Dalton Danks on How AEs can increase their show rate with pre-call automated video sequences.

Subhanjan Sarkar    

Thank you. So before we actually start your session, I will give a quick overview of what you are doing today. Dalton is the founder of Breakthrough Video, helping businesses and brands tap into their unfair advantages on video with one-on-one coaching and done-for-you video solutions. Sorry about that. In a session today, Dalton will share the less common ways video is being leveraged to more effectively nurture and convert clients at each step of the sales cycle. With a few case studies as well as how you can start utilizing these strategies in your own sales process. Dalton, I’m really looking forward to this session.

Dalton Danks    

Well, thank you for the introduction, Subhanjan. We’ll get started. We’re all here today to learn how to use video to make more sales, to build better relationships, have faster sales cycles. There are all sorts of benefits that can come out of using video. And I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of value shared today about how to do cold outbound, about showing up on camera; someone’s going to talk about using AI tools, That is for sure. That’s all going to be covered, but my goal for today for this session is to show you something that I don’t think anyone else is going to talk about today and that I believe most of you haven’t tried.

But that brought my client, Noga, from getting on 9 calls with qualified prospects in the month of October to having 15 sales calls with qualified prospects in the month of November. And she actually just updated me yesterday that she has had 29 sales calls in the past 30 days. So I was going to be really excited to share a 66% increase for this first month. But these zoo numbers are too good to not share as it is actually a two hundred twenty-two percent % increase from the 30 day period before to a 30 day period after.

So for context, Noga is in AE working for a high-ticket web design and SEO agency, and we actually didn’t get her more calls booked; this wasn’t about outreach. What we did was increase the number of people that were actually showing up to her scheduled meetings. So before she was getting nine people to show up to the 26 calls booked for her and as of yesterday, that number went up to 29 people out of the 34 appointments she got booked in the last 30 days. So because her show rate was starting to increase, she started getting sent a lot more appointments. So her show rate went from 35% to 85%. This made a big difference for her performance and the company’s revenue that month.

Pretty outstanding, especially considering we achieved this without recording a bunch of videos; it was only one video that we made. I was there during the recording on a Zoom call, and we knocked it out in about 20 minutes. She did this without having any prior experience on camera; she’s actually really nervous, which is why she decided to work with me.

And the thing that I think is the most important to emphasize here, she did it without compromising the integrity of her brand and the human personal elements that are so important in the sales process. In other words, we didn’t use an AI avatar; we didn’t send a totally general, non-personalized demo video or something like that. It was for the recipient.

So before we get into the details, I want to get some perspective. How many of you watching right now love recording videos? You can go ahead and write in the comments if you love it, if you’re uncomfortable, if you totally hate it; I want to get some perspective, so I don’t know if I can see the chat let me see if anybody’s in the chat, let me know, Okay, Subhanjan loves it. I’m in the yes group. I love it as well. But to get a statistic video, it says 70% of customer success reps are using video in their sales process. So who knows if that’s really true, But let’s say it’s 70% of us.

And how many of you actually record five days a week and enjoy doing that five days a week. So you can let me know in the chat, but the numbers are probably already dwindling. I don’t like to record five days a week; I’m going to put my hand down so we can make a conservative estimate and say maybe half of those people who are recording prefer not to do it each day, simply because the amount of time and energy it takes is not insignificant so I can totally understand I’m with you there.

Ok, one more question for those of you who are recording every single day. How many of you enjoy strategizing, preparing, and recording multiple different videos on different topics for different people each day? Probably very few of you, because it takes a lot of skill, patience, and resources to pull off effectively. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it right. So we can break these groups down one more time. Let’s say about 30% of people lack the desire, the skills, essentially the ability, what we call confidence, to record videos. And that’s a problem for anyone in that group who’s hearing all about how great videos can be for sales. They know they’re missing out, right?

But for the other 70% who do have the skills and desire, they don’t necessarily have the time, the energy, the resources to record multiple new videos each day, let alone for multiple new prospects, all totally personalized. So that’s like 80% of people who aren’t able to get on the video train and see some awesome results, like two hundred twenty-two percent more sales calls.

So besides the 20% of people who have probably sent thousands of videos at this point, they’re masters that are totally killing it. Besides those people, this is a problem. A problem because we all know how incredible video is, but 80% of us don’t have the capacity to fully utilize it. Well, today I’m happy to share a solution. All you need is to invest 5 to 10K in training gear and software, spend the next three to six months recording videos every day and continually learning and make sure that you pray it’s going to work because even with that level of time, effort, and investment, there is in fact risk.

