I've sent thousands of videos for the purpose of teaching, training, connecting, serving, and selling. Many of those videos were sent to lists of people, but the vast majority have been personal. Within our community, nearly a thousand people have each sent a thousand videos or more. A handful have sent more than 5,000 videos. As I often say, you don't send your 5,000th video if the previous 4,999 weren't effective for you. And you don't send your 5,000th video if it's difficult or cumbersome.

You don't get to a thousand videos by mass sending. Even if you consistently sent one video every week to everyone on your team, in your company, in your database, or in your community, you'd only be at about 200 or 250 videos after five years, assuming you take a few weeks off every year. This rate and volume of simple video sending that we see and study is all about one-to-one messages—truly personal videos. If you're exclusively playing a volume game, this approach may not be for you. But if you value the relationship above the transaction because the initial touch is the start of a long, productive customer journey, you're in the right place.

Should you join these people by sending some of your most valuable messages as videos? You'll meet some of them and learn when they're sending video in the next chapter. Here in this chapter are characteristics they have in common. If three or four of these six signs resonate with you, it's time to rehumanize your sales process and customer experience with simple webcam and smartphone videos.

SIGN 1: YOU TEACH, TRAIN, SELL, OR SERVE

Anyone working in a professional capacity can benefit from this approach, including you. That's because each of us influences and persuades every day. Best-selling author Daniel Pink takes on this topic in his New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post bestseller To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others. Published at the end of 2012, Pink's book was based on a first-of-its-kind study titled, “What Do You Do at Work?”

Among the top findings from responses of more than 9,000 participants from a range of professions is that, “People are now spending about 40% of their time at work engaged in non-sales selling—persuading, influencing, and convincing others in ways that don't involve anyone making a purchase.” We consider non-sales selling crucial to our professional success and know that we should devote more time to it. Of the participants, 37% reported spending significant time teaching, coaching, or instructing people, and 39% spend significant time in service to clients or customers. And a strong majority, 70%, spend significant time persuading or convincing others.¹ Our successes are not exclusively our own; they're shared. We need to work with, for, and through other people to achieve our desired outcomes.

It should come as no surprise, especially after reading Chapter 2, that we spend most of our time in our inboxes. This study found the same to be true. Participants spend more time reading and responding to emails than anything else. Face-to-face conversations and attending meetings were next up. We communicate, connect, and convert most effectively when we're in person, but we spend massive amounts of time mired in text—typing it out, editing it, reading it, interpreting it, replying to clear up misunderstandings, and on. It doesn't have to be this way. Teaching, training, serving, and selling with video conveniently helps bridge the gap between email and face-to-face conversation.

SIGN 2: YOU DRIVE OPPORTUNITIES TOWARD FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS

By form fill, referral, inbound, outbound, or some other means, an opportunity is created. We reach out with the goal of a reply or response. We often work toward an initial phone call to connect with the person, learn about him or her, do some discovery and diagnosis, and set a face-to-face appointment. For some salespeople, the appointment is in person. For others, it may be by live video conference. For most, the lead follow-up and nurturing process drives toward a form of face-to-face meeting. Why? Because we're better at connecting, influencing, and persuading in person.

This process is common among people who sell software solutions, help buy and sell real estate, sell peace of mind through insurance, manage financial futures, recruit and hire talent, or employ a similar sales process. This might include, for example, a private high school that generates interest online by publishing website pages, blog posts, or downloadable guides about the challenges and opportunities facing today's high school students who are aspiring to gain acceptance to top-tier colleges. Initial contact begins the process of follow-up and discovery. Contact and micro-conversions through videos, emails, text messages, and phone calls ultimately drive to an in-person appointment. The goal of the meeting is to conclude with another scheduled meeting or with the ultimate conversion of a signed contract or another formal commitment that says, “Yes, I choose you and your product or service.”

So, why not get face to face earlier and more often? Many professionals use personal videos to generate that initial reply, to confirm before and follow up after appointments, to differentiate themselves from competitors, and to accelerate the sales cycle. Of our customers, 81% report an increase in replies and responses to video emails compared to traditional emails; one in six doubled or more than doubled their reply rate. And 68% report higher lead conversion.

