Standing Out In The Crowd: The Vidyard Approach To Prospecting
By any reasonable (or even conservative) measurement, it’s safe to say there’s a lot of email prospecting going on. Regardless of the offering – and regardless of whether the prospecting is well done or not – you’ve likely received an email from an SDR somewhere hoping to hop on a call to chat about how they can help you out.
How, then, do you make your touchpoints stand out amidst the wash of communication being sent to organizations, large and small? How do you get the attention of the people you’re trying to, ultimately, sell to?
Well, Kitchener, Ontario-based Vidyard think the key lies in video prospecting.
Using Video Prospecting Tools To Stand Out
“When your customer is receiving so many templated emails from your competitors, sending videos really helps humanize you (prove you’re not a robot/skynet),” says Terrance Kwok, Sales Development Manager at Vidyard, in a forthcoming edition of The Predictable Revenue Podcast.
Like all companies should, video prospecting tool Vidyard is eating’ its own dog food and using video email for prospecting.
- Vidyard’s first reach out is a quick 30-second Webcam video, with a voicemail-esque message.
- Vidyard reps follow that video up with an email, social touch or a phone call.
- The third/fourth touch is an email with a screen capture starting on the prospects Linkedin profile and walk them through why we’re reaching out, or sending prospects a relevant article.
And, the system works. According to Kwok, Vidyard is seeing a 25% open-to-reply rate on its first touch, compared to a 16% open-to-reply rate using no video.
Vidyard’s interest in disrupting the world of prospecting doesn’t end with its belief in video, though. They’ve also thrown out their lengthy internal rule book on touch points and scrapped email templates altogether.
Worrying too much about touch points and finely crafted yet impersonal templates will just “bog reps down,” says Kwok.
“On the email front, we don’t use templates at all anymore. It forces us to slow down and really personalize each interaction so it feels more human,” he added.
“We used to worry too much about “touch rules” or attribution rules. We had 3 pages of rules of engagement and it really bogged us down. So, 3 months ago we dropped the rules of engagement and created a ‘don’t be an A-hole’ rule. There are no perfect rules of engagement.”
Of course, rules and traditions still come in handy in some areas. One such realm is consistent one-on-ones with reps. Kwok spends one with each rep per week reviewing calls, discussing what’s working and what isn’t, and tweaking anything that needs it.
Everyone can always use another set of eyes and ears, after all. But, Kwok gets as much out of the sessions as the reps he works with – it keeps him learning from the market and “close to the grind.”
“When you first move to being a sdr manager, you still remember what the grind feels like. As time goes on, it’s easy to forget what that feels like. You have to stay on the phones with your reps, shadow them, coach them and learn from the market,” says Kwok.
For more on Vidyard’s technology and Kwok’s managerial tips, check out his forthcoming interview on The Predictable Revenue Podcast.