Spend Advantage Podcast

How to generate more leads with videos?

December 19, 2022 Varisource Season 1 Episode 13
Spend Advantage Podcast
How to generate more leads with videos?
Show Notes Transcript

Welcome to The Did You Know Podcast by Varisource, where we interview founders, executives and experts at amazing technology companies that can help your business save a lot of time, money and grow faster. Especially bring awareness to smarter, better, faster solutions that can transform your business and give you a competitive advantage----https://www.varisource.com

Welcome to the Did You Know Podcast by Varisource, where we interview founders and executives at amazing technology companies that can help your business save time and money and grow. Especially bring awareness to smarter, better, faster solutions that can transform your business. 1.2s Hello, everyone. This is Victor with Varisource. Welcome to another episode of the Did you know podcast. Today super excited to have Katherine, who is the CEO and founder of Katch Consulting, and Katherine with Katch Consulting helps b to B sales teams increase revenue with Video, and we all know how important Video is. So super excited to have you on, Catherine. 

U2

Hi, Victor, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here too, and just provide some value on kind of the evolution of my business and video prospecting in general and the value it can bring the sales team. So excited to answer any questions you have. 1.2s

U1

Yeah, 1.1s we definitely know you have a lot of expertise on video prospecting. We're for sure going to try to get some of that secret sauce from you for our audience. But I think most importantly is your story. I mean, one thing I love about start ups entrepreneurship is just the story when you hear how people, people where they came from, what they were doing, and then why do they came up with this thing right the AHA moment and just the whole thing around it. Because I think things were very different for you in the last twelve months. So if you can kind of give the audience some background about yourself and obviously 1.1s how your life has changed in the last twelve months, I guess, 

U2

yeah, I always want to be as concise as possible and not drag out the story, but I also want to be real and honest with it too. So a lot of people know I was in a sales development position for about a year and I moved into an account executive position for about a year after that. And during that time I was doing a lot of video prospecting. Not really for any reason besides the fact that it worked super well for me and I'm all about repeating things that work and 2s drive things across the line. So I focused a lot on that and it was really interesting actually, the way my business formed and I think it's pretty unique. The people I was prospecting and sending videos to started replying to me and saying, hey, I've never gotten a video like this. We're not familiar with how to use video art, or I didn't know you could send a video natively on LinkedIn, those kind of things. And they'd be like, my sales team could really use some guidance on this. Would you mind kind of putting a two or three week program together for our team and teach them how to do this? So at that point I'm just like, oh my gosh, like, I made it. This is really cool. This is a cool side gig opportunity. And I think I charge like 150 an hour or something and didn't have a lot of guidelines and it came to a point. 2s I started to have some health issues, just kind of stress related mental health, anxiety related around, you know, August, September, October of last year, so 2021. And it came to a point where I wake up every day and doing this full, fulltime job, and I'm feeling really excited about this side opportunity that I've been working on. But both of them together were kind of sending me into like a snowball effect of just like a stress ball. So I kind of woke up a couple of mornings in October of last year and was like, something has to change. This is not sustainable. And when I looked really deeply at my life and my career, I was like, man, I don't really look forward to waking up to this job as much anymore. Like, as stable and as great as the leadership is, I really, really look forward to coaching my SDR clients on the video prospecting and the LinkedIn social selling. And that's what really made me excited to log into my laptop every morning. So I made an executive decision for myself to leave my job and focus on my health and work part time. And I really didn't know and you'll probably have more questions on this, but I didn't know if I was going to be looking for a job in two months. I had a couple months of savings, and so, like, if all else fails, my network is pretty big. I could probably find something else 1.9s equally good, but I really wanted to take a chance on myself and start this kind of coaching business. 

