah, right. Totally. So I mean that that really is effective. It is a extremely effective and so infomercials sometimes get a cheesy, like this cheesy connotation behind it,

Marcus
0:25:43
but you want to create that powerful feel, emotional, the valley, the roller coaster, the up, the down, you know, everybody loves a comeback story. Create that with your customers

Alex
0:25:56
and your products and services. Yeah, so true. So true. So the last video on the list here, which I think sometimes people get confused and try to group it into the about us category and it's not the same thing as a claims we make video. So can we talk a little bit about what that is?

Marcus
0:26:09
Okay, so to do the claims we make video, first you got to go to your general messaging, which is either on your website or your sales team especially makes it. In the messaging is what are the claims that we consistently make about ourselves? We're the most such and such. We've been doing this the longest. Da-da, da-da, da-da, da. You know, some common ones that you hear folks make all the time, it's our people that make us different.

Marcus
0:26:37
And that one's really overused. And it's very much undersold in that most don't know how to show that. And so it's like, if you just got a photo of your team on your website, and you're saying it's our people that make us different, I'm sorry, but I'm not picking up what you're putting down. I'm not buying it.

Marcus
0:26:54
Right.

Alex
0:26:55
And so if you... Well, too many people say it, so if everyone...

Marcus
0:26:57
It's just noise to the marketplace. Exactly. So you have to show the thing. So take the claims that you make, brainstorm them, try to be specific, really lean into the sales claims and the marketing claims, sometimes they're a little bit different. And then produce videos or a video that specifically shows them to be true. One very easy example, let's say it's our people that make us different. Maybe what you do is you show the rigorous training process an employee has to go through in your company in order to qualify for a particular position.

Marcus
0:27:34
Sure. Like that's really, really – I mean that's powerful, right? Right. And then you can see it You can actually see it and feel if I was a you know, it's like let's take I love boats I'm a boat manufacturer and I and I say that you know, our boats have the finest workmanship in the industry So I'm gonna want to create a video that shows. Okay, how many actual hands touch that boat? It's probably gonna shock the viewer how many different hands and how many hours went

Marcus
0:28:04
into the intricacies of building that boat. That's probably going to shock the viewer.

Alex
0:28:09
Where do you source the materials and what type of quality are the materials and da-da?

Marcus
0:28:13
All those things are verifying that claim to be true and that's what we're trying to

7
0:28:18
do here.

Alex
0:28:19
So, that's really the basis is like whatever claims you make, this is your opportunity to really establish and verify what those are.

Marcus
0:28:25
Yeah, now the salesperson can say, here seeing is believing, right? And there's proof in the pudding there versus just saying, trust me, nobody does it like

6
0:28:33
us.

Marcus
0:28:34
I'm not picking that up, buddy. Sorry, I'm just not going to believe you.

Alex
0:28:39
Yeah, I hear you. I feel the same way. Awesome, so that covers the selling seven.

5
0:28:43
That's it.

Marcus
0:28:44
Yeah, they work. And if you do them the right way, that's not seven videos, right? That's one cost video per every major product service you sell. That is, you know, that's probably multiple landing page videos.

Alex
0:28:57
However many bio videos, depending on your team.

Marcus
0:28:59
Yeah, bio video for each one of your sales people and potentially like anybody that's customer facing. Sure. So now all of a sudden, like, that's probably at least six months worth of video right there if you're doing this the right way. And that's assuming you're consistent with it, producing at least a couple of videos a week ideally. Some take longer. Your 80% video is like, if somebody said to me, what video is going to have the most production value, like if I was going to invest time and energy in one, it's going to be the 80% video. That being said, I'm all for that salesperson that says, you know what, I don't want to send out an 80% video that's got another salesperson's mug on it. I want my mug on it, so I'm going to create my own and this way they're seeing me answering those 80% of questions

Marcus
0:29:42
that they should already know.

Alex
0:29:43
Props to that salesperson, that's awesome. And that's I think the ultimate goal and what we love seeing when we coach and train other companies on this is you might have some resistance, this is a new system and like all this work you have to do creating content, maybe people are opposed to it but when you start to see the traction you get, you start to get sales people that are like, whoa, I want a video like that with me in it. And I want to take part in it. Totally shifts the sales.