You are not guaranteed to reach the same outcomes as the top 20% even after all that resource allocation. Of course I’m joking, this doesn’t have to be such a serious topic. But on a serious note, don’t worry, I do have a real solution to share now. Thanks for those emojis here; that was now the real solution I’m proposing.

As I mentioned before, the single video that helped my client get two hundred twenty-two percent % prospects on a call just one month later is what I call an Evergreen interactive video sequence. Or we can abbreviate it as EIVS. I tried to use the simplest language possible, but just to be clear, interactive means it is not simply a passive experience for your viewer like watching a YouTube video. They get to interact and are guided through the video according to who they are and why they’re there.

And a video sequence is what makes this interaction possible. So your one video is broken up into multiple shorter videos that are only shown to the right people. So what does this actually look like? Well, on our end when we build it looks something like this. So each of these little squares is a clip and you can see the lines charting each possible outcome depending on the interaction. And on the user’s end, it looks something like this.

So not your typical Loom video or LinkedIn video message. Of course, this is only the first screen in the sequence. If you’d like to see what the rest of it looks like to actually press play and interact with it, send me a message after this, I’ll send you a link to one of my sequences to get the full experience for the presentation. I just wanted to put some stills.

So now to build and host a video sequence you need software like Videoask, VideoCom, Tolstoy. There might even be others that I don’t know about. But I can sincerely recommend each of these. And with any of them, you can host your sequence on a website or landing page, you can make a little pop up widget, or you can send them directly with a link or embed.

Now for Noga, we sent her video sequence as a pre-meeting reminder 4 hours before the booked call. The reason we chose this touch point was because, as you saw before, her show rate was 35% the month of October. Not so great, especially considering these leads were not cheap. She was not only not making the sale, every single missed appointment was costing the company the resources they invested in getting that lead up to that point, and with fewer sales calls, Noga’s performance was slipping, causing a lot of stress for her.

And all this just because people weren’t showing up. So obviously this presented a huge opportunity due to the previous underperformance, but we still wanted to make the most of it. So the first thing we thought about, and for anyone who wants to duplicate this to try to get similar results, remember is that most decision-makers have more meetings and more emails than they can even keep track of.

So sending anything besides your typical kindly reminder is already going to stand out a lot. But still, even though a video is going to stand out, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will build a relationship or give the prospect any incentive to actually show up to the meeting. I think we’ve all gotten videos like this one on screen. I know how it feels.

So this is where the interactive part really comes into play. I’m not going to break down the whole script in sequence you can watch it if you want me to send it to you later in the message. But essentially, the goal was to let them know that Noga was prepared for this meeting. She has something special to share that she put together just for them. And if they have two minutes, she actually has a couple more questions before they get on the call.

So this essentially was a reminder and an opportunity for them to cancel or reschedule because they’re not going to show up. We’d rather know that in advance anyways. It’s effectively A questionnaire to get some more crucial information before going into the call, and it’s a personalized human introduction that stands out, makes a memorable first impression, and lets them know this is not going to be a waste of their time. All this within one five-minute video that actually feels like less.

Because here’s the beauty, the more personal your videos are and the shorter they are, the more likely your prospects are to watch them. So for the viewer, this 5 minutes worth of recording actually feels like a thirty-second video, a 45-second video, a 15-second video, etcetera. And with all that interaction to break it up, Noga got a pretty impressive open rate and watch time when we looked back on the stats, which of course contributed to this dramatic improvement in less than 45 days.

So there were a couple of other things that were really important for nailing this that I want to share. The first thing, when recording, we didn’t add any special effects or captions or set up some special studio. It was just Noga in her kitchen talking to her webcam, just like it would be when she gets on a call with the prospect because she works remotely. So we wanted to keep that same meeting environment so it has a really authentic, you know, personable feel. And of course, the other benefit is that it saves us the cost of making some fancy setup.

The next thing is recording a whole video sequence to fit all your prospects and introduce yourself. Ask them the questions you need. This might sound like a lot to squeeze in, but for a busy decision-maker you’re trying to reach, they don’t have the time for this. So being concise and economic with time was really important. That was one of the things we had to work on with her scripts, cutting down the inessential rephrasing things to make it as clear and to the point as possible.

