How Do I Get Enterprise Buyers to Watch My Videos? | Tyler Lessard - 2050

Your video outreach can look great and still get ignored by the exact executives you're trying to reach. This one is pulled from the archive, and it earned that spot because the problem it solves hasn't gone anywhere. Tyler Lessard https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerlessard/, VP of Marketing and Chief Video Strategist at Vidyard and co-author of The Visual Sale, joined me to break down what actually gets enterprise buyers to open, watch, and reply to a prospecting video. Rethink What Actually Counts as a Video A lot of people still picture video as a polished, one-to-many production with drone footage and professional editing, and that assumption alone keeps plenty of reps from ever hitting record. A simple webcam recording or quick screen share works fine, because the goal is communicating an idea clearly, not producing something that looks like a commercial. The real shift is seeing video as a faster, more effective way to answer a question or explain something, not as a special project that needs a production budget. Treat Video as Part of the Rhythm, Not a Silver Bullet Sending ten prospecting videos and expecting five replies sets the video up to fail. It's one piece of an outreach sequence, not a standalone bet that has to prove itself in isolation. Video doesn't replace phone calls, social touches, or written emails; it adds a layer of familiarity that makes the rest of that sequence land better. Once a video sits inside the regular rhythm instead of being judged on its own, the fear of it "not working" stops being a reason to skip it altogether. Write a Subject Line That Creates Curiosity A subject line like "Donald, a quick video for you" works because it creates a curiosity gap, and the brain doesn't sit well with an unanswered question without clicking to resolve it. Naming the word "video" directly in the subject line raises open rates on its own, since it stands out against a sea of plain, text-only subject lines. This curiosity effect holds across seniority levels, from an entry-level buyer to a C-suite executive, because it taps into basic human psychology rather than a specific title. End With a Low-Lift Call to Action Asking for thirty minutes of someone's time on a first video is the same awkward ask reps already overuse in cold emails, and it falls just as flat on video. Offering to send a second, slightly more detailed video is a much easier yes, since anyone who already watched the first one has shown they're open to watching another. A low-lift CTA like that opens the door to more face time with a prospect without asking for a meeting before any real trust has been built. Make the Visual Do the Talking Recording with a prospect's own LinkedIn profile visible on screen behind you turns the video thumbnail into something personal enough to earn a click on sight. One memorable example involved a rep showing his own search results next to a competitor's ad, with five-star reviews stacked underneath it, proving a point visually instead of describing it in a sentence. Showing something instead of explaining it saves the viewer the work of looking it up themselves, and that shortcut builds trust faster than a written pitch ever could. Use Video Beyond the First Cold Outreach A short video attached to a meeting reminder lift shows rates, because it puts a real, energetic person in front of the invite instead of another plain calendar notification. A quick recap video after a meeting can travel further than expected. If a champion forwards it internally, it introduces you to decision-makers who were never on the original call. Recording a short answer to a question you get often, once, and reusing it saves real time on every future deal that runs into the same question. "It's about connection, not perfection." — Tyler Lessard Leadership Advice, Books, and Quotes Tyler's core message throughout this episode is that video works because it's human, not because it's polished. Every tactic here, the subject line, the low-lift CTA, the visual proof on screen, is really just a way of making a message feel like it came from a real person rather than a template. His book, The Visual Sale, co-written with Marcus Sheridan, goes deeper into how to build that kind of visual communication into a full marketing and sales process. Resources Connect with Tyler Lessard on LinkedIn to ask about video strategy for your own enterprise outreach. Check out Vidyard https://www.vidyard.com/ for video tools built for sales and marketing teams. Pick up The Visual Sale https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Visual-Sale/Marcus-Sheridan/9781646870189 by Tyler Lessard and Marcus Sheridan for the full framework. Tell me how you're using video in your outreach on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldckelly. Connect with Tyler onLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerlessard/ Sponsorship Offers This episode is brought to you in part by Hubspot. With HubSpot sales hubs, your data tools and teams join a single platform to close deals and turn prospects into pipelines. Try it for yourself at hubspot.com/sales https://www.hubspot.com/products/sales. This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn. Are you tired of prospective clients not responding to your emails? Sign up for a free 60-day trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator at linkedin.com/tse https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/cx/20/09/sales-navigator-podcast?src=re-pod&trk=tse&veh=tse&mcid=6897323946090332160. This episode is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Foundation. Improve your connection on LinkedIn and land three or five appointments with our LinkedIn prospecting course. Go to the salesevangelist.com/linkedin https://tsesales.typeform.com/to/UCMfjZbX. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey http://thesalesevangelist.com/survey. https://tsesales.typeform.com/to/lc5yAa8P We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sales-evangelist/id788738885, Google Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3RoZXNhbGVzZXZhbmdlbGlzdC5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj5kaXI3Pj2AhVKcjABHW5PDVwQ9sEGegQIARAC, Stitcher https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-sales-evangelist-sales-trainingspeakingbusiness-marketingdonald, or Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1NjzsFjQwVrgboUfDvbzd5?si=LdQOJDc1T-WBPMxr1h3RsA. Audio provided by Free SFX, https://freesfx.co.uk/ Soundstripe https://soundstripe.com/, and Bensound http://www.bensound.com/. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and produced by Brightseed and Hill.

