Will Selling With Video Hurt Your Future Sales?

There’s a lot of hype right now about how the future of selling stuff online is to use VIDEO.

I’m not so sure. Here’s the big problem:

VIDEO in Its Current State is Pretty Much Linear

It has a timeline that needs to be followed for a complete message to get delivered.

Duh, right? It’s just like T.V.

I guess you can blindly skip around the sales video if you want, but some of the newer video promotions don’t even give you that option.

The real strength of the internet is that it is non-linear. You can go hopping all over the place… go from point A to point Q with one click.

That’s how a salesletter is online. The reader can skip around and find the information he needs before he buys.

But with sales videos like they’re being served up now, it’s a little more like locking your reader into a rollercoaster ride and waving goodbye.

Is that smart? Time will certainly tell. But something in my gut says it’s not.

Here are some benefits of selling with video from the view of the entrepreneur:

1. Production time is often much faster than writing.
2. Seems a whole lot easier to create and distribute to the world.
3. Enough people are still enamored by video that it doesn’t take too much effort to get them to press play.
4. Expectations of quality are low enough right now that very little editing is often required.
5. People can get a feel for the salesperson and that enhances the bond with the viewer.
6. Mass media has trained a whole lot more people to watch videos than it has to read a page of text.

Sounds great right?

It’s easier, cheaper and faster than print.

But here’s what I see when I look at sales videos from the point of the viewer:

1. I have to digest your sales message at your speed, not at my speed.
2. I don’t really have an efficient way to get the information I want, when I want it.
3. A 20 minute sales video isn’t very respectful of my number one asset in my life: my time. If you entertain me enough, maybe I won’t think about it… THIS time.

My point is not that stuff like this isn’t working right now. Right now, video is new enough that it gets people attention (maybe) simply because it’s different.

My point is that, long term, I don’t see how it’s in the best interest of your customer’s experience during your selling process to put your whole sales message in a video.

And that’s really something that you should focus on. The experience. Because eventually it’s going to affect your numbers.

I think EXPERIENCE is going to be very important as the customer’s number of choices expands.

Selling online is starting to move away from being just an event and towards becoming more of a process. It’s like direct response marketing and “indirect response” marketing are merging together.

I guess you could call it:

Breadcrumb Selling

Look at how so many people are building real businesses and real brands using this simple idea. There are plenty of free tools available to do this now, and all it takes is having an important message to spread, something to sell, the discipline to stick around, and the desire to care.

Here’s the quick summary about how I see this working:

1. You build a relationship with people…
2. You leave bits of value (breadcrumbs) scattered around the internet…
3. You gently invite them to buy things…
4. They buy not when you tell them to buy. They buy when they WANT to buy. (I think that’s how happy customers are created.)

Rinse and repeat.

This is a process right? It can take a while.

You often don’t know exactly when the customer is going to pick up enough of your breadcrumbs to buy, but if they do buy, they’re probably going to do it from the person they trust and know already. Unless you’re in a market where price is the only real differentiating factor. (In which case, maybe you should run for the hills

But Numbers Don’t Lie

OK, so if you’re reading this and just got done making a million bucks using a video like the one I’m describing, then I guess you could say, “Hey, the proof is in the pudding. If it works I’m gonna do it.”

I guess I’d answer that in two ways.

1. More power to you. But just because it works today doesn’t mean it’s going to work tomorrow. So you might have to start looking for the NEXT big thing that works pretty soon.
2. The results of one sales promotion are pretty much an isolated number in time. If you’re just in the business of throwing out “promotions” every few months, then I guess good luck. But I’m talking to the folks who want a business with customers who come back again and again. You don’t really have any idea how your treatment of your customers today will affect their buying habits tomorrow. You’ll only really be able to understand that looking backwards… and by then, it might be too late. Why not treat them right NOW?

You could also say, “Hey, the folks that aren’t going to sit through my video aren’t the buyers anyway… So who cares?”

Well, I think you should care. Because that type of selling is more like throwing stuff up against the wall and seeing what sticks.

When I think of REAL professional selling, I think of people buying things maybe they didn’t plan on buying.

That takes a real salesman to accomplish a result like that. It takes a real salesman to point out how buying a product or service NOW is in the customer’s best interest… and to do it in a way where the customer still walks away happy.

Deep down, do you really think holding your customers “hostage” in front of your sales video is smart for their LONG TERM happiness? And if you’re not interested in their LONG TERM happiness, then good luck.

It’s About Time

As the glitz and glam of Web 2.(whatever number we’re up to) starts to wear off, I think more people will start realizing just how valuable and important their TIME really is.

And they will not appreciate business owners who waste it to sell them something.

So what’s a better idea?

Why not do both?

If you want to do video, how about giving your customers a choice? Give them a sales message in print as well.

Sure, it’s more work… more time… But these are your customers we’re talking about.

Related posts:

1. The Future of Information Marketing?
2. My #1 Recommendation for Boosting the Response of Your Salesletter