You worked hard to craft a banger of an email.
Here’s the problem: no one wants to read it. They don’t want to read your Slack messages either. You know what? They’d probably rather skip your Zoom meetings, too.
Don’t worry, it’s not you. It’s because the good folks in your sales department are busy. They’re so busy, in fact, that the average sales rep spends less than 36% of their time actively selling.
Imagine walking into your accountant’s office, only to hear them say: ”Sorry, bud, I know you booked me for an hour, but I’m gonna have to bounce at the 20 minute mark. I’m definitely still billing you for the full amount of time, though. Cool?”
Not cool at all.
That’s kind of what it’s like in your sales department, though. Your reps miss a lot of your valuable information because they’re too swamped to stop and read it. It’s not your reps’ fault, but still. This kind of poor internal communication is killing your sales performance.
There has to be a better way for you to train your reps and share all the sales enablement insights you gather. You need a communication tool that makes your messages stick without sucking up too much of your sales reps’ time.
You need video.
In this guide, we explain how to use video for sales enablement and the best practices for making memorable, actionable videos.
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Announcement videos
How do you make announcements to your team? If you’re like most companies, you round up your reps, squeeze them into a way-too-small conference room, and deliver the news.
Or if your team is still working remotely, you could broadcast announcements via Zoom. But your reps don’t dig those either, remember? Plus, someone’s kid will definitely be screaming in the background, which is less than ideal.
How about an announcement video instead? You get to present your message in an engaging way that doesn’t involve a lengthy meeting, and reps can watch the video whenever they have time — it’ll take them less than two minutes from start to finish.
That’s what we call a win/win scenario.
When to make an announcement video
So what’s the scoop? Are you ready to release a new product? Maybe you need to introduce new incentives to keep reps motivated. Or, maybe you want to tell your team about an exciting training opportunity you’ve lined up for them.
Anytime you need to give your team a heads up about an important happening, an announcement video is the way to go.
Your announcement videos should:
Be on the shorter side.
The best announcement videos are usually between 30 and 60 seconds. This is enough time to keep your team informed and build excitement, but not so long that people lose interest.
Stick to the basics.
An announcement video is a teaser, not the full-meal deal. Stick to the bullet points. You can always include a link at the end of the video directing people to more information.
Include fun animations.
Animated characters, changing backdrops, and moving speech bubbles add an element of fun to announcement videos. They also help engage your audience because they’ll add a sense of motion to your content.
Set the mood with music.
Do you want people to get excited about what you’re announcing? Add a soundtrack that inspires this emotion.
Updates
If you want your reps to reach peak performance, you have to give them the information they need to get there. Unfortunately, it takes time to update reps on a regular basis. And time is the one thing you don’t have.
Fret not: create an update video.
When to make an update video
There are plenty of reasons to make an update video.
For example, you could make one to share leadership priorities for the quarter. Or to brief your team on the volume of calls booked over the past month. You can even create update videos to articulate changes to your department’s sales strategy.
Many sales teams find the most value when they use video for regular, recurring updates. Use a video template so all you have to do is plug in the new numbers each week, month, or quarter. And if you ever need someone to step in for you, the format will already be set.
Your update videos should:
Stay under two minutes.
This is plenty of time to convey the main points, without boring people in the process.
Be personal.
To give your updates a more personal touch, add video footage of yourself or someone else on the team, even if you just pop on screen at the beginning for an introduction. Your audience will engage more with the video and pay more attention as a result. . Include the highlights.
Don’t bore people with every little detail. Tell them what they need to know, then give them an opportunity to learn more.
Add a call-to-action.
What if you have more information to share? Add a call-to-action button linking to a more in-depth report so folks can take a look on their own time.
Training
Companies with ongoing sales training programs close 10% more of their forecasted deals than companies without.
Sales training is important — but only if your reps remember what they learn. Video can supercharge the learning process. The average person retains up to 95% of what they watch, compared to just 10% of what they read. When it comes to retention, you can’t beat video.
When to make a training video
Video is an incredibly flexible training medium. It doesn’t entirely replace other types of training. But it does a lot to enhance your program.
Use a training video to quickly summarize the main points of a longer training, conference, or seminar so your team can easily refer back to the information later.
Or create short, standalone videos that teach reps how to do very specific things. These micro-trainings can be sent on a regular basis, ensuring your team is always improving. And because they’re so short, no one will mind getting them, even on a weekly basis.
Your training videos should:
Mention the “why”.