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• 1:53Speaker 00

  You want to get enterprise-level clients to respond to you, specifically executive to the videos you're sending? We're going to give you some ideas today that can help you out. Check it out.

• 2:10Speaker 00

  Hey, hey, hey, everyone. Welcome to another great episode of the Sales Evangelist Podcast. I'm your host, Donald C. Kelly, the Sales Evangelist, and I'm so excited for another great episode. I'm so excited to be here with you today. On this episode, I have the one and only Tyler Lessers coming on the podcast. And Tyler, he has been teaching teams and sellers across the globe on how they can utilize videos, specifically to get in touch with the hard-to-reach prospects, especially executives, and what you need to do to make sure they actually open, watch, and reply to your videos. He's going to lay that out today. And if this is your first time listening to our podcast, please subscribe. If you've been listening for a minute, thank you. This is a rerun. We're going into the archive, pulling this episode out, but the content is still powerful, no matter what time of year or where you're at. Check it out.

• 2:58Speaker 00

  Tyler, welcome to the show.

• 3:00Speaker 01

  Thank you so much. It is an absolute pleasure to be here, excited to dive into this topic.

• 3:04Speaker 00

  Of course. I mean, I'm a big proponent of the idea of video. I think it's, it does so much and can help sellers. I do recognize, however, that so many people find themselves with the challenge, especially when I work with enterprise clients, saying, well, it's kind of harder to break through the C-sweep, some of these other avenues with the video that I'm doing. And I think there's a lot that we could probably unpack from that with each individual scenario. But there's probably some general things that we could understand. And that's what I'm hoping that we can dissect today about how can we make sure we get enterprise clients, prospects to actually watch those videos? And I think this might benefit for all of us, even if those are not in enterprise. But Tyler, in addition to all that good stuff, I bragged about you a little bit in the beginning. Why don't you tell us a little bit more about you and what you do with your role?

• 3:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would absolutely love to. So again, my name is Tyler Lessard. I wear a few different hats in my day-to-day life here in this business world. MVP Marketing at Vidyard. We are a video technology company, work a lot with both marketing and sales teams, which gives me exposure to a lot of the latest best practices and how different sales reps are using video, whether it be prospecting through their sales cycle or even post-sale and customer success. I also act as our Chief Video Strategist. And in that role, I do a lot of work with different clients on their own video strategy to help them unlock the power of video in different ways and also get their teams more comfortable and confident using video on a day-to-day basis. So these are the topics that get me fired up.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  I also have four wonderful kids that keep me busy and motivate me every day with what I'm doing.

• 4:33Speaker 00

  Love it, man. Well, congratulations on that. There's nothing like that amazing squad. And I can tell from the background there, you have some fantastic artwork from those four kids. So I love it. Well, this is why I feel you'd be so, you know, appropriate to bring on this podcast to talk about this topic with your experience, not only on the marketing side, but your sales experience with it. So let's dive in. And I want to give a nod as well. You do have a book that just recently came out, right? It's called The Visual Sale?

• 5:04Speaker 01

  That's right. Yeah, The Visual Sale, which it's funny. It's a book I co-authored with a good friend of mine, Marcus Sheridan. We started working on it prior to the pandemic happening, which, you know, thankfully, it feels like forever ago now. But it was something where both Marcus and I have spent a lot of time in this world of video in marketing and sales teams, and we're seeing this maturation of the market. A lot of these new best practices coming out of the bleeding-edge organizations. And we started working on this to just really put a lot of those ideas down, a lot of practical and actionable ideas. And then, once the pandemic did settle in, we were in writing mode already. And we realized like, wow, this is really kicking into gear as we're forced into this digital first, and in many cases, digital-only communication world.