U1

Yeah, first of all, there were so many great golden nuggets in there, entrepreneurs comes in different flavors, and 1.6s I kind of giggle when you said you made an executive decision of yourself. You're like the CEO of yourself, right? And so you make that decision. It's a very tough decision, but there are so many things we'll kind of ask about that. But if you can kind of talk about while you were in SDR BDR, there's millions of other SDRs and BDRs out there. When you got into it in the beginning, why did you think about doing video and how did you get to do video? Because a lot of SDRs out there today, I'm sure they know about doing video, right? They heard about it, they've seen it, but they're not doing it. So what made you at that time for yourself to get into video? And then maybe the second part that is, how did you then get good at it? Because you can do it. A lot of people can do video, but you figured out kind of the trick. You figure out kind of that secret sauce where even people you're prospecting is telling you you're teach them how to do it. That's incredible. Right? That's just such a great story. 1.6s

U2

Yeah, I love that question. I have a pretty unique SDR experience. So I worked at a consulting firm. It was a sales consulting firm, and they kind of positioned themselves on 1.9s modern sales methods, so that's what they consulted on a lot. So my prospects were actually BP's of Sales CROs, which I so recommend. That's just another little nugget. I'll give, like, anyone looking to break into tech or get their first SDR role, find something where you can sell in the sales leaders, and you will learn so much. But anyway, so I had that unique situation. I reported directly to the director of sales, and then I also had a couple 1.3s one on one with my CEO. I think it was Biweekly. And so it's a small organization. And 2.2s as the first SDR hire, and it was my first tech job at all, we're figuring out a lot of, like, okay, what enabled tools we want? What do we want our sequences to look like? And I'm not a shy person, so when my director recommended video, I felt maybe a little bit of hesitancy, but, you know, overall, I was like, that sounds exciting. I feel like. 1.3s Cold calls I do pretty well. I feel like once I can actually connect with someone, I can get their attention and book time. But I wasn't having good connect rates on the cold call, so it wasn't really paying off in the way I wanted to. So I was just thinking, you know, what if I can get a better connect rate or watch rate with video? Because I really feel like like when someone can see me talking to them and providing that kind of value, then they actually will be interested in discussing more with my director. So I started doing video. Obviously, I was horrible at it first. I didn't know necessarily what I was doing, and it took a few one on ones with the CEO, and he pretty much was like, Catherine, you have to sound like a CRO. You have to talk to them how they talk to people. They're not this 1.3s uptight persona. They laugh at things, too. It's okay if you mess up. And he coached me a lot on different tones to use kind of like Public Speaking 101 a little bit, which is kind of weird to think of video prospecting as public speaking, but it really is like having a cold call where no one interrupts you and you can say whatever you want. So I definitely, like, tested things out, and I was finding that the more casual I got with it, actually, the better it did. So a lot of times I was sending videos at so I was pretty casual on my couch recording or, you know, 1.4s I think one time I was emptying the dishwasher. I don't know if I recommend that, but I did get a reply from it. But I just was feeling like the more human I was in it and just the more casual and the more one to one it felt, the better it was doing. And then, like you said, at that point, people started responding, like, Whoa, this was two, three years ago. So people are like, Whoa, I've never gotten a video on LinkedIn or over email or what is this video art thing? And can you come train our team? And then after I did a couple of group trainings for a few different teams, there's one VP of sales I can think of in particular who texted me after I finished a program with his team. And he was like, you need a legal entity and you need to do this. And it was just, like, so 

U1

much 

U2

yeah, so much validation in that moment where I was like, Wait. Someone actually took the full training for me and found value in it and wanted more and told me, find new clients and, like, offered referrals. And so it was pretty crazy how the business evolved. And I think it's pretty rare, too, that a business forms basically, from clients telling you to. 1.5s

U1

Yeah, I think that's the power, first of all, LinkedIn, but also just the community. I don't know what kind of companies were prospecting, but yeah, we've seen that as well as a startup ourselves. Yeah, definitely people want to help each other, especially if they really find value in what you do. So 1.1s when I met you and talked to you, I felt the same thing. But I guess another question is why do people, salespeople or people in general, why do they don't do more videos, you think? And I'm sure you've talked to a lot of teams, a lot of people, you have a big group of people that are not even doing videos. Why do you think that is? And then maybe you have a subset of group that are maybe doing video, but they're not good at it. And so it's a two part question, but maybe the first one is, why do you think not more people are doing video? Is it just a fear factor of like, I don't want to be on video? Or what do you think after seeing so much? 

