“I consider myself to be in sales in the sense that my students are my customers,” says Dr. Daniel Smith, PhD, CRC, NCC, LMHC. An adjunct professor at the University of Buffalo and Canisius College, Dan says that a simple webcam video from his desk “allows me to stand head and shoulders above other teachers because I can reach out and create a relationship with my students.” Of course, he shared that with us by sending a personal video, something he's done more than 1,400 times.

Because he's an online professor, Dan teaches counseling and therapy to students across the United States and around the world. He rarely meets any of them in person, so he takes care to communicate face to face in his emails. To start a semester, he sends an introductory video to the entire class. He puts a face with the name and lets the students know with warmth and sincerity that he's available whenever they need him. What a great start to a working relationship.

When a student makes an inquiry at any point during the semester, he promises a reply within 24 hours. Instead of typing out long responses, he clicks “Record” and talks to the student. When he gives feedback on exams, papers, or other significant projects, he doesn't just provide a letter grade, some marks in red pen, and a few margin notes. Dan delivers feedback rich with nonverbal communication to inform and inspire in a way that rewards high performing students and lights a fire under those whose performance needs improvement.

As a counselor in high-conflict divorce cases, Dan sends videos to parents, children, and attorneys at times when emotions often run high. Progress starts by building trust and rapport with all the stakeholders in a case. It continues when he takes care to get the tone of the message just right or to empathize with one of the people involved. Not only does video help him do these things more effectively, it also helps him get the same message delivered to everyone at the same time without having to make a series of phone calls.

As an instructor and as a counselor, Dan sees himself as being in the “change” business. Behavior change happens only through human connection and a sense of relationship. Figuring out how to meaningfully connect online was paramount to him and he deemed traditional digital communication insufficient. “It's just as easy for me to send a video as it is to type out an email,” says Dan, adding that personal video allows him to “reach into their living room, their study, and create a relationship.”

This philosophy and practice are so effective for Dan that he was asked to make a video for tenured professors in the brick and mortar school about how to build relationships through video. What's the measure that earned him this attention? Student feedback at the end of each semester. His customers value his service.

AUTHOR DAN PINK AND PROFESSOR DAN SMITH

When you look back to the opening line of this chapter, Dan Smith sounds a lot like Dan Pink, bestselling author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us; A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future; and When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, among other titles. The similarity in the perspective of these Dans comes from Pink's To Sell Is Human, also a bestseller.

Like Smith, Pink sees himself as a salesperson. “I am a salesman … I spend a significant portion of my days trying to coax others to part with resources.”¹ But most of what he does isn't direct selling. His sales activities include:

• Getting an editor to drop a bad story idea
• Getting a business partner to team up
• Getting an organization to change strategy
• Getting a gate agent to assign him an aisle seat
• Getting strangers to read articles he wrote
• Getting friends to do him favors
• Getting his son to take a shower

Nearly everyone operating in professional capacity is challenged with persuading, influencing, and moving others, even when not engaged in direct selling. Access to information grew exponentially because of the internet, so it's no longer asymmetrical. Both sides in most business relationships have approximately equal access to information. This raises the importance of honesty, transparency, and directness.

You can no longer trade on what you know that the other party doesn't. Putting yourself in others' shoes and getting into others' heads is the key to selling yourself, your ideas, your products, and your services. When working with others, don't just make statements, ask questions; this forces people to engage. Don't lean on scripts; few situations are sufficiently stable, predictable, and consistent for them to be effective. Do lean on a higher sense of purpose; this motivates people in a transcendent way. To “combine the efficiency of electronic communication with the intimacy of seeing another person's face and hearing her voice,” as Pink writes, send a video.

In this chapter, you'll meet people in a variety of roles who achieve their desired outcomes more quickly and more often by rehumanizing their business processes with video. As you read their stories, think about how the use of video compares with the use of text. Think about similar situations in which you've found yourself and about how personal video might have accelerated your process or improved your outcome.

THE MOST IMPORTANT SOUND IN ANY LANGUAGE

For more than 20 years, Michael Thorne has been helping people buy and sell homes just southeast of Vancouver, British Columbia. Having built a name and reputation in his community, Michael often receives inquiries from prospective clients he's never met. One email from a family thinking about selling their home was signed by all four members—Ryan, Amy, Oliver, and Violet. With thousands of dollars in professional video equipment sitting off his left shoulder in the frame shown in Figure 5.1, Michael held out his iPhone to record and send a video reply.