• 5:48Speaker 01

  So it, you know, we were able to evolve the book and really incorporate a lot of those ideas of, in this virtual marketing and sales world, where are things going? And how is it that we can make video a more and more integrated part of how we communicate? Not just for live calls, not just Zooms and Teams, but on a day-to-day, when we're sending messages out to our prospects and clients, we're trying to help explain an idea or show something, how is it that video can become a part of that? So it was a really great exercise, working on that book, to be able to pull a lot of those ideas together and peel them back for our audiences.

• 6:22Speaker 00

  Well, we are a big fan of Marcus and I, we love all the stuff that he's doing. So what we, we'll link back to one of Marcus's episodes in the show notes that he came on with us. And you guys should check out the book that we have with Tyler and Marcus. So you can find that information in the show notes. Tyler, let's start talking off, talking about this. The very first part that I'm seeing with the, what are some, let's flip the script because I have some points here, but I want to go from one of the questions I was going to ask at the bottom of later on. But what are some of the mistakes that people are making when it comes towards creating videos, especially at the enterprise level?

• 6:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, when we talk about creating videos, I think first and foremost, the big mistake that people make is just their perception of what is a video in today's business world? A lot of us still think that the way we use video is highly-produced, one-to-many content, things that are like advertisements or promotions, and we need drone footage and professional production behind it. And that's just simply not the case anymore. And especially in the world of sales, where we can all be hitting the record button, talking into our webcam, doing a quick screen share video, and it's all about communicating our ideas. Like, it's really as simple as that. And I think a lot of biggest mistake a lot of people make is not really embracing that and thinking just, hey, wait a minute.

• 7:38Speaker 01

  A video is just a new, more impactful, more effective way for me to communicate my ideas, to answer a question, to explain something, to walk through something. And once you just get your head wrapped around that, it starts to change the way that you use it. It starts to break down the barriers that you have, and you start to realize it's about connection, not perfection. And that's the most important thing right now with using video.

• 8:01Speaker 00

  You know, one of the things you mentioned there a couple of times, the essence is that I pulled away from it is the idea of connection. And it's almost like, you know, helping to articulate that point. I felt, and I mean, for me, like someone that I do videos regularly, and I think sometimes I get, even in my mind, I go back to when I first started using LinkedIn. Tyler, I was like, I remember I was brand new, and I thought if I went on LinkedIn, I just set up the shop. If I build it, they will come. If I just have my profile, people are going to come. And then, if I just pitch them, they will buy from me. But it didn't happen. And I think in some cases of videos, we are shooting from the, shooting, no pun intended, right? We're doing these videos with the hopes that I'm going to hit a home run,

• 8:46Speaker 00

  and it's not necessarily making a connection. And I think that's a big thing, right? Because I can do a video, I can put a name on a sheet of paper and send that, you know, say, hey, Tyler, you know, as opposed to, is that video really making a true connection? You know what I mean?

• 8:58Speaker 01

  Well, you're absolutely right. And that mistake that a lot of people make is thinking that, oh, video is either going to work or it's not. And it's a silver bullet or it's not. And I say, I'm going to send out 10 prospecting videos, and if I don't get five responses, I'm going to call it a failure and I'm going to move on. When the reality is, this is just a new mode for us to incorporate into our day-to-day communications with our prospects, right? When we are reaching out to a prospective client, should we be making phone calls? Absolutely. Should we be connecting on social? Of course we should. Should we be sending traditional text-based emails? Yes. Should we be sending them short videos to introduce ourselves, to make us a little bit more familiar, to make us a little bit more human? Absolutely.

• 9:40Speaker 01

  And I would also often challenge people, why wouldn't you send a short video as part of those outreach sequences as that visual medium to make you a little bit more familiar, to create that connection, right? So when you start to think about it in that way, it's just a part of your communication rhythm with prospects and clients. And again, a lot of people will argue, well, the reason I don't is that it's not as efficient. It takes me a lot longer to make a video than it would be to type out an email. And I mean, we could spend the whole episode talking about that, but that's simply not true. Once you get good at video, hit the record button, deliver your message, end it and send it. And it can be such an effective medium for you just to get your messages out there.

