Why And How To Create A Sales Training Video
Sales training videos are a potent tool for any organization looking to maximize its teaching materials.
Yet, you wouldn’t be alone if you’re stuck in the old ways and opposed to creating your company’s propriety sales training video. To that point, you’ll find that even enterprise-level organizations don’t quite understand the nuances of digital adoption.
But we’re not here to judge. We empathize with the hesitancy.
Plus, decision-makers on the fence about making sales training videos aren’t necessarily “wrong” to be skeptical.
There are advantages to in-person sessions. For instance, in-person interactions are often more conducive to team fostering connections than virtual outings. They can also be more impactful with the lessons taught.
It’s tough to let go of traditionally tried-and-true methods. It’s what you know and–in essence–your comfort zone. Additionally, you understand that these in-person training sessions work…at least to a degree.
Yet, you wouldn’t be here, reading this article, if you weren’t ready to move on and embrace the tools of the digital revolution. These are different times with modern challenges that call for equally modern solutions. While the ways of old have their merits, it’s time to evolve–and here’s why:
The Pain Points Of Traditional Sales Training
Traveling to conduct sales training sessions is no picnic, even for those who don’t mind life on the road.
No matter the scope, the demands of constant travel can weigh you down. Your trips could be more local with less time out of town or at hotels; even then, it can wear thin. You’re still running all over the place, burning through gas on busy highways, trying not to lose your mind while other drivers play by their own rules.
That said, your version of work travel could be a bit more luxurious. District managers, sales reps, or you–an owner or executive–might fly business or first class. You could rent a luxury car to get around and stay at elegant hotels.
Even then, the rigors of travel wear on you. All the extravagance and creature comforts in the world can’t compare to sleeping in your own bed and being on a regular schedule.
Most district managers and sales reps don’t get those luxuries. They have to venture around the US and deal with inconveniences and frustrations. It could be missed flights, 3-star hotels that are really 1-star hotels, or continental breakfasts that taste like yesterday’s scraps.
Beyond these pain points, affording company travel grows more challenging each day. Domestic flights keep skyrocketing in price, and even with slowed inflation, gas prices remain astronomical.
Let’s not forget the food costs, either. Inflation plays its role in steadily-rising restaurant bills during company-sponsored road trips.
Then, you have to consider the cost of space for the workshop and what you’re paying for hotel rooms.
The expenses seem to never stop.
What’s worse? The benefits of sales training are long-term; there’s no immediate return. Exorbitant upfront costs can sink you if you have cashflow problems and nothing in the direct pipeline to make up the difference.
Traveling to run these training sessions seems even less valuable and vital when you realize you can reach the desired objective without all the gallivanting. Specifically, you can improve your sales team’s performance through training videos.
Examining The Numbers
Did you know that according to research, a CEO’s time is worth $80 per minute on average? And that a top-performing CEO’s time is worth $260 per minute?
Apply that salary to yourself–even if you make less than the numbers above. After all, you’re the leader of the operation. Your time is precious and should be meticulously planned to maximize your value.
Then, let’s estimate that a district manager is worth over $40 per hour, given their average salary is a bit over $100,000 annually. A top performer just below management who runs training sessions isn’t valued much less.
These salaries are lofty (and most often, well-earned). You must make the most of each minute of every top performer. Wasted time is unacceptable.
Sadly, with high performers and organizational leaders stuck in travel, they’re not performing other big-picture work to grow your company. Moreover, having these talented individuals regurgitate the same lessons to different audiences doesn’t seem time or cost-efficient.
Applying The Appropriate Solution: Sales Training Videos
Why not cut out the travel and the repetitive in-person training workshops? Why not make one training session that can be “cloned” and distributed to your company-wide masses?
Last we checked, you can’t physically clone yourself or your other trainers to disperse them all at once. What you can do, though, is record your training sessions on video and open your business to a world of heightened efficiency.
You wouldn’t be the first owner or organizational leader to tell us you wish you could be in two places at once. With a sales training video, you can do just that.
Benefits Of Sales Training Videos
The first benefit of sales training videos is clear–you save on travel and maximize your time by being in multiple places simultaneously.
However, making a sales training video would only be worthwhile if it were a practical, proven approach–which it is.