U2

Yes, there's so many reasons. The first one is lack of leadership. So there are so many sales reps that reach out to me. They pay me 300, $400 to do a one on one with me because their managers won't enable it. And what it comes down to is the managers don't know how to coach to it. Like, where in our sequence are we going to get the best response rate? How do we test this? How do we track it? What if it doesn't work and we wasted all this time? So obviously that's where a coach like me comes in. I've done this a million times. I can tell you what I tested and what I found. So that's the one thing. It's like the lack of enablement on the leadership level. The second reason is exactly what you said. Fear of being on camera, fear of wasting time. So people feel like video is really inefficient, like it's time consuming. You have to recreate the wheel over and over again. Once again, that's where a coach and a framework comes in. And a lot of people don't think about more tactical parts of a sequence. Like a lot of people think, well, there's thousands of people in my sequence. How am I going to send thousands of videos? That's not the concept. The concept is, okay, who's replied to your email that you can send a video to? Or can you look at the top 10% of people that have opened your emails and send videos to them? So it's a lack of a strategy, I guess I would say that makes it inefficient and that really stresses people out because people want the quick wins, which I totally understand, and there is a way to get there with video, but there is a strategy involved. And then the third thing is what you mentioned just the confidence and scared to be on video. And in my opinion, it's less scary than a cold call. You get to say everything you want to say without being hung up on. You can redo it if you really need to. It's there's just that fear of what do I say? What do I do? What do I wear? All those different things. 1.1s

U1

Yeah, I mean, 1.1s I think what you just talked about, that fear of not knowing what to do or how people would perceive you or you're not the expert, I think it's the same thing. Why, when you yourself, the moment came and you made that executive decision to say, hey, you know what, I don't know what's going to happen in two months. I have no idea. It could blow up. But you decided to try it and just do it, right? Like learn by doing and just going for it. I think that maybe is a very similar comparison to even doing video. What would you say is like maybe just like you have that fear of going and doing your own business, but you started doing it and now great things are happening. And is that one of the encouragement? You would maybe make that similar comparison? 

U2

Absolutely. I was on a webinar for Vidyard yesterday and I said something really similar at the end. They asked, what is the one advice you would give to these 300 sales people that are listening live right now? And I said, don't wait. And people can go and watch that webinar recording too. But I said, don't wait to do something, whether it's on a personal level or a career level or a video prospecting level. Like do not wait until you feel fully equipped. And someone else on the webinar said something interesting too, about perfectionism and procrastination or something like that. But looking back on my career so far, which is actually pretty short, it's under three professional years. 1.3s I'm so glad I didn't wait until I felt like I was perfect at video to start sending videos. I'm so glad I didn't wait until I had ten plus clients to start my business. I'm just so glad that I didn't wait on things. And I always try to remind myself of that when I am afraid of something or procrastinating on something. It's like, where has waiting ever gotten me? It hasn't. And taking leaps has actually gotten me so far in my life. So I never want to stop that momentum. 

U1

Yeah. And as you keep getting better and growing and there's going to be millions of your students making videos and the videos are going to get saturated, but that might be a very long time away. 1.8s Obviously we have you on because you are kind of the expert in the video prospecting and just video selling and social selling in general. So if you were to give maybe two or three golden nuggets or best tips about video prospecting that people maybe not a common stuff, anything you can think of two or three kind of best tips for people that want to kind of get started. 1.4s