Some businesses and organizations play this exclusively as a numbers game—generating large quantities of online leads, automating the entire follow-up process, and profitably closing 0.9% or 1.4% of those opportunities. You can drop videos into an automated process to help build some personal connection and communicate messages more clearly. But reaching out to someone who's expressed interest in your product or service with a one-to-one video, including a personal subject line and personal video thumbnail or animated preview takes you from, “Yes, I get more replies and responses” to the segment of one in six people who reported a doubling or more than doubling in reply rate with video.

The right answer for you and your team may be a balance of personal and automated, so we cover both throughout this book. Regardless, starting the relationship with a video shows that you work differently, puts your face with your name, allows you to speak directly to each person's interest, and triggers our innate sense of reciprocity. People feel not just an obligation to reply, but also a need to reply. And the entire process of driving toward a face-to-face appointment is accelerated. Remember, they'll feel like they know you when you finally connect in real time.

SIGN 3: YOU WANT TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

The success stories we hear from people adding video into their business communication remind us how valuable a personal touch at the right time can be to a business relationship. But they also remind us just how low the bar can be for customer experience. A friend of mine runs a residential construction business. He's told me several stories in which his company wins jobs to build new decks, roofs, or siding just by showing up for the appointment. Often, the companies he's competing with don't even show up for their scheduled appointments! It still shocks me that simply honoring your word can be a differentiator.

I've also heard several stories in which sending a video wins the deal against competitors who are sending traditional emails. We're still early enough in this movement that sending a video is remarkable. It's got a surprise-and-delight element to which people respond favorably. As an initial touch, you're setting a tone for how the service will be delivered—whether it's an online class, a software onboarding, a financial plan, a real estate transaction, a home improvement project, or anything else. You're starting to build a relationship digitally. And you're displaying a level of care.

You can add this human touch anywhere in the customer or employee lifecycle. As someone transitions from one status to another with you, the onboarding or training needs can be addressed in part with videos. Make one truly personal and unique to each person and then record the follow-ups once and use them over and over again with other people making the same transition. What are the topics for a series of videos like this? List the frequently asked questions. What do people moving from one stage to another tend to ask at each transition? Answer these questions in videos to save yourself time, to inform and prepare people, to assure smooth and efficient transitions, and to improve the experience.

What happens when someone reaches out with a problem, challenge, question, or fear? Whether positive, negative, or neutral, any inquiry is more quickly, personally, and thoroughly addressed with a video that assesses the situation, draws potential or real paths forward, and recommends one if appropriate. Or you can proactively reach out with an update or progress report, as my friend's team members do from the roof of a client's home to show and tell. Think about that. A crew's on your roof. You're at work. And you get a personal update from your roof. That's service.

One of the most effective videos our customer support team sends to people with a complicated issue is a screen recording from inside that customer's account, walking through potential causes and solutions. The alternative is a mountain of typed-out text and links to support articles that may address the issue. Which is a better experience—a specific video walkthrough inside your account or what looks like a huge homework assignment? Customer satisfaction surveys and time-to-resolution measures strongly favor video.

When a transaction closes or a contract is signed, what's a nice touch to make that can be experienced more than once and shared with others? Send a video thanking the person and noting a highlight or two about the journey. How do you stay in touch with people in a meaningful way so that you're top of mind when they or other people they know are in need of your product or service? Send monthly videos out providing entertaining or informative tips and updates related to you, your business, and your industry. This line of Q&A can go on and on, because a great customer experience is based in timely, relevant, and helpful communication.

Any touch you're making—or should be making—to reduce friction and improve customer experience can be done with video. In increasingly digital environments, that human element goes a long way to build trust, allay fears, and avoid pitfalls. If you're not humanizing the experience, then you risk disintermediation.

SIGN 4: YOU RISK DISINTERMEDIATION BY WEB APPS, TOOLS, AND AUTOMATIONS

Two large segments of professionals whose video use we frequently observe are real estate agents and mortgage loan officers. Some real estate professionals fear Zillow. These agents question its business model of selling competitive ads around homes they've listed for sale. They challenge the pricing model or execution of that advertising. They criticize “Zestimated” home values. And they speculate that Zillow may get directly involved in transactions or become a brokerage, something the company consistently refutes. The fear of those agents: that Zillow will eliminate the agent from the transaction—that they'll be disintermediated or cut out of the process.

Many mortgage loan officers feel the same way about Rocket Mortgage from Quicken Loans. Many financial advisors look at Wealthfront or Betterment with skepticism at best and derision at worst. The process is faceless, they observe. Who can you sit down with when things go sideways, they ask. Things go better and people are happier with a real handshake, they say. And for many consumers, these observations are all fair and true. They prefer that human touch and personal service. But for many other consumers, the value and convenience these tools and apps provide makes them highly desirable.