• 10:18Speaker 00

  You know, I love the part there where it's just like, it is, obviously, the habit, the more you do it, the better you're going to be. But also this idea of just record, it's not a script. You don't have to be like this, you know, this well-rehearsed movie monologue. It's you connecting with a human being. Because I think oftentimes, people are going to appreciate that connection rather than exactly what you said and how, what kind of words you use and how you formulated your sentences. You know what I mean?

• 10:43Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, so much comes into that. And the other interesting thing from this, as we peel this back is when it, ask yourself, if you were to send a message to a prospect or a customer, and let's say you had two options. Well, option number one is it's a written email that they can read. Option number two is it's a 30 second video that they can watch. What would you rather the experience for your prospect or customer be? And in most cases, people will say, I would rather them watch a short video of me. And there's a number of reasons why, but like, that's literally FaceTime in this digital world for you, right? And every second they're spending, seeing your face, hearing your voice, seeing your body language, feeling your passion for the topic, is like night and day from them reading a static message. And so again, these are these like

• 11:26Speaker 01

  micro moments of connection that we can create that are just a part of those sequences. And then ultimately, it's interesting. Over time, you become more familiar, you become more memorable, you become that sales rep that stands out.

• 11:43Speaker 00

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• 12:27Speaker 00

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• 12:46Speaker 00

  Let's talk subject line, because as we go back up and we're, you know, you send these things out, we understand that we need to make sure that we're connecting with folks, that we, the message is genuine, and all that fun stuff. And I'm going to push people back to your book, because I know you guys do a lot more details than that, as well as some of the content you guys produce over at Vidyard. But the subject line, what, how can I make sure my subject line is actually going to pop when it comes towards enterprise? Folks, what are some of the things that you guys seen are some of the best practices when people are sending out videos?

• 13:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, you put in this effort to make the video, and then it's like heartbreaking that people don't watch it. So it starts with, well, get them to open the message in the first place. And to your point, typically, people are sending these videos via an email message. So they'll send the email, the video is included as a thumbnail image within the message and a link to click to watch the video. So getting them to open the email is step number one. And we have found that when a video is the payoff in the email, it gives you a little bit of a new opportunity to think about what is that subject line? Because now you're teasing them, you're creating curiosity by, hey, there's a video here from me to you, something I made just for you, waiting behind the door. We've

• 13:52Speaker 01

  found really simple thing, a subject line like, Donald, a quick video for you, or Sarah, made you this quick video. Something as simple as that, as a subject line, piques curiosity, it stands out from a lot of the other things that are happening out there today, and often generates a higher open rate, because again, there's this curiosity gap created where, wait a minute, did this person really make me a video? And if so, well, what's in it? Right? And so, simple things like that can work really, really well. And just incorporating the word video or short video, you know, works really well as well.

• 14:27Speaker 00

  Now, I love that. Do you find that that's also conducive to whether you're, you know, independent of individual's role, or whatever level, whether it's SMB or a large organization, doesn't matter, but being just that idea that you're personalizing towards them has caused, you know, an open rate to increase?

• 14:44Speaker 01

  Yeah. And we've seen it time and time again, and a lot of the data, you know, shows it. And, you know, a lot of this is just tapping into human psychology, right? Whether it is an executive decision maker, an entry level employee, it doesn't really matter. At the end of the day, if they have an expectation of value in opening that message, if you create that curiosity gap for them, which doesn't matter who you are, our brains don't deal well with those gaps, right? It's like, if we really need to fill in the blanks there. And so, a lot of questions come to your mind with simple subject lines like that, whether you're, again, no matter who it is that you're prospecting. So, things like that might work. Of course, like anything, you can play with it, you can try different things for your audience, you can be a little bit more vague, you can be a

• 15:26Speaker 01

  little bit more direct, right? If you are targeting people who tend to be a little bit more literal, maybe they are more, you know, technical people, you might want to try something like, Donald, a video showing you blah, blah, blah, right? Being a little bit more specific. But those are things you test out in your markets, and you adapt it to your own style.

