How Can Sales Videos Increase Your Profits?
Improvements are always a good thing.
Yes, your team deserves kudos for a job well done.
We’re not saying to demand MORE when your people absolutely knock it out of the park. Doing so is unrealistic and unfair and overlooks their tremendous accomplishments. When teams set the standard for excellence, acknowledging and celebrating it only makes sense.
At the same time, we’re not suggesting kicking keesters and taking names because of underperformance.
The chances are your people are doing their best and striving to get better at what they do. Sales might not be rocket science–but it can feel like it when nothing’s going right. Even seasoned reps with track records for success can fall on hard times where they can’t close. These hard workers deserve patience, empathy, and support in reaching the light at the end of the tunnel.
Whether your team is experiencing rousing success, constant failure, or anything in between, they share one commonality. They can all stand to benefit from sales training and the lessons such programs teach.
Sales Training Is The Great Equalizer
There’s no doubt that when performance isn’t stellar, the need for additional training to get over the hump is self-explanatory. With the proper training, you can turn your meekest salesperson into an absolute shark with a nose for closing.
In the instance of the team firing on all cylinders–they can use sales training to remain sharp and at the height of their powers. They deserve the accolades that come their way and wiggle room to work their magic, but there’s always the need to avoid complacency. Resting too much on one’s laurels is a slippery slope with typically disastrous consequences.
All salespeople must fine-tune their skill sets–the nuances and psychology involved call for this enhanced level of focus. The discipline of sales is a constant game of chess, and staying ahead of the game calls for continuous efforts to better one’s self.
That said, knowing your team needs training and successfully executing that training is two entirely different things. Here’s what we mean:
What Makes A Good Sales Trainer Or Teacher?
We think it’s fair to say that the phrase “those who can’t, teach” is entirely misleading.
It seems to imply that teaching or training a subject or topic means you can’t do it yourself. That’s just not true.
Think about all the successful coaches in sports that also had outstanding careers as athletes themselves (Spoiler: there are plenty). Excellent university professors are often practical experts in their field–and the list goes on.
With sales, that credibility is even more vital. How can someone who’s never accomplished anything significant in sales pass on any wisdom or knowledge to your team? The lessons would all be theoretical and entirely impractical–in other words, a waste of time and money.
On the other hand, that doesn’t mean your best salesperson should be doing your sales training.
Undoubtedly, some people have all the tools to succeed in sales–and they use those tools effectively. Yet, if you were to ask those sales masters to teach their techniques, it’d be a lost cause.
You must find the perfect balance between a skilled sales trainer and a credible salesperson. They also must be learner-focused, grasping the nuances of trainees’ specific selling circumstances and adjusting their techniques to reach their unique audience. Plus, your ideal sales trainer knows when to pull back or push harder when the time calls, stretching your team to the raggedy edge without going too far.
Additionally, your ideal sales trainer must know how to seamlessly transfer knowledge and foster environments where participants can exchange ideas and share best practices.
Where Can You Find The Ideal Sales Trainer?
A few options exist for finding the person to run your sales training.
Depending on your skill set, you–the owner or executive–could be this person. If you’re sales oriented and need to get your team trained pronto, maybe it’s a DIY job–you already know your audience, after all.
If not you, potentially one of your district managers or sales reps is up to the task. This option is likelier than DIY if it’s ongoing training and requires extensive travel.
Note that when you keep training in-house, it is crucial to formulate a tried-and-true system based on research and feedback from your trainees.
Alternatively, you could hire an external trainer who specializes in helping sales teams thrive.
Regardless of your choice, more hurdles remain. These challenges–detailed below–could derail your attempts to bolster your sales team’s skills before you even start.
The Dollars And Sense Of Sales Training
These are troubling economic times. There’s no other way to put it. In fairness, the US economy has proven resilient in the wake of many crises we’ve faced over the past few years. However, there’s no doubting the ever-looming threat of recession.
While there’s plenty of reason to keep pushing forward and striving for profits, there’s just as much a need to remain fiscally responsible and prepare for the worst-case scenario.