U2

Yeah, well, you just brought up a really interesting point about video prospecting getting saturated. I'm really with you, and that's where my passion is as a video coach, is how can we not break video? How can we not ruin it? Right? So I think it's important to note, too, that while video prospecting to get saturated and may get old, and at some point, people in leadership positions are going to be very familiar with getting tons of videos every day, there are so many other ways to use video in the sales process that are never going to expire. So I know so many people, so many account executives that are replacing meetings with stakeholders with video, and it's an amazing way to go about it, because these stakeholders can re watch the video 50 times if they want. They can send it around to other decision makers in the organization. So that's one tip from me is diversify your video outreach. Figure out other ways to be successful with it. The second nugget, I would say is stop looking for quick answers and quick solutions. No matter what client I'm working with, we have to test something. So even though I've done this a lot of times, and I've worked in ten plus different industries with dozens of salespeople, at this point, there's always something that we're going to have to test. And a lot of times on these one on ones and these group coaching calls, people want to know, Well, Catherine, like, what exactly do we need to do? Blah, blah. I'm like, well, we are going to have to test something. Here's the goal we've set. And how are we going to get to that outcome? I don't know. At this very second, that's the point of the four week program. So I would say stop looking for the one Stop Shop direct answer of all answers for video prospecting and ten videos today and ten videos tomorrow, and see which day does better and what outfit does better and what microphone does better. Does vidyard work better for you or LinkedIn? Like, just looking for the one thing that's going to solve everything for you? And then the third tip, and I'll just do three. The third one is get off of a script. So I always teach my clients a framework. It works really well. The whole point is to enable people to know what to say and when to say it, in what order. But as soon as they have that kind of nailed down and memorized rip it up. I have to train people so much on getting off of a framework and trusting their intuition, trusting that they know what they want to say. And so I think a lot of times, having a framework or a script in front of you actually disables you. So the more people can trust what they want to say and move forward with that and think to yourself, okay, Catherine, you've done 20 videos at this point. You know what to do. Put the framework away. I know how to personalize this. I can do this in under five minutes. Whatever the case is, getting rid of those handicaps is really key to being good at video prospecting and also just sounding natural and conversational. 

U1

Yeah, 1.8s I love the way you kind of frame things. Right? And the thing about diversifying, 1.3s first of all, you talked about video prospecting earlier. We talked about you provide consulting on video prospecting, but video can be used in so many different ways. Internal communications or customer updates or even demos, right. If you think about it, I want to kind of talk a few minutes about that because, yes, using video as a different method or medium to engage people better than emails, because millions of people, like 90% of people are using just pure emails, text. Wow, you're doing video, so you're doing something different. But that's on the prospecting side. But what about 1.2s after the prospecting stage, right? Maybe the demo stage? What's your thought on doing video for prospecting versus 1.3s getting a one on one demo? And what are some other diversifying ways that you've seen or that you coach about for video using video? 1.7s

U2

There is a very key factor in being successful as an account executive with video later in your deal cycle, it's really important to not make any kind of video in your cycle feel like a push off from a meeting. So you want it to feel like an addition or an additional resource to a meeting. So a lot of times I'll have a VP message me and go, hey, it's great to meet with you. Last week I talked to my CFO. We still have these three questions, like, can we all hop on a call next week? I don't want to wait till next week. The CFO is not going to remember me next week. So what I do in that situation is I get on vidyard and I record a video. I share a screen, I pull up their email. I'm like, hey, first name. Thank you so much for these three questions. Here's what I want to say. I'm going to actually share the page of the pricing that you're asking about. Here's what's going on. I think this video could possibly answer all the questions that the CFO was talking to you about. If you can please share this internally with him or her, I'm happy to meet next week, but I think this video might actually cover it. And then when we meet next week, we can kind of go through those final steps. So really important to position your video as, hey, I would still love to meet with you, but let's kind of settle this now. Let's kind of figure out these answers as quickly as possible, because I think where people get really lost in their sales cycle is following the time of the process, saying, like, hey, I can't actually meet this week. Can we push it out? Or we actually need to add someone else on the call. Can we push it out? No, we can't. I'm actually going to provide the value still to you, and you can share it internally, and then we can meet and talk about it. But I don't want all these people to forget who I am. 1.2s

U1

Yeah, that's amazing. So one of the things, another question that comes up quite a bit is you mentioned Vidyar, which a lot of people know about it, it's pretty popular, but there are so many other similar video recording tools as well. But just in general, if you were to give some tips but also, you know, a lot of people might think, oh, I gotta have certain camera, I gotta have certain set up so that I can record properly. And again, it's all that perfection thinking like you're talking about that prevents them from even starting recording. Right? And so what are some maybe quick setups or tools you already talked about as one of them that you can use to record, you know, videos? Are there any other tools or software's or anything, or certain things you think people can have? Or is it basically you got an iPhone, you got a tripod, you got a video, just go ahead, start recording. What is your suggestion 