Classic business stories of disruptions, like Blockbuster losing out to streaming services like Netflix, countless booksellers and other retailers folding to Amazon, and taxis with expensive hood medallions tailing Uber and Lyft car services are always at hand and often told. The proverbial “cheese” of the intermediary or “middleman” has already been moved. Or it's currently moving. Or it’ll start moving soon. This is disintermediation and all kinds of apps, tools, automations, and services are advancing its march. So, what's a human to do?

The list of jobs being affected is lengthy. An easy go-to here is the driverless car and, even more consequently, the driverless truck. The driver's job is reassigned to the machine; he or she has been disintermediated. Some jobs are being reassigned to the customer herself or himself – and have been for years. Long gone are the days of gas station attendants pumping your gas (unless you're in New Jersey or Oregon). Self-checkout has spread from grocery stores to Target to Home Depot and beyond. To use the language of Paul R. Daugherty and H. James Wilson in their book Human+Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI, the progression is:

• Standardization (Henry Ford, assembly line)
• Automation (1970s–1990s business process reengineering)
• Adaptation (artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning)

The negative view of all this progress is that it represents cold, cost-reducing approaches with no regard for people, while the positive view is that humans are freed to engage in more varied, stimulating, and productive work environments. The truth will play out somewhere in between.

Your ability to avoid disintermediation by a web app, digital tool, or process automation is in the value you provide. If the value of your contribution to the product or service delivery fails to exceed the cost of the labor you personally provide, you're no longer needed. The value and cost here may be real or simply perceived. But the result will be the same, so you must add value.

Humans win when we employ creativity, expertise, judgment, emotion, social skills, leadership, and other subtleties that are difficult to digitize. We also win when we reply on apps, tools, and automations that remove the monotony, repetition, and heavy lifting that keep us from being our best selves and doing what we do best. In the words of Daugherty and Wilson, “As sales and marketing have become more digital, they have lost some of the personal touch that attracted many to the field in the first place. AI is giving salespeople and marketers the time and insights to cut through the high volume and opacity of digital interactions and letting them be more human.”²

Review and rehumanize processes that are missing the personal touch. Include personal video and deploy the best web apps, tools, and automations you've got available to help. Disintermediation is driven by customer experience, not by technology itself. You're either adding value to the customer experience or you're just making its delivery more expensive. Don't just hope and expect that people recognize your value; promise it, deliver it, then prove you delivered it. Don't assume that consumers will always prefer to pay to have a human in the process; contribute in such a way that they want the human, even at additional cost.

SIGN 5: YOU BENEFIT FROM WORD OF MOUTH

Reaching out. Keeping in touch. Staying top of mind. Along with delivering an excellent customer experience, these are your precursors to positive word of mouth, repeat business, personal referrals, and online reviews. When you, your brand, or your company reminds people who you are, reiterates the value you provide, and continues to provide new value, your name is available when the conversation comes up at the office, in the gym, or around the restaurant table. Do you have an insurance person? A CRM? A financial planner or tax advisor? A preferred video app? Who do you know who can help me make some improvements to my home before putting it on the market? Do you know a person or an app that can help me generate more online leads?

We like to recommend people, products, services, brands, and companies. It feeds our urge to help other people and it taps into our sense of mastery. Is your name the one we provide? Without a referral, a consumer's search for help turns from friends, family, and coworkers to the internet. You may play that game well, but it can be expensive to buy or work your way to the top of the right search results. Ideally, of course, you're in a both/and situation—the great experience you deliver earns word of mouth and you also show up well online.

Keeping in touch and staying top of mind through a consistent stream of personal videos is a great way to earn referrals indirectly. You can also ask for them explicitly from time to time. Some professionals close every video with a hard or soft request for referral. Others use changes in seasons, market conditions, or special offers to present a reason to refer. The best make it easy to refer them by using very specific language about themselves or their contact information. Your clients will adopt your language when you use it with consistency, frequency, and repetition.