Why not use the DSLR camera, fancy microphone, and professional lights? Speed and authenticity. Even a semi-formal production process inhibits both. He's sent thousands of simple, mobile videos from varied locations like the airport tarmac, a ferry deck, a car dealership, a conference stage (while presenting), neighborhood streets, and more. To create marketing videos, he uses a Canon 80D, Insta360, GoPro Fusion, DJI drone, and other cameras. “The last camera I'd be willing to give up,” says Michael, “is my iPhone.” He proudly rocked an iPhone 5S for four years before upgrading to the X.

In the video, Michael greeted each of the family members by name before introducing himself, thanking them for their interest, and proposing to meet at their home the next night at 7 p.m. As he prepared for the appointment, Michael noticed that the video was viewed more than a dozen times. Interesting! With more curiosity than trepidation about that, he walked up to their front door a couple of minutes before 7 o'clock and gave it a knock. He heard inside the sound of little feet running up to the front door.

When the front door opened, five-year-old Oliver greeted him: “Michael! Michael! Michael!” Turns out, Oliver was so enamored of being greeted by name, he asked his parents to watch the video over and over before going to bed the previous night. A dozen times. If you're a parent, you know that “Again! Again!” drill when your child's excited about something. The familiarity built through his video not only assured Michael the opportunity to list and sell the home, it also accelerated the formation of trust so well that the family was perfectly comfortable allowing their young child to open the door and welcome into their home a person they'd never met.

When you're recording a truly personal video, take care to say the name of each recipient right off the top to immediately capture full attention and to let each person know the message is specifically for her or him. Author of the classic How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie famously reminds us that a person's own name is the sweetest and most important sound that could be spoken. More recently, a study titled, “Brain Activation When Hearing One's Own and Others' Names” found “unique brain functioning activation specific to one's own name in relation to the names of others.”² The patterns of activation when we hear our own name are similar to those when we make personal judgments, so we're speaking even more to each person when we speak his or her name. Inserting the person's “[first_name]” into the subject line or email body does not have the same effect. While it may “personalize” the message, it doesn't make it truly personal.

As a fun, child-related addition, here's another “that would never have happened with a traditional email reply” story featuring Michael's partner in RE Video Studio, a real estate education project and community. Jesse Peters serves clients in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and uses video in all aspects of his business. One afternoon, Jesse was outside in his yard, where his daughter was blowing bubbles. He received an inquiry from a couple thinking about buying a home.

Comfortable on camera anywhere, Jesse started recording a quick video reply thanking the person for her interest and promising a phone call when he got inside. No matter that he was wearing a ballcap. No matter that the breeze cut wind noise across his phone's mic. And no matter that he was interrupted while recording. During his first and only take, his darling daughter toddled over to the camera, waved, and said, “Hi” before walking back out of the shot to blow more bubbles. Rather than stop and re-record the video because of this interruption, Jesse just sent it as-is, which he does for every one of his personal videos.

Not only did Jesse land the appointment, the couple brought a bubble bottle and wand for his daughter. He's enjoyed many other beautifully human experiences as a consequence of videos sent before and after every appointment. He wins against competitors because of it, too. You don't need a “perfect” video to build relationships and win opportunities.

LEADERSHIP, VIDEO, AND THE HANDWRITTEN NOTE

Based in Louisville, Kentucky and serving as regional President and CEO of four different companies, Brad DeVries leads more than 1,300 people spread across multiple offices in multiple cities. If you lead remote workers or large teams and find it important to lead with a personal touch, adopt his practice. Just four years into his use of personal videos, Brad's recorded and sent more than 5,000. Most are one-to-one, but he also uses video for all-company messages.

For happy birthdays, holiday greetings, thank-yous, milestone celebrations, company-wide announcements, and even more significant moments, such as deaths in the family, Brad looks people in the eye through video. Writing slows him down and limits his ability to express gratitude, excitement, or sympathy. Using video to build relationships is a “no brainer,” in his words. He adds that “If I could only keep one personal tool to be able to reach out to everybody,” it would be video messages.

Similar to Brad, Todd Bland serves more people in more stakeholder groups than he can regularly see in person. As Head of School at the Milton Academy, a K–12 college preparatory school just south of Boston, Todd takes a personal, authentic approach to leadership. Parents and students, faculty and staff, alumni and donors—they all deserve a high level of attention and care. Congratulations. Happy birthday. Thank you for your generous gift. These messages are better delivered in video than in typed or handwritten words. “Having to write a lot of thank-you notes and expressing appreciation for good work—I love doing that, but being able to do that in my own voice” allows Todd to add humor, personality, and authenticity.