U2

there? It's exactly what you said. Do you have a phone? Your phone camera, especially if you have an iPhone, it's better than the webcam and your laptop. It's pretty much the best option you have. A lot of people don't know about the video feature on LinkedIn, so if you have the mobile app, you can go in there and take a video directly through there. And when I was first making videos, I didn't have a tripod or a ring light or any of that. I actually would just be on my phone in landscape view and record with my arm out, so people could see my arm is out holding my phone up by myself. But, you know, I'm sitting on my couch and. I'm recording from, you know, the collarbone up, so it's professional and you can see my whole face and no weird angles. I think that's all that really matters. Like, I've seen a couple of people will send me videos and ask for feedback and then their chin is cut out of it. And I'm like, well, that's not good. So that would be like a red flag to me. But I think in general, the overthinking that goes into video prospecting and the desire for perfection is just procrastination. And to me it comes off as an excuse. So the quicker you can get out of your head and just do what you can with what you have, the better. And the other thing is, there is time to 

U1

improve. But I know so far everything has been amazing. 1.4s But I guess thanks for obviously all the amazing tips and insights that you shared. So again, your life has changed 180 degrees in the last twelve months, as you mentioned. So if you were to look back now, what would you do differently? That's something you brought up to me before. There are so many things you mentioned you would maybe do differently knowing what you know now. But what are some of those things? I 

U2

love that question. It's really hard to answer. There are a lot of things I could have done differently. I don't know if I would, though. For example, when I started my 1.6s company Journey a year ago, I was taking on any project I could get. Really? I was a yes person. And even when it came down to pricing, yes, I'll do it at the price you want and all of that, but I don't necessarily. 1.7s Regret that. And for context, I was doing some copywriting. So at that point, it wasn't all video prospecting coaching. I was doing some sales enablement and copywriting a bunch of different kind of random contracts with different companies. And I don't want to say I would go back and undo that. I think I learned a lot, a lot about how people value things. And it was almost like a market research validation project of like, how much are these companies willing to spend? Or how much value do they find in these different types of projects? And the reason I switched and started saying no to some contracts was because I wanted to be able to truly say, I have a product service. It's a package. It's the same price for everyone, no matter what. This is the stage of company I want to work with, and this is where I have expertise, I have measurable outcomes, measurable ROI on this service. And to be able to prospect into accounts and create content specifically in that niche, I think, has absolutely changed my business for the better. I feel so much more confident on discovery calls, knowing how much value I can provide and the results I've given to clients. And so I don't know if I would have gotten gotten to this point if I hadn't done the first kind of four or five months of just saying yes to everything. So over the summer is really when my business had a big pivot into, okay, this is exactly what I offer, this is exactly what I want to do and provide to clients. And confidence level has just gone up so much from there, so I can't necessarily say I would like to go back and change it. I think it's what got me to where I am. But another important factor, I think, is just the mentors I have and 1.3s just not having a fear of asking for help. So I've reached out to people on LinkedIn and names you would definitely recognize, victor people with hundreds of thousands of followers and asked them, you know, will you talk to me for ten minutes and look at the pricing I put on this package and give any advice that you have? No one ever said no. And so that's a really key factor, I think, in the my business. What it is is not just validating my market, but also validating the pricing and the coaching packages with other people who have had so much success with it. 2.7s