Ok, the last thing that we focused on was utilizing the on-screen text in a way that complements the script and avoids being redundant. So our brains are very good at processing information and as soon as they open the video, they’re immediately reading whatever’s on screen and listening to what you’re saying so you want to make sure that you’re not sharing unnecessary information or repeating yourself in multiple places.

And once again, we didn’t do any special editing, it was all just the built-in text features on video Ask, so it took almost no extra time to put together. So now that we’ve seen how it works for Nova, how can you apply this for yourself? Well, like we mentioned, you can use an Evergreen interactive video sequence on your website. You can embed it wherever you want you can send it directly in an email or message, so it can be used at any number of touch points where you would normally consider using just video.

But it’s going to be a lot more leveraged in terms of time and energy that it takes you you’re going to be able to open up a dialogue where you can actually get information back from them you can qualify them and do something with the information they give you and then direct them through a personalized interaction, which is what I really like the most about EIVs and what I think makes the biggest difference with them because they’re still able to have this human element in the communication without all the time and energy would normally cost you to make individual personalized videos.

So once you understand where you want to place the EIVs in your sales cycle, there are three things you have to consider. First, you have to strategize, plan, and script your video sequence. This is not something you just show up and record off the top of your head. It’s also not like planning a single cold outbound video. You have to understand who this sequence is going to potentially reach, how you’re going to qualify them through the interaction in a frictionless way and make the whole thing concise, personal, and authentic.

Next thing of course is being on camera and recording. If this is a challenge for you, the best thing you can do is have a one-on-one coaching session with any of the video experts representing here because it can really be a lot easier than you might think. Once you have the right approach and you’ve worked through any of the obstacles you might be battling with internally. This is what coaching is for and working with the right person can really change everything.

So lastly, you have to look at the software side. This isn’t just a screen recording or a zoom call, it’s going to take a little bit more know-how to put something like this together. But like I mentioned before, there are a ton of great software options and they all make it super user-friendly as long as you’re up for a little learning curve.

So to wrap up, since we’re all here to see what’s new with video, you know what we don’t know about what we haven’t tried that might make a big difference for our sales in 2024 and beyond. I just want to finish by saying I didn’t actually expect these kinds of results when I started working with Noga. So I knew it would be positive, but I honestly couldn’t have imagined it would make such a big leap so quickly.

And the point is, I think there’s still a ton of potential to try using Evergreen interactive video sequence at other touchpoints in the sales cycle, potentially combining it with other approaches or ideas. There’s a lot of possibilities that I haven’t gotten the chance to try and that I’d love to see others take a shot at. So I know we’ll have some time to chat at the end of this. But I’d love to hear from any of you who are curious to try using EIVs in your own creative way to see what kind of results you get so please, if we’re not already, let’s connect on LinkedIn I’d love to stay in touch and see what you achieve in 2024 so thank you for listening I’m going to hand it over back to Subhanjan for the Q&A.

Subhanjan Sarkar    15:56

Hey, Dalton, this was great. I think as we wait for questions, it would be nice if you explained a little more about EIVs, you know exactly how the sequences are built. I understand that you mentioned some of the software’s like videocom, videoask. I know videoask does that response bit in their software. But if you can explain how a single video can be used for multiple prospects that could be something we can start with and then in the meantime, we can see what questions are coming in.

Dalton Danks    

Right. Well for another example, another person I worked with, we put an Evergreen interactive video sequence on their websites. Just kind of where you’d put normally a contact form where you would put your name, your email and then why you want to contact. Basically he has four service offerings and we’re just introducing those four service offerings in the first page. And then as they select what they’re interested in, why they’re on the website, it takes them to another set of questions that kind of lead them further down the funnel collecting that information so when my client had the call back later, he had all this information already and also the prospect got that information from, you know, the interactive video sequence so just starting out, in the first page, you ask your first question, you break it down, and then of course you just keep branching off as you have the difference, you know, qualifying questions or information you need from them.

Subhanjan Sarkar    

So this whole branching and the responses are happening through the software that they’re using.

Dalton Danks   

Right, exactly it’s just automatic so we just click the button, takes you to the next one, click the next response, or you can record an answer back, for example so type something out and you get that message sent to you later. There’s different possibilities with that.

Subhanjan Sarkar    

Okay. Fair enough. Let’s see what kind of questions are coming through. So while I wait for the audience, there is this question which had come from people who have registered earlier and this is from Marinal. Sorry I think I made a mistake.