• 15:45Speaker 00

  Be in specific as needs be in. And I like what you shared. It's like, I go back to this concept, it's not a silver bullet. Like, this is, it's a work in progress, and you're identifying. And I, when people tell me, like, you know, a video doesn't work, and I'm like, so you're going to go back to sending emails and just text, just repeat to me back your percentage of that again, how you're seeing. So it's like, if this can help your emails get better, then why not use it as, don't look at it as like the one hit wonder. So, I want to talk about call to actions in those messages. Give you some ideas of some of the things that you recommend people do when it comes towards creating effective call to actions in their video messages?

• 16:21Speaker 01

  Yeah. So the interesting thing when you're sending a video is you've got the call to action at the end of your video. And then if you are sending it via email, there's also that call to action in the email itself, right? Which is typically going to be possibly sitting separate from the video. And so you almost have this chance for two different calls to action. In the video itself, you want to make sure that you're coming off as authentic and genuine as possible, right? Like, this is a very transparent medium, and we can lean into that in terms of authenticity. And often, when I find people, when they're ending videos, the same way they've typically ended emails, it feels a little bit awkward.

• 16:58Speaker 01

  Well, and ending it with saying, you know, could I have 30 minutes of your time to talk more? And you say that out loud, and you're like, that just doesn't feel right. You know, maybe I should revisit my emails as well, because like, this is my first message I've sent to them, asking them for 30 minutes upfront just doesn't feel like the right thing I should do. And so, I think you really want to lean into that and say, with these videos, right, this is a great chance at the end to be a really authentic self and say, if this is of interest to you, it's something I'm super passionate about, and I would love to share a couple more tips with you, let me know what you think, right? A little bit more of an interest based ETA. I also love to end it with the idea of, could I send you another video to share a little bit more detail, or to show how somebody else has

• 17:41Speaker 01

  solved this, or to whatever, or to show you exactly how that works. And by offering them another video, what you're doing is if they've watched your first video, they've already self selected who's somebody who is open to and possibly more interested in watching videos, right? They've done the first one. And then the second thing there is, like any call to action, if you can make it easy for them to say yes, the risk is it can also be easy to say no. But in that case, it's a very low lift on your prospect. I've never had somebody say, no, don't send me another video, right? It's very easy to say, hey, that sounds great, feel free to send me another video. And now you're like, fantastic, now the door is open for me to get even more FaceTime with them. And that can be a great way to start to create a conversation.

• 18:25Speaker 00

  I love this, because it's almost like I'm giving you that mini demo. When I did software sales, we always had, the sales reps would do kind of like a little mini demo, and then you have like, you know, a full demo. And I think in, with our sales in J, but I think in this case, that's what it reminds me of. If I pulled you enough, and you're like, yeah, Donald, you know, I'm busy, but I'm willing to take a glimpse at your software, you know, you send it over and like, you know, screen share, and that could be almost like the evergreen screen share, where you just, you know, highlight a few or three, four things. And then say, if you, it doesn't make sense now to look at the full thing, that could be an awesome caveat or awesome way to go about doing that. But, yeah.

• 19:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then that one is, it's, now you're taking this almost like movie trailer kind of approach to your communications, right? The first one is almost the trailer for yourself, you're connecting as a real person, introducing the problem, starting to create that level of interest. And then if you can get them to say, sure, send me over another short video to more clearly show me what you do. If that then is your 90 second movie trailer, right? You're not going through everything, you're just wetting their appetite. And yeah, that can be a really effective way, without having to ask them for a big ask at the beginning, a big commitment of spending time on a call or reading an article. This is a laid back experience that most people are open to if you give them the option.

• 19:39Speaker 00

  You know what I love about that too, Tyler? It reminds me of, and this is the way I teach my, when I teach people write emails, I tell them, pretend you're writing text messages. And like, that micro conversation, because I, sometimes I see emails where it's like, Four different thoughts and like three different questions. And it's like, bro, that's gonna take me forever to think about. I'm not responding compared to this one that's asking a quick yes or no. I'm gonna respond to those easier ones because human behavior, I'm gonna find what's easiest first. But yours is requiring me to think and to respond and to, you know, but if you're asking me about the demo, but you're asking me if we've done this before, what industry, you know, typically serve like, no, just you're making it complicated for me. It doesn't sound like it's that difficult to answer.

• 20:20Speaker 00

  But when you're trying to bang out your emails real quick and you see one that looks and requires you to take you like seven minutes or 10 minutes to like respond to.

• 20:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:29Speaker 00

  That is like, I'm putting that at the bottom of my pile and then you get forgotten.