U1

Yeah. And one thing I want to talk about, you mentioned a couple of times the testing phase. And I think everything you've talked about today, the fear factor and everything really resonated with me in that. Because even I've seen where, when companies hire, or let's say digital marketing, digital ad buying agencies, you expect them to be experts of Facebook ad buying or LinkedIn buying. And then you expect that, okay, you pay them a lot of money. So they come in, they know how to buy ads. They're just going to go start buying ads. You're going to start seeing leads right away because they're experts. They've done it over and over. Same thing of like, well, you're the video expert, so you just tell me how to do video, and tomorrow leads are coming in. I think to some degree, people think about thinking you're the expert or the company's expert, and they don't know that even for those agencies, there is a two to three months of testing and you're spending a lot of time money just on testing that. It may not go anywhere, but that's like the learning phase, and you need that learning phase. I think whether you're starting a business, you're doing 1s out email or anything, I think there is that testing phase, and I think a lot of people just don't understand or don't, don't want to accept that. And I think the fact that you didn't have the fear of saying, you know what, I'm willing to learn for five months, doing it all wrong, to do it right. In the six months. 1.4s What's your thought on that? I think that kind of sums up, you know, I think that everything the theme, which is whether that's an ad buying or code, emailing or video prospecting or starting a business, I think that's where a lot of the fear comes from. 

U2

Absolutely. 1.5s Big release of control that I had to go through. And I have to remind myself every day, I'm so young, I'm so young in my career. I have so much time to figure this out. And instead of approaching it the way of like, I just need to know now. I need to know the pricing. I've done a lot of internal work of accepting the fact that for my business to be successful, it's always going to evolve. So over the past few months, I've raised my prices, I've implemented a slack community, and it's a very conscious effort to not think, okay, this is it. This is the program I have. This is what I offer to clients. I'm done. I'm going to do this for the rest of my life. I'm always keeping an open mind to like, how can I provide more value to my clients? How can I hear my clients out on what they're looking for next? What kind of packages should I be creating in a LinkedIn social selling, upsell package? How are ways that I can continue to grow within my own career, but also make my prospects really or my clients really prosper in what they're looking to get from me? So I am making a conscious effort every day to remind myself I'm young, the business is young. This is just the beginning. Another really important mindset is I used to feel like any time I closed a client, that was one less client I could get. I felt like my green space was just shrinking exponentially every time I closed a client. And I've been able to shift my mindset to celebrate those wins and think, if this person signed a deal with me. My white space is just growing. Like, there's just so much feel for me to work. And I wish you could see I'm like using my hands and I'm like really feeling what I'm saying, but just having more of a growth mindset than that, like, minimalist mindset has been really, really important. 2.6s

U1

Yeah, this has been a great conversation just with a great entrepreneur more than anything and appreciate all the insight. So the last question we always like to ask our audience is definitely within the last twelve months or three years, just everything you've seen and know. If you have to give one advice to, to the audience out there, but it doesn't have to be a business advice or a video advice, but even just a personal advice. What's one advice that you're really passionate about, that you would want to share and maybe inspire the next Catherine to start their own thing? 

U2

Yeah, really good question. I think 1.5s what I would advise is, and this is kind of funny because I'm going to advise that you take advice with a grain of salt. 1.3s I know it's kind of funny, but if you have mentors family members and friends and relationships and all of that, sometimes people are really good at pointing out blind spots in your thinking. So when I was starting my business, there were a few things that I hadn't thought of that my partner pointed out, or my mom pointed out, or a client pointed out that really helped me to expand the way I was thinking and positioning my offering. At the same time, though, if I listen to the amount of advice I got to not quit my job and to continue climbing the ladder and continue getting experience, I didn't have enough experience and I wouldn't be where I am. I wouldn't be on this podcast. I'd be making 50%, maybe 100% less money. I don't really know at this point, but I just think, like, take advice and write it down and sit on it. But at the end of the day, listen to your intuition, trust yourself, and if you feel like you're meant to do something, then don't wait, just do it. 1.9s

U1

Yeah, 1s you're stealing that from Nike. Just do it. 1.9s It's a great advice and a lot of things I know you said throughout the session, it's easier said than done. And I think that's why a lot of people haven't done it. They haven't picked up that iPhone to record because everybody could, right? But they haven't done it. Just 1.4s yeah, it's a mentality thing. But I know this has been great and we can't wait to do a webinar with you on more tips and tricks for Video Prospecting. 

U2

Thanks for having me. 

U1

That was an amazing episode of the digital podcast with Various Source. Hope you enjoyed it and got some great insights from it. Make sure you follow us on social media for the next episode. And if you want to get the best deals from the guests today, make sure to send us a message at sales@varisource.com.