Your training videos should definitely tell people what to do. But don’t forget to tell them why, too. When reps understand why you’re asking them to do something, they’ll be more inclined to actually, you know, do it.
Use bullet points.
Training videos usually include complex information. To increase rep comprehension, break down details into bite-size chunks with on-screen text in bullet points.
Get animated.
Learning new skills is hard work. Make things easier on your reps by including fun animations in your training videos. This keeps people interested so they actually retain the information you’re trying to teach them.
Reporting
Last but certainly not least, we have reporting videos.
Sales reporting videos are a great option for quickly updating the team on vital information, so they can be as successful as possible. Unfortunately, most of the reports reps receive are bang-your-head-against-the-wall boring.
As such, most sales reps either skim these reports or neglect to read them at all. This makes it difficult (read: impossible) for them to capitalize on the important information you share.
Reporting videos are an engaging alternative that solves this problem.
When to make a sales reporting video
Make a sales reporting video as a standalone or as a supplement to just about any written report. Use video to update the team on progress toward sales goals, report on individual and team metrics, or sare cost and revenue numbers.
Your reporting videos should:
Use imagery.
Include animated charts and graphs to help people visualize the important data in your reporting videos.
Maintain brevity.
Less is (usually) more when it comes to reports. Give people the stats they need, but don’t prolong your video for the sake of it. Include a link to the full data set for anyone who wants to dig in.
Five best practices for making sales enablement videos
It doesn’t matter if you want to make an announcement or report on your department’s achievements, these five best practices will make any sales enablement video more fun, engaging, and memorable.
1. Keep it simple
You’ve heard of the KISS principle, right? It stands for Keep It Simple Stupid, and it really applies to sales enablement videos. Don’t get too fancy and overcomplicate things.
The best sales videos are simple, easy to understand, and short.
What does this look like IRL? Use short sentences and uncomplicated language, especially for onscreen text, so viewers can easily scan the information. Take a few extra seconds to explain concepts in detail, but keep most videos about two minutes or less in length.
If you can’t cut your content down to two minutes, consider breaking up your sales videos into multiple parts.
2. Use visuals
Video is a visual medium. Double down on this fact with animated graphs and charts, fun characters, and moving text and icons that reinforce the information you share.
This will benefit you in a couple of different ways:
- Entertainment value: Let’s face it, visuals are more fun to watch than simple text.
- Information retention: Visuals help audiences remember what they’ve just learned.
When your sales enablement videos entertain people and effectively convey information, you’ll be well on your way to better internal communication.
3. Brand your videos
Your sales enablement videos should all have a similar appearance. Why? Because branded videos look more polished and will be taken more seriously as a result.
Branding is especially important for training videos, which might get shared externally. If your videos end up on YouTube, make sure they rep your company.
The good news is that branding your videos isn’t rocket science. Choose similar colors — preferably ones that match your company’s color pallet. Use similar fonts. And add your logo in strategic spots, AKA the beginnings and ends of your videos.
Pro tip: Brand hundreds of video scenes with a single click using Biteable Teams.
4. Include a call-to-action
What do you want your viewers to do after they watch your video? Include a call-to-action(CTA) so they know exactly what’s expected of them.
If you want your reps to view a full report after watching your reporting video, for example, link to the document at the end of your video. If you want them to log in to a specific piece of software after watching your training video, make it easy for them to do it with a CTA.
5. Use a template
Want to really win with sales enablement videos? Here’s a super secret ninja hack for you: find a few templates that you like; then use them on a regular basis.
Templates can turn even the most design-challenged people into superstars. That’s what happens when professional designers do 90% of the work for you. Once you find the right templates, you just have to add your own text, change a couple icons and you’re good to go.
Templates also supercharge your productivity because you don’t have to start from scratch every time you make a video. Imagine how much more you’ll get done every day when the video creation process takes you 30 minutes instead of six hours.
Skyrocket your sales enablement videos with Biteable Teams
Video communication and sales enablement go together like macaroni and cheese. Like surfboards and waves. Like coffee and, well, more coffee.
Fortunately, Biteable Teams makes it easy to create beautiful announcement, update, training, and reporting videos — even if you’ve never made this kind of content before.
More than that, Biteable Teams is equipped with must-have features to make sure your videos are actually moving the needle for your sales department. We’re talking about an analytics dashboard, the ability to add clickable and trackable CTAs, and a fully-stocked library of professionally designed templates for sales enablement professionals.
Stop writing emails nobody wants to read and start creating videos your sales reps can’t get enough of. Biteable Teams is the only tool you need.