• 20:33Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, you're absolutely right. And, um, you know, this, this might segue into another topic related to how do I get people to open my videos? But the, you know, if you can incorporate something into your videos that is immediately relatable and recognizable to your audience as well, that's not only a great hook to get them to click play because they, you know, the more it's about them, the better, but it can also again stimulate higher engagement because, you know, again, it's not going to be all about you. It's something that they know is very specific to them. And, you know, you just reminded me of like, you know, one of my favorite videos, and I've gotten this format a number of times from people is where they send over a short video that it's them on camera, but there's also a screen share. And one example was I got one a couple of months ago that I still remember

• 21:16Speaker 01

  from a gentleman from a company called TrustPilot. And I remember this video so well because the thumbnail image had him on camera, but up behind him, it had a Google search result with a Vidyard ad in it. And I could very clearly, in a matter of a nanosecond, I knew, okay, that's one of my ads. You know, this person obviously has done their homework. And then I'm like asking myself, oh, did I offend them with one of my ads? What's going on here? So I clicked the play button. And well, what happens? Well, he says, you know, hey Tyler, you know, just wanted to reach out because big fan of Vidyard and I wanted to show you how it is that some of your ads are showing up. And so he did a, you know, he typed in the search, show me my ad. And then he said, here's one of the problems. And then he slipped to another tab and said,

• 21:57Speaker 01

  here's an example of how somebody else has done it in a way that generates higher click through rates. And immediately I could see visually, I'm like, oh, I totally get it, right? In their case, it's they add these little five yellow stars underneath your ad. So you look like five stars offer. I'm like, boom, in like 60 seconds, it was like, I knew it was for me. And you showed me, you didn't just tell me, right? Which like elevated my trust level. And it was almost like, like I didn't get the demo of their platform yet, but it was one of those like, show me, don't tell me moments. And it saved me time because I didn't have to go off to their website and scrounge around and say, what do these guys actually do? Right? I'm like, no, I get it. And I get it in the context of my business because he took the time to show me. Awesome stuff like that, that, you know, becomes almost irresistible kinds of content.

• 22:44Speaker 00

  Think about all the things you wish you had help with in sales. Finding the right buyers, knowing which account to prioritize, reaching out with the right message at the right time. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is built to help with exactly that. It uses AI powered recommendation to surface leads and accounts that match your goals. So you spend less time searching and more time selling. You get real time account insights that help you grow your pipeline, personalize outreach, and stay informed about buyer activities. It can't replace the work of selling, but it gives you the data and visibility to sell with more focus and confidence. That's what we need. All of this is powered by LinkedIn's network of over 1.2 billion professionals.

• 23:29Speaker 00

  The most dynamic buyer network, working just for you. Accelerate your sales with LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Try LinkedIn Sales Navigator now with a free 60 day trial at LinkedIn.com/sell. That's LinkedIn.com/sell. Terms and conditions apply. Since 2013, we launched this podcast. The goal of the podcast was to share wealth of information. And I feel that we've successfully done so. As a natural byproduct, listeners like you would reach out and ask, could I coach them? Could I train their team? Could I come and speak in an S K O? Could I consult for them? And that is how we gain the majority of our business and still to this day.

• 24:11Speaker 00

  So in 2019, one of our clients saw what we did and asked, could we do that for them? We experimented with it and we started a podcast production agency. Now we create podcasts for some of the biggest brands in the world and it's amazing. I would love to show you and your team how we can create podcasts for you and use it as an entertaining source, but also educational and a lead generation. If you're interested, go to bluemangostudios.com. Again, bluemangostudios.com and our team can show you exactly what we did. It's amazing.

• 24:47Speaker 00

  One of the things that I want to ask you to, in addition to, you know, kind of go along that path is, how creative do I need to be? Because some people are saying, well, Donald, I love this. Okay. You debunked my subject line issue. You debunked the idea that, you know, I can send this to everyone. But I've seen some people do some creative videos and I'm not a creative person, Tyler. So how creative do I need to be when it comes to words, creating videos?