Like email, the handwritten note can't be replaced. Given the huge swing toward digital and automated messages, its stock is up these days. We'll bypass the robotic, automated handwriting services designed to make people think you actually took the time to write it yourself (don't get me started) and observe two specific benefits of a truly handwritten note:

1. I made this just for you. I cared enough to spend the time.
2. My personality is on the page. Through my handwriting, I'm expressing thoughts and feelings in a way that's completely unique to me.

A one-to-one video message does both of these things—and arguably does them better. When you greet someone by name and speak specifically about her or his birthday, milestone, or hardship, it's obvious you did so just for that person. A reply like “thank you so much for taking the time to make that video for me” comes often, even though clicking “Record” and talking is almost always faster than typing or writing the same message. And when you send a video message, you're sending yourself. You're not one in a million—you're one of a kind. Whether it's big, bold, and boisterous or mellow, subdued, and measured, your unique personality makes your video one that only you can send.

Don't let the simplicity of this activity fool you into thinking it's not effective. You don't have to complicate your use of video for it to pay off significantly. Don't have fancy video equipment? Neither do Brad or Todd. Don't know when to use video? Send on the occasions they do. Afraid of being on camera? These are people who already know and like you. Maya Angelou famously observed that “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” It feels great to be noticed. Showing that you notice shows that you care. Caring connects us.

APPRECIATION YOU CAN FEEL

The people at Care and Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado believe no one should go hungry, so they distribute more than 20 million pounds of food every year through nearly 300 partner agencies to feed people in more than 30 counties. To serve the mission, they rely on employees, volunteers, corporate financial and food donors, individual donors, partner agencies, governments and government agencies, foundations and grants, the Feeding America organization and network, and people in other stakeholder groups.

As part of their strategic planning, leadership hosts “listening sessions” with these stakeholder groups to learn how to serve each of them more effectively and create more win-win situations. I attended one for corporate donors who give time or money to support the food bank's mission. “You all are so good with those videos,” said one of the attendees. “We love them and forward them around the company every time.” This is something Project Manager and long-time Chief Operating Officer Stacy Poore noticed in their video email analytics. “You can see that more than just the recipient is opening and viewing, and sometimes the recipient is viewing multiple times.”

So, what are they sending? Something you can send every day: sincere gratitude. Simple thank-you videos like the one in Figure 5.2. Together, Stacy, CEO Lynne Telford, Chief Alliance Officer Shannon Brice, Individual Giving Director Becky Treece, Community Engagement Director Eric Pizana, and other team members have sent nearly 2,000 personal videos in just a couple of years. “We use them in many ways—to connect with volunteers, thank donors, make fun announcements, and more. I'm really glad we have the tool and I think it differentiates us from other nonprofits, which is very important!” says Stacy, adding, “One of the things I've realized more with this tool than ever before, and I knew this already, is that people are not thanked nearly often enough.”

Whether in direct sales or in nonprofit work, “thank you” goes a long way. Expressing gratitude is like smiling, which provides physical and psychological benefits for both its wearer and its viewer. A deep body of research supports the idea that saying thank you alerts the recipient of potential for a high-quality social bond. In a study titled, “Warm Thanks: Gratitude Expression Facilitates Social Affiliation in New Relationships via Perceived Warm,” researchers found that expressions of appreciation increased the likelihood that a “novel peer” (someone you've never met) provides contact information for follow up and “prompted investment in the burgeoning social bond.”³ It doesn't just maintain and advance relationships, appreciation helps establish them.

Seeing “Thanks” or “Thank you” in typed-out text is like seeing your name. It's so ubiquitous it's nearly meaningless. Just as marketing automation inserts our names and other details into subject lines and email bodies, we drop in these words and phrases without much thought or effort. What's personalized with automation is not necessarily personal. And we can feel the difference.

When you look people in the eye, greet them by name, and use the full range of human expression to let him or her know how appreciative you are, it comes to life. That's why an organization like Care and Share, with an annual budget of nearly $50 million, reaches out in one-to-one messages to people engaged in their fight against hunger.

MORE SALES REPLIES AND FEWER SUPPORT REPLIES

A technology service company with more than 7,000 global employees recognized the power of personal video and engaged us to implement it. Mapping video opportunities to their desired outcomes, our Enterprise Solutions Director James Stites put together pilot studies with their inside sales and client success teams. The former sought an increase in replies from customers who were using their service at no cost to talk about paid upgrades. The latter sought a decrease in replies and an increase in customer satisfaction as they resolved inquiries and issues related to their services.

Both teams were equipped with our tool set to record and send personal videos and screen recordings from directly inside their Gmail inboxes. Neither team had video assigned as a required performance metric; it was a secondary system to their primary platform. Our team dashboard shows open and reply rates on every Gmail send, plus play rates when those sends included videos. Managers could see this by individual and across the team.