Marcus
0:30:06
People are competitive. Yeah. And when they see their peers getting advantages and getting momentum, they're like, what? What?

4
0:30:13
Wait a second.

Marcus
0:30:13
And so take advantage of that. That's why if you want to get buy in with the sales team, I've learned this over and over again. It's like get a couple champions, get them sharing their stories, man, and let the jelly take over because everybody's like man what are they doing I want some of that action and then and then you create that competitive momentum you know within the team and everybody starts to do it but you get your champions first if you present it to an entire sales team and get and try to get everybody to do it at once it's generally not going to work.

Alex
0:30:42
Yeah I can see that I think too this is also great for business leaders and for business owners if you're just starting out with video and you have a new videographer in the seat, it gives them a really nice system or at least some confines of like, here's what you can go get after right now and you don't have to creatively reinvent this wheel to try to figure out where to start.

Marcus
0:31:01
That's right. People like plans and that's why as a coaching company at Impact, that's what we do. We give systems, frameworks, and plans and then we hold you accountable so they actually get the stuff done. A lot of people try to wing it and there's varying degrees of success, but I know personally when you have an accountability partner in life, you tend to perform at a much higher

Marcus
0:31:22
level.

3
0:31:23
Well said.

Alex
0:31:24
Couldn't agree more. Marcus, thank you for being on the show. Thanks for walking us through the Selling 7. For anyone who has further questions or want to talk more about Selling 7, how can they get in touch with you?

Marcus
0:31:31
Yeah, you can, you know, Selling 7 questions, you can reach out to our team at IMPACT, that's one way. That's true. You can reach out to me directly, Marcus at MarcusSheridan.com. MarcusSheridan.com is my website. Obviously I speak on all things sales, marketing, leadership, communication, communication that connects, communication that wins trust. That's the name of my game, that's the through line of my life. You can find me on LinkedIn, I'm a great find there.

Marcus
0:31:57
I'll give you valuable content usually four or five days a week.

Alex
0:32:01
Marcus thanks again for your time and everybody listening and watching. This is Endless Customers. I'm Alex Winter. I'm Alex Winter. We'll see you on the next episode.

Transcribed with Cockatoo

About this Episode

All too often, businesses think they know just what they need when it comes to video: A nice "About Us" video to live on their homepage that will resonate with customers and bring in leads.

Not so fast, says Marcus Sheridan, author and marketing expert.

While an "About Us" video can be tempting, there are other ways you can better spend your video dollars.

If you really want to move the needle, use what Marcus calls The Selling 7. Seven videos that are the most likely to get results and bring in revenue.

These videos increase conversions, shorten the sales cycle, and get those hesitant prospects over the finish line. 

In brief, these seven types of videos are:

  1. 80% videos that answer frequently asked questions about a product or service
  2. Employee bio videos that introduce your team and establish trust faster with a prospect
  3. Product/service videos that describe your product or service and establish who is/is not a good fit for them
  4. Landing page videos that increase conversion rates by setting expectations and communicating the value
  5. Cost videos that clarify how pricing works
  6. Customer journey videos that show how products and services have been successful for others in the real world, thereby establishing social proof
  7. “Claims we make” videos that prove what you say about who you are and what you sell are true by showing it. 

If you put your efforts into these types of videos, you’ll see dramatically better results than if you just wing it or follow the crowd.

Connect with Marcus

Marcus Sheridan is a writer, speaker, and business expert who’s worked with companies all over the world. Marcus is the author of They Ask, You Answer and co-author of The Visual Sale.

Connect with Marcus on LinkedIn

Learn more about They Ask, You Answer

See how companies have used They Ask, You Answer to fuel their success

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Endless Customers is a podcast produced and distributed by IMPACT, a sales and marketing training organization.

We coach businesses to implement our They Ask, You Answer framework to build trust and fill their pipeline. 

For inquiries about sponsorship opportunities or to be considered as a guest, email awinter@impactplus.com.

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