• 25:07Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, it's a, it's a great question because I don't think, absolutely do not need to be a creative video maker, so to speak, right? So you don't have to be the kind of person who's gonna pull out a ukulele on camera and sing somebody a song, right? Don't worry about that. If you can do it, it might work, but you don't need to do those kinds of things. What I do encourage you though, is just the creativity in how you want to approach your messaging. Right? Like that's where the creativity comes into play and thinking about what kind of a video might really resonate with this person. It doesn't have to be a really creative video, but I'll give you an example. You know, one of the common templates I see working really well for sales reps that gets a high open rate and a high response rate is simply going to their prospect's LinkedIn profile,

• 25:51Speaker 01

  hitting the record button with again, their camera on in the corner, but their prospect's LinkedIn profile is on the screen behind them. And then they have a really simple script, right? Where they say, hey Sarah, you know, I was on your LinkedIn profile and I noticed from your title that you are the VP of Compliance. And I'm reaching out because I'm actually working with a few other compliance leaders right now who are all having a similar problem, right? Problem X. You know, I'm curious if it's something you're facing as well. One example, click to the next tab. This individual here is starting to solve it in this way. I'd love to send you another video to explain further, right? So it's a really simple template. It's not a super creative video, but the idea of like having their LinkedIn profile behind me, that was like the, that was the spark, right?

• 26:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 26:36Speaker 01

  So they, they're more likely to open it because they see this thumbnail image of a video with their own LinkedIn profile, right? It's immediate, like, wait a minute, that's me. This is interesting. Curiosity gap created. But now I'm using it to pivot into the conversation I want to have, referencing your title or something like that. So, you know, that's creative in a different way, the idea of approaching it. But the video itself is really simple, right? I'm just talking to the camera with a visual up behind me.

• 27:00Speaker 00

  And I love that idea of the visual. I can just imagine that first sales rep that just did that. And then all of a sudden it's kind of like, I just want to show them something. I don't know what to show them. Let's pull up their LinkedIn. And it's like, it works. And I, when you're telling me that, I was, in my mind, I'm going through and visualizing this. I might have you up as a prospect and then to, like you said, the two other people that are clients and their company names are gonna prove it. You know, this is one of my clients and there's gonna be, you see a big Microsoft name there on, you know, their company he works for. And this lady works at, you know, there, she's a big, a big, uh, you know, Google logo. So now it's like, oh yeah, instant credibility. He works with these other clients. And if I want to go reach out and verify it, I can, but he's proven it here. This is how they do it.

• 27:40Speaker 00

  And I think that's, it's so smart. I love it. So I don't have to be too, too creative. I just need to be human and think would resonate. Love it.

• 27:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:49Speaker 00

  Final thing Tyler, I want to get from you is using videos in other ways, other than the typical process of, you know, prospecting, there's so many other ways that you can take advantage of videos. What are some of the ways you're seeing to be successful?

• 28:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, there's a number of repeatable types of videos I'm seeing work really well. Pre-meeting, post-meeting videos. Uh, I hear a lot of reps using successfully when you're approaching a meeting coming up with a key prospect, you're probably already sending them an email to remind them about the meeting to maximize your show rate. Include a short video in that, right? It reminds them you're a real person and you could put a bit of your energy into it, even if it's just a 20 second, you know, hey Donald, I am so pumped for our podcast recording later today. You know, we're gonna come away A, B, and C. Really looking forward to it. And to be most prepared, by the way, make sure that you check your camera ahead of time. All right. Can't wait to see you there, right? Something simple like that. It just creates this, again, this rhythm of communication. It will increase your show rates quite often because again, it creates that personal connection

• 28:47Speaker 01

  in one of these micro moments. Following your meeting, you can send a quick video recap. The power of that as well as if your champion forwards that around to others who didn't make the meeting, you now become more familiar to all of those other people as well. They're now seeing you and hearing you in a short, you know, two minute video. And you're becoming familiar to them, even though they've never gotten on a live call with you.

• 29:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:07Speaker 01

  And then as you move through, there are some other obvious times, quick custom demos of little features or capabilities. Instead of always relying on, hey, let's book half an hour next week to show you that. Hey, I'm just gonna take it upon myself to record a short video, walk you through how that works and send it on over. Those can actually help you keep deal cycles moving faster and can make it more accessible to other people who again, may not even be able to make that live call, but now they can watch your short video on their own time. So there's all these micro moments where we want to show something, share something, answer a question. Video can be a really effective way to do it.