Even more than with referrals, the key to winning online reviews is to ask for them. Specifically, the key is asking the right people at the right time. After positive customer interactions, send a video. You can automate them, but they're even better when personal. Thank them. Remind them about the experience and a fun or challenging experience along the way. Position the review as a benefit not just to you, but to other people just like them who deserve the same level of care, service, and support. Provide a link to your preferred review site, along with basic instruction about what awaits after the click. Your ability to link is one of the reasons video email is an ideal medium for this ask. Not only are you more persuasive, you can also send them exactly where they need to go and know exactly who has and hasn't yet clicked that link.

But we're already generating great word of mouth without video, you offer. Great! This means you're effective at building trusting relationships, providing real value, and staying top of mind. You're in perfect position to do this at scale using video. If you're already winning these favors from your satisfied clients, it's either just happening as a natural outcome or you're explicitly asking by email or in person. If it's just happening, asking will make it happen a lot more often. If you're asking in person, you're missing scale. If you're asking by text email, you're overestimating your effectiveness. A face-to-face request is 34 times more effective than the same request in a typed-out email, according to a study published recently in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.³ That's a dramatic lift!

But we don't like asking favors of our customers and clients, you share. That's fine. We all have a fear of rejection; it's fundamental to the human experience. The vulnerability you'd display in asking for help is attractive, even if it doesn't feel that way. Humility is a good look, especially to people you've served well. If rejection isn't your hang-up and instead it's about the imposition of the ask, here's the resolve. Per a phenomenon dubbed the Ben Franklin Effect, being asked for favors creates liking toward the person making the request. We like doing favors; we form social bonds through this give and take. It triggers a sense of reciprocity, so don't be afraid. Don't hold back. And don't rely on plain text to get the job done.

SIGN 6: YOU WIN MORE OPPORTUNITIES FACE TO FACE

Among these six signs you should be mixing simple videos into your communication flow, this final one is like the first. It's a catch-all. Whether we directly sell or support products and services or we indirectly represent or advance ideas and opportunities, we're more effective face to face. Yes, you can build a real relationship through live video meetings and asynchronous video exchanges, but they're both inferior to being there in person. There's a reason we talk specifically about meeting “IRL” (in real life). It's different. And better.

BombBomb's Chief Marketing Officer and my coauthor, Steve, lives and works outside Philadelphia. Nearly our entire company lives in Colorado Springs and works in our downtown office. Steve schedules one-on-one meetings via Zoom. He joins group meetings the same way. Slack, video email, traditional emails, text messages, and social media help close the gap. But he always takes care to come to the office at least a half dozen times each year, because there's nothing better than face to face. There's a feel to it—a complete understanding, a fuller knowing. When he led a re-engineering of our inside sales process to bolster its consultative nature, he came to Colorado Springs for a week. The re-engineering took about six weeks, but it would have taken longer and been less effective if he'd not invested in that face time.

But we can't always be there in person. In Steve's case, distance keeps us apart; he simply can't visit the office every day. Do you have employees or customers who are down the street? Across town? Across the state? Throughout the region? Across the country? Around the world? No matter how far through that string of questions you made it with affirmative answers, distance is part of the equation that results in your failure to get together with people as often as you need or want to. Another part of that equation is time. We simply don't have the time to travel to and connect with everyone directly.

You know intuitively that you communicate more clearly, connect more effectively, and convert at a higher rate when you're face to face. But time and distance keep you apart from the people who matter most to your business. The next best thing is video. It overcomes distance in that you can send yourself anywhere in the world nearly instantly. And when that video is asynchronous—recorded and sent when it's convenient for you and opened up and watched when it's convenient for your recipient—it also overcomes time. You don't have to schedule an appointment at a specific time and you don't have to interrupt someone with the expectation of meeting right now. Few communication channels offer both of these benefits and get you face to face.

SIX SIGNS THAT YOU NEED PERSONAL VIDEO

Can personal video help you rehumanize your business, accelerate your sales, and improve your customer experience? Should you start replacing some of your typed-out text with webcam or smartphone videos? How many of these signs are true of you and your team?

At least two of the signs recapped in Figure 4.1 are true of everyone—the first and last. And most of the others are true of everyone working in a professional capacity. The fact of the matter is that we've relied too long on faceless digital communication to get important and valuable jobs done. We're over-reliant on a medium that doesn't build trust, doesn't differentiate us, and doesn't communicate as well as looking someone in the eye through the lens and talking to him or her in a personal, casual, and natural way.

So, what does this look like in practice? The next chapter gives you nine specific stories of individuals and teams who are rehumanizing their businesses with personal videos and 10 specific times to use video instead of text.