To the above point, studies indicate the effectiveness of sales videos. For instance, 72% of salespeople prefer learning about products and services via video. Moreover, learners retain 95% of a video message versus the 10% they retain via text.
Plus, trainees will be appreciative of the convenience factor. Provided your organization’s sales team works remotely, they can participate in training from the comfort of their home if you create and distribute videos.
Even in-office salespeople won’t need to travel to a conference room on the other end of the city or three towns over to attend training sessions. They can perform the training in the office, simplifying their schedule and maximizing their time.
In this landscape, where the recession keeps looming, you need to cut costs and find profits wherever they are. Thus, recording sales training videos is your ideal solution.
Still, there’s a kicker. While these advantages exist with a sales training video, producing them is its own complex journey.
Pain Points Of Sales Video Production
We’re supposing you’ve never produced a sales training video and are only now moving away from traveling. In this case, this concept is brand-new to you. You’re veering into unknown territory, and with that comes a steady stream of challenges, such as:
Producing Poor Videos Is Bad For Your Reputation Internally
You’re moving away from an area where you’re an expert: in-person training sessions. And you’re entering a space where you’re a novice: training videos.
Given your position as a company leader, exiting your comfort zone is nothing new to you. All the same, you don’t necessarily have time for abject failure. Your sales team’s time is valuable, and so is the person running the training (e.g., you, your DM, or a sales rep).
So, delivering a lackluster sales training video to your team will make you look bad and lose your connection with them. Instead of focusing on work, they struggled through an ineffective training session, wasting their time and cultivating internal resentment.
Now is the perfect time to mention that requesting feedback can help ease you into this new system.
Your people will be more patient if you’re transparent about the trial and error. However, the closer your first video is to your ideal vision, the better. The first version needs to be viable, and you can build from that standard of viability.
Getting Lost In The Cost
Finding the pricing sweet spot of your sales training video is another challenging hurdle you’ll encounter.
In spending too little, you’ll put forth an inferior product that doesn’t yield results and turns into a sunk cost. There’s no getting that money back.
Conversely, forking out too much money on the bells and whistles simply isn’t cost-efficient. Even if the video and its contents are successful, you’ll be chasing your financial tail trying to make up the difference.
For instance, can you afford the approximately $51,500 yearly salary of a permanent, in-house video editor? Does such a hire make sense for your company even if you could afford it? Despite their risky and ill-thought nature, these types of hires have happened in the past and will happen again.
Doing the calculations and assessing the risks is necessary, but you’re going in blind without prior knowledge of video production.
Grasping The Finer Points Of Execution
We’ll ask you to take out your phone, open your video app, and record yourself speaking about a topic from your company’s sales training syllabus.
Now, watch and listen to yourself.
Then, ask yourself, “would I listen to or look at me?”
We’re illustrating that filming a compelling video goes beyond pressing the record button and winging it.
Here are just a few things you need to consider before recording:
- How are you delivering the training video? Is it with one teacher or with multiple talking heads?
- What’s your message? What will you say, and how will you say it?
- How is the lighting in your chosen studio?
- What does your mic sound like?
- What kind of video angles are you using?
- Will the video be dry? Or will it be more entertaining?
These are only a few factors you need to weigh when producing your sales training video, and the direction you take will significantly impact your success (or lack thereof).
Fortunately, we live in the digital age where many resources exist to offer an initial guide for your sales training video production journey. Below, you can read one of those guides as a jumping-off point.
Introductory Tips For Filming And Producing Sales Training Videos
You’ve entered the nuts and bolts section of this article. These tips will help you hit the ground running while making your first sales training video, saving you from many trial-and-error-based headaches.
Remember: People Buy From People
We’ve already discussed trainers you’ve relied on until now, whether you, your district manager or a sales rep.
These high performers have already been the central focus of in-person training sessions. All eyes were on them during these outings, and the lessons were more effective for it.
There’s a reason why this person-centric focus works: people buy from people. Don’t lose touch with that universal truth just because you’re going digital.
It could seem more cost-efficient upfront to compile a bunch of visuals and text, throw in some music, and call it a day. Yet, the reality is such an approach would yield a sterile result that doesn’t translate with your sales team.
Even though video training sessions aren’t in-person, there’s still the need to feel a personal connection with the trainer.