You need to invest in your company and sales team’s success, but you must be mindful of your dollars and (common) sense.
Being Smart With Your Sales Training Investment
Let’s imagine you decide to DIY your training or choose somebody in-house to run the training sessions.
You’ll need to dedicate resources to developing the training program. You’ll also need to pay for all the plane tickets and hotel rooms to send these sales reps and district managers to run sessions. Plus, you’ll need to pay for conference rooms, lunches, and everything else.
Hiring a third-party trainer can prove even more expensive, depending on their fee and the travel involved.
Another factor in this training is that you’re not gaining immediate profits or revenues from these sessions and programs.
Since you’re paying for something and not directly selling it, the benefits are intangible–you hope that the long-term impact is that your team performs better and earns more profits. For now, though, it’s a gamble that you’re hoping pays off.
Like any gamble or upfront investment, limiting and mitigating costs should be a top priority–especially since around 90% of sales training loses its impact after 120 days. Thus, you must keep reinforcing these lessons, leading to more spending.
Finding Balance Between Cost Effectiveness And Results
Don’t get us wrong. We’re not saying to under-invest and impede the effectiveness of your internal sales training. Instead, we’re highlighting the importance of investing wisely and maximizing your resources.
Given the need to reinforce sales training and continually fine-tune tactics, those conference room fees, hotel prices, and plane ticket costs will keep mounting. Unfortunately, those reinforcement efforts aren’t likely a realistic scenario for your company if you have any cash flow limitations.
Like finding the appropriate balance in the best possible sales trainer, you must land in the middle-ground between cost-effective and results-oriented. The two can exist in harmony, but it’s a notoriously tricky balance to strike. Until now, that is.
Making The Most Of Your Sales Training
Let’s summarize some of the problems (discussed above) you face in trying to train your salespeople:
- Travel is expensive
- Conference room fees can mount
- You often need to pay for ongoing training–not just once-off training.
Travel is a sticking point for us. In today’s day and age, there is no need for companies–especially those concerned about cash flow–to send district managers and reps all over the place to run training programs.
Why would you pour resources into expensive travel and logistics when you can produce sales training videos?
Instead of sending reps and managers on cross-country adventures, you can create ONE video that reaches various districts and teams. Or, if you want videos to be live and interactive, the trainer can run sessions from one location instead of traveling non-stop.
With videos, you aren’t paying for a steady stream of plane tickets, car rentals, gas, food, etc. All your money goes directly into producing the training content. Logistically and financially, videos are far more efficient and streamlined than traditional training methods.
Video Offers Breathing Room To Fine-Tune Training Techniques
Watch any Late Night host or listen to any talk radio personality throughout their entire career. It often takes time to find their voice.
As a business investing in sales training, you don’t have that time when travel and its related costs are involved. The resources poured into failed–or flawed–training sessions are gone for good. It’s a loss.
Videos add much more flexibility. For one, you have time to edit and harness an environment conducive to success (especially when recording in advance).
Moreover, what you’re saving on the avoided travel costs offers you some breathing room to find the appropriate video training approach for your company. The weight of the world isn’t on your shoulders with each training session. It’s possible to adjust and make changes when necessary.
The Challenges Involved In Making Sales Training Videos
We’ve spoken quite adamantly about why you should switch to sales training videos if you want to increase your profits. Still, it wouldn’t be honest if we didn’t speak to the hurdles you face.
For one, producing videos–in and of themselves–is no cakewalk if you have no prior experience. Even creating a social media video to say hello to your family can prove frustrating, never mind trying to train your salespeople to earn more profits.
Beyond that, sales training videos are their own unique art form (with a little bit of science and psychology thrown in). There’s a specific purpose to them. Everything involved–from planning to scripting, editing, lighting, camera angles, and more–must be pin-point.
We’re circling back to “who” again. Namely, who should you get to help produce your sales videos?
To DIY Or Not To DIY Your Sales Videos?
Here we are, back to the question of DIYing.
Before, we applied DIYing to the nuts-and-bolts teaching and training. Regarding this topic, those options remain.