Yeah so again I’m coming back to how you get started with the whole thing and I think you focused on how you need to work on the script and the structure and building of the entire cadence is key here, but this is something which was similar. I just thought that you could possibly address this as well.

Dalton Danks    

So with getting started if you’re like new with video and this sort of stuff.

Subhanjan Sarkar    

Yeah, yeah.

Dalton Danks    

Right well, that’s the thing that I think is really great about these EIVs concept is that if you’re brand new to video like Noga was, you’re not really into the idea of showing up on camera doing a bunch of takes multiple days a week. So if you want to just invest in one video, this is something that you can spend just an hour on or if you get help it’s going to be less time and you’re going to be able to send this out to people for the next few months or maybe even a year depending on what’s going on. So it’s a really great way to skip, like I said that those months of practice and trying to get really good on camera because like I said, I don’t even like to record every single day it takes a certain amount of time to get in front of the camera and kind of control the variables so if you’re just getting started, it’s a great place to begin with this kind of thing where you just do it one time. Of course, for the people who already are in the process of sending out multiple videos a week, this can be another level up to leverage your time better. But This is why I think it’s really great for both of those people. Of course, you can always go the other route if you want to become a generally better video creator, you’re going to have to put in those repetitions over weeks or months. But for the people who kind of don’t love it but they want to still leverage video, this is a good solution for them.

Subhanjan Sarkar    

So I have a question just on the back of the case study: is this going to work for products or for services?

Dalton Danks   

I’ve only done it with services, so I think there’s definitely possibilities with products I haven’t done it so I can’t attest to it, but it would be worth trying. I’m optimistic that just the customizability of the experience through the interaction is what makes the biggest difference for people. If you’re not selling something that really is dependent on that one-to-one interaction, maybe you would be less impactful. But I still think if you’re demoing the product or you’re doing something in that way to show the different sides of it based on what they’re specifically curious about would also make a big impact for sure.

Subhanjan Sarkar   

The other question is that in this case study that you shared again, what was the source of their leads, would you know?

Dalton Danks    

So yeah, they had, I think they have like 6 AES or something, they have like 6 people who are closing and then I don’t know how many setters. So based on their previous performance, they’re just getting a bunch of book deployments from the setters, and I’m not sure where they were sourcing the cold leads from. There were seven deployments off of. I actually don’t know that information.

Subhanjan Sarkar    

Okay, okay. So they had a source of leads, and the setters were getting in October, they’re getting X as a response which is like 30 or whatever and then it went to the numbers which was like 3 times, practically 2 and a half times what they’re doing in November, December timeframe.

Dalton Danks    

Right, Exactly so she was getting, what was it, 26 sent to her in October, was only actually getting nine of those people to show up. And then by November thirteenth yesterday it was thirty-four, and she’s getting twenty-nine of them so yeah, as she got a higher show rate, she got more of the appointments getting sent to her. So but before, I think she was actually at the bottom of the list, lowest show rate among all of her colleagues. So this was like a huge boost. I think she’s probably at the top now. I would hope at the top, but yeah.

Subhanjan Sarkar    

Final question, how long did it take her to record those videos? So how much time went into the scripting and the structuring which I presume you helped her with? And how much was in the recording process?

Dalton Danks    

Yeah, that’s good because I didn’t really go into detail with that. So I started out by asking her some questions, basically to get an idea of what we want to do like I kind of set our goals, but then what are the actual questions, how we’re going to qualify them and so on. So ask her some questions. I just wrote the script for her. It was part of the done-for-you, part of my service to write the script out. It took me, I don’t know, I think like an hour and a half or so taking information from her. And then when we met, we had to kind of go through it, like I said, to refine some of it down to fit more her speaking style because of course, she’s going to say things differently than I write them. That took maybe about 20 minutes and then we’re just recording through him, knocking him out it took about another 15 minutes or so it was all done the whole thing after kind of recapping in less than an hour or so.

Subhanjan Sarkar    

Yeah, which is wonderful and I’m sure for her that the results speak for themselves. Dalton, thank you so much. I really enjoyed it and I do believe some of our audience will like to reach out to you at some point and I’m happy to connect and of course, they can reach out to you on LinkedIn. You’re easy to find and thanks again for making time and sharing with us.

Dalton Danks   

Thank you. 

Subhanjan Sarkar    

Okay. We’ll end this session and we’ll be back in a minute with Bill Cormick.

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