Appearances Matter
People judge books by their covers. We’re not saying you need to look like George Clooney or Gigi Hadid. The aesthetic factors we’re discussing are under your control.
First and foremost, ensure that the central figure of the video is dressed appropriately, wearing the necessary makeup, and has a background accentuating their features.
Appearances are vital because the person running these training videos will be looking directly at the camera lens. Viewers need to be drawn to their instructor.
Prioritize Showmanship
High-level teachers and trainers understand that their role is as performative as functional.
Starting your training video dryly stating facts and tips will send your viewers into a lull. By no fault of their own, trainees will disengage from the training and miss out on their learning opportunities.
The star of your video needs to embrace showmanship and follow strategies to engage the audience.
First and foremost, the video needs to start with a hook.
You can flex your creativity muscles in hooking the trainees. However, we suggest following the path of least resistance and starting with a rhetorical question. For instance, “”How do you make sense of things not going as expected?”
Then, the instructor must remain quick and upbeat–even when delving into the drier, statistical elements of the training. When the data isn’t being discussed, keep the audience enthralled with entertaining components that range from funny to emotional and clever.
Tell Stories With Numbers
As important as it is to be entertaining and engaging, the presentation must have factual merit.
The emotions you tap into must be balanced by the nitty-gritty research and conveyed through stats, charts, graphs, technical breakdowns, etc.
While the glitz and glamor of showmanship will garner the viewer’s attention, the numbers–and the story they tell–lend the presentation the necessary credibility. They also paint the entire picture for the trainees so that they grasp the full scope of the lesson.
Be Technically On Point With Your Production
Purchasing the right camera is a must, naturally.
While the appropriate mix of quality and price can prove challenging, here’s a list of 6 cameras that are great for digital lecturing.
Other factors to consider with your camera are as follows:
- Ensure your camera card is formatted
- Position the camera at the appropriate height
- The camera should be set at a good distance
Light your video’s central figure with soft, warm lighting, which offers a cozier, more personalized, and intimate effect.
Warm light is typically orange or red in hue. These colors add a sense of welcoming and gentility to the instructor’s energy. You want your salespeople to like this person, after all.
There’s then the matter of audio–which is almost more important than what people see.
Don’t settle for built-in computer mics or phone mics. You require a separate, high-quality mic for these training videos that project the trainer’s voice. Otherwise, the message of the sales training video will be muffled, and the viewers’ attention will slip.
Ensure the mic is on and its levels are good before filming.
When in doubt about audio and visuals, keep things simple–especially with background noises and scenery. Unless you’re 100% sure, don’t add music, and stick to in-studio settings that won’t distract your audience.
Use The Format To Your Advantage
Filming a training video allows you to plan an outline or a script. You can control all factors in the scripting. Unlike in-person sales training, the instructor won’t get derailed by external elements like disruptive noises or boisterous trainees.
Also, you can stop recording at any point. There’s no need to finish the video in one take. Instead, you can break it up into thoughts and ensure each stage of the video is equally as resonant and impactful as the rest.
Lastly, sales training videos allow you to leverage the wonders of B-roll (secondary images that take up the screen when the instructor talks).
The B-roll helps you further communicate the narrative of the video training by associating footage with the conjunctive message. You’re also giving the audience something different to look at, helping them stay engaged and enthralled with what they’re watching.
Don’t Forget The Call To Action
You’re not selling your sales team a product, but you’re still selling them something. You’re convincing them that your company’s processes and procedures are their pathways to success. You’re expressing to them how to sell your products and services.
So, like any sales call or marketing material you’ve created, your sales training video requires a call to action.
It could be a rallying cry to reach new heights with numbers, or it could be to sign up for more training. Or, it could be to opt into a company retreat in the Bahamas. Whatever your call to action is, ensure it’s delivered with a smile and connects to the overarching points made in the video.
On the subject of calls to action…
These tips and suggestions are an excellent starting point for making your first sales training video. We’ve offered insights that will get you to the promised land quicker than if you didn’t come across this article.
However, there’s only so much any online guide can do for you and your company regarding sales training video production. At the end of the day, this is all theoretical, and you need practice.
Trying to do this alone, without the help of an expert like Salex, will make you long for the traditional, cost-ineffective ways of sales training. Conversely, aligning with a sales video production company like Salex will ensure you learn the best practices and start making successful training videos ASAP.