You could be the star of your training videos. The same can notion applies to a district manager or thriving sales rep. Or, potentially, you can hire an external trainer–preferably one who shines on camera.
Either way, you still need to learn the ins and outs of–not only–video production but also sales training-specific video production.
Ask yourself earnestly–do you have time to teach yourself how to make compelling and actionable sales training videos? Do your other team members have that time? Because you still need to perform other vital tasks and core functions between learning the ins and outs of video production.
This argument might seem like we’re vehemently against DIYing video production. We are not.
Instead, we’re against DIYing without a firm knowledge base to help you produce sales videos. (We’ll delve more into this topic shortly.)
So, if we’re not for DIYing your sales training videos right out the gate but also advising against traditional training, what exactly are we suggesting?
Partner With Salex And Start Shining Bright
What if we told you there’s a one-stop-shop service to help you with all aspects of your sales training videos? What if a company could script, edit, and film your sales training videos on your behalf, allowing you to focus on your core functions as an executive or owner?
At first, you’d probably look for the kicker–that being the upfront cost. Indeed, such a company must charge an arm, leg, and several yearly salaries to take on this task, right? No–the truth is to the contrary.
After one consultation with Salex, where a representative will break down pricing, you’ll quickly find out the pricing is well within your reach and conducive to profits. More to the point, you’ll realize that allowing us to handle the ins, outs, and nuances of sales training video production costs you far less than sending district managers and sales reps all over the country.
Salex Is The Third-Party Sales Training Expert You Need
Remember that third-party, external sales trainer we talked about before?
While a Salex team member won’t necessarily be a personality on the camera or running the training session, we possess similar expertise to these trainers. After all, our team consists of award-winning producers who know how to create videos that help your team sell more.
Over the years, we’ve developed actionable, practical templates for businesses that need to produce sales training videos. We know the type of content, delivery, and execution that helps lessons resonate with trainees.
Whether you hire a specific outside trainer to star in your sales training video, choose someone from your team, or do it yourself, we’ll ensure you produce content of immense value. We’re well-versed in enhancing lighting, word choice, communication tactics, and how speakers present themselves.
We spoke of sales training video investments as gambles earlier. With Salex, that notion doesn’t really apply. In partnering with Salex, you’re playing with house money by making a sound investment that’ll yield the results you seek.
Salex Embraces The Power Of DIY
Here we are revisiting the old, familiar topic of DIY–and for viable reasons.
We’ve worked with businesses like yours for years, and your success is our success. As such, we want to help your company to operate like a well-oiled machine.
As much as this might seem counterintuitive for a sales video production company to say–we don’t want you to rely on us forever. We want your organization to maximize its investment when partnering with us.
Thus, our goal is to help you DIY your sales training videos over time. We’ll teach you what you need to do to make this a cut-and-paste video production procedure that occurs almost automatically.
When you work with Salex, you’re partnering with a company that wants to empower you with knowledge. Like one sales training video can do the work of dozens of cross-country training sessions, this one partnership can yield the value of hundreds–or even thousands–of sales training videos.
All you need to do is trust us, and we’ll provide the blueprint. From there, you’ll be off to the races.
A Chance To Diversify
Before we part ways and leave you to mull over the finer points of this article, consider–for a second–the power of video.
You can reach billions of people with one video. That number is a purposeful exaggeration, but it’s no less the truth. You COULD do just that.
Then ask yourself, how viable is your sales training? How valuable are the insights you’re providing and the lessons you’re teaching?
Are the contents of your approaches applicable to other businesses selling different products? Can they apply across industries?
If you are confident enough in your training, all it takes is one–or a series–of training videos, and you have a product you can sell to the masses.
Suddenly, your sales training videos become a commodity on top of your company’s products or services.
We’ll point out how this direction isn’t one you have to take–but the power of video affords you the opportunity. And with Salex, you can take that chance at an affordable upfront cost with a company that knows how to make videos that convert.
Do you want to maximize sales training while cutting upfront costs? Then contact Salex today to learn more about our sales training expertise and video production services!