Remember the 80’s one hit wonder, Buggles, who sang “Video Killed the Radio Star?” Known for its catchy melody, this song was one of the first videos that kicked off the infamous MTV era.
Though MTV has since transformed into nearly everything except music videos, it did herald in a new time period, and soon video began to manifest itself in all aspects of our lives.
From video recipes to viral videos, a key fabric of our lives is now woven by video.
As a sales and marketing professional, I began to ponder the ways that video could positively impact our area of business. While the applications are endless, my team began to focus on transforming some of age-old ideas and tactics around demand generation. It was time to break the vicious cycle of sticking to the status quo.
Our mission: How can we best engage our customers with an impactful first impression?
Traditionally, cold calling is a part of all demand generation tactics. However, after dissecting the customer experience, we paused to reconsider this approach, as we recognize that all customers are consumers, and everyone wants an outstanding CX.
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The purpose of the cold call is to attract new or existing customers to your product or service, and to secure a direct sales engagement. On the surface, it doesn’t sound too bad, right? Yet we all know that the term “cold call” has an incredibly negative connotation, and with good reason.
The phone rings, and the unsuspecting party on the other end answers, only to hear a brief pause, when suddenly the call connects and the pitch begins. (Shout out to the clever, but very annoying marketers who have now made it sound like it’s someone just asking us to hold a moment, as though it’s someone we know. See “Shark Attack Cold Caller” below.)
During a cold call, there are typically one of two greetings:
The “Java Induced” Cold Caller. The high energy soul from the opposite side of the globe sounding like they just had their 3rd shot of espresso leaves you with a flurry of information. The information is so convoluted and difficult to understand that you simply hang up.
“Shark Attack” Cold Caller. This aggressive caller with sly techniques, keeps you on the call long enough to deliver their feverish pitch. Their hustle should be admired, but rather is invasive.
High competition coupled with alpine sales targets has blinded many sales and marketing professionals to the negative customer experience we are delivering.
Don’t we always want our first impression to be its best? Why would we purposely provide a negative customer experience at the first engagement?
So how could we transform this age-old demand generation tactic? With video sales and story-telling.
What is video story-telling?
Video story-telling is a tactic that allows organizations to create a personalized video message about the value of your products and services.
Our cold-callers have been transformed into video story-tellers, and are now in the business of driving personalized engagements and delivering a positive customer experience.
In this digital era, it’s clear – video killed the cold calling star.