• 29:41Speaker 00

  I really love the recap idea. And I think even in that, given the account, uh, the call to action, you know, saying, you know, hey Donald, you can go ahead and share this with your team as well. Given that permission, so to speak. But then now if I do know the other people, the other champs, I mean, the other influencers on that, and I'm reaching out to connect them with them on LinkedIn. It's again, I think that will hit at a higher rate of them reaching back and connecting. So there's so many things, the frequently asked videos or the answers that you might get, you know, Donald, how does your program work? Here's a video, like, you know, I made a quick video to explain that, even though it's nice, so evergreen, it's still explained in a program, but it's after we've, we've had that connection. So man, I love it. I love it, love it, love it, love it.

• 30:23Speaker 00

  One last matter of, one last piece of advice you'd like to give to listeners when it comes to words. Using videos at enterprise level. When it works to enterprise prospects, any last tip or last piece of advice that we can bottom up on?

• 30:34Speaker 01

  I think the really important piece of advice here is that, you know, video is a part of how we're going to engage our customers going forward, right? Whether you're in a digital only, digital first, or digital sometimes environment now, there's very little question that for most of us, if not all of us, we're going to be doing more digital communications in the future. We're starting to get a feel and most of us are figuring out how to do Zoom and Teams and otherwise. But I encourage you now, like now is the time to start to figure out these little ideas of, hey, how can I record a video, send it over? How can I record a presentation even internally and share that with my colleagues or my teammates? So starting to figure this video thing out for more than just live calls. I think now's the time to get behind it. You're going to be leveraging it for a long time to come. So, you know, just get started. Don't be too intimidated.

• 31:18Speaker 01

  And like we said earlier, it's about connection, not perfection. It's just a new way to communicate your ideas.

• 31:23Speaker 00

  Tyler, you guys have some cool stuff coming up ahead over there at Vidyard as well. And I would love to have you kind of like, you know, share that with others. Talk about some of those cool things you guys are doing at Vidyard that could benefit our community of sellers as well.

• 31:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, we have a tremendous amount of resources that we make freely available to the community on a lot of best practices around using video in the sales process, a lot of examples from other sellers and what they're doing so we can learn from each other. So I'd encourage you, you can check out vidyard.com. Under our resources section, you'll see we have the video selling masterclass, which is free and available for anyone to binge on. It also includes things like sample templates and scripts, all sorts of great related resources that you can check out. And we also, in that resource section, have our video inspiration library where you can go in and see dozens and dozens of examples of how other sellers use video on a day-to-day basis, whether it's for prospecting, or pre-meeting, or post-meeting recaps, custom demos and things like that.

• 32:20Speaker 01

  So I'd encourage you to check some of that stuff out. And, you know, it might inspire you with some, you know, two or three new ideas for how you might use video in your own process.

• 32:29Speaker 00

  Love it. And if folks want to get in touch with you personally and to get a, get to check out your book, how did it go by doing so?

• 32:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm very active there. If you have any questions about what we've talked about, want any links to resources, just find me on LinkedIn, Tyler Lessard. And as mentioned, you know, my book, The Visual Sale, co-authored with the incredible Marcus Sheridan, is freely available on Amazon and others, or you can find it at thevisualsale.com. And see what you think.

• 32:55Speaker 00

  Love it. Tyler, we appreciate you coming on the show. We have some links down in the show notes, everyone, and we're going to have Tyler come with me on one of my lives upcoming. So stay tuned for that as well. And you can find information in the show notes on that. We appreciate you coming on the show today, Tyler. Appreciate your wisdom. Thank you so much.

• 33:16Speaker 00

  Hey, that was Tyler Lesser. I hope you enjoyed that episode. Please go ahead and connect with him on LinkedIn. Also, send me a message on LinkedIn. Let me know how you liked this episode. Or if you have ideas, let us know. As always, I want you to thrive. I want you to succeed. Most importantly, I want you to raise your level of thinking. I want you to go out and do big things. See you on the next one.

• 33:39Speaker 00

  The Sales Evangelist Podcast is created by the Sales Evangelist Sales Training Organization. It is produced by TSE Studios. Our podcast production manager is Nancy Paul. Our audio engineer is Jershun Obayal. Our video engineer is DeSarun Kunado. Guest management is done by Jill Vito and Kristy Virtus. Our content writer is Carlisa Galberith. Our graphic designer is Yurvish Savalia. And I'm your host and executive producer, Donald C. Kelly.

• 34:13Speaker 00

  Sales Podcast Network.