The 40 salespeople in the pilot sent more than 800 videos in a 55-day period, an average of 21 videos per person. Most included a whiteboard with the recipient's name written on it, a smile, a personal greeting, a message about how they can improve their recruiting and hiring with paid services, and a request to respond to learn more. The reply rate for first-touch sends to relatively cold opportunities was 55.6% higher with video than without (9.8% versus 6.3%). Among those who played the video, the reply rate jumped to 21.9%. And on follow-up sends, video emails generated a 12.8% higher reply rate than traditional emails. Open rates on video sends were higher in both cases, too.

We were also able to give them specific insights to continue improving those results. For example, sends on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays produced 80% of the replies and had the highest likelihood of receiving a reply within 24 hours. Sends before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m. had the highest open rates at 89.3% and 84.5%, respectively. In contrast, sends between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. were opened at a rate 10 percentage points lower (ranging from 69.5% to 73.1%). These findings are consistent with the always-on nature of email we explained in Chapter 2.

The customer success team engaged 30 members for their pilot. To resolve issues, answer questions, and improve customer experience, they sent 688 total videos during the study—an average of 22.9 videos per person. Video and non-video sends had open rates greater than 70% but replies to the video sends were 33% lower (6.0% versus 8.9%). While your sales team seeks engagement and response, your customer success team seeks resolution and satisfaction as quickly as possible. A decrease in customer replies is an increase in efficiency.

So, responding to customers by talking rather than typing improves efficiency. But what about satisfaction? Of the customers, 85.37% rated the video sends as “very helpful” or “extremely helpful.” And the verbatim feedback explains why. People who filled out the post-service survey commented on the quality of communication, the personal nature of video, and even a love of the practice. Among their responses about the simple webcam videos sent from Gmail:

• “At a time of automated attendants or robots, or even chats, it's good to see a real person even if it's just a recording. This is a great customer service idea!”
• “The video made the service feel more personal, and I thought it was nice that I could see who I was talking to on the phone-thank you (employee name)! It feels like the customer service really cared and looked into our situation.”
• “More personal than a voicemail or email.”
• “(Employee name) rocks! I love the video and was shocked that it was personalized!”
• “I LOVED this format of reply—so personalized! Thank you!”
• “Polite voicemail was left, but the emailed video was novel, engaging, and impressive! Well done, thanks!”

Better than a bot. Seeing and feeling. Connecting with and naming a specific person. Moving people from confused or frustrated to satisfied and pleased. All this is as simple as clicking “Record” and talking to a customer conversationally, as if you're sitting across the table from her or him. The common denominator in increasing replies to prospecting emails and increasing efficiency in service, support, and success is the same: rehumanizing the process with simple videos.

EVEN MORE SUCCESS IN CUSTOMER SUCCESS

An 81.9% decrease in time-to-resolution, 55.2% and 13.8% increases in one-touch resolution with evergreen videos and personal videos, respectively, and a 40.9% increase in satisfaction survey response rate (31% versus 22%) with nearly equal satisfaction rates (98% versus 97%). These are the early results of our own Customer Success team using BombBomb videos inside Zendesk, the leading cloud-based customer service software (see Figure 5.3). Just over 15,000 tickets into organizing the data more clearly through this integration, the benefits of video are clearer than ever.

Just as we have for sales, marketing, and other functions, our team's been using video for customer success for years. But now, with the Zendesk integration, it's more directly aligned with our care associates' day-to-day workflow and provides better insights into video's efficacy. As any support professional will tell you, you're often interacting with people when they're confused or frustrated at best and upset or angry at worst. As a result, “we spend a lot of time in support trying to get the right tone,” says Donovan Steinberg, Director of Customer Success. People often make up their minds in advance about what their experience is going to be, so a helpful and specific video message can make a huge impact by exceeding those expectations. It's easy to feel like you're just another number, another ticket, or another phone call, so a personal video breaks that pattern.

Which videos do they record once and use over and over? They've produced a couple dozen “evergreen” videos with product or feature walkthroughs and known-issue workarounds to address the most common questions. “These are vital for scaling,” says Paul Case, Customer Care Manager. Beyond direct service, they use evergreen videos to improve the service experience. “Thank you for your feature request” and “Thank you for your time on the phone today” are examples of videos ideal for prerecording and adding to a workflow automation. Any interaction that happens often and with little variation is a prime candidate.

Which videos do they make truly personal? For any problem or question with multiple potential fixes, a video recorded inside the customer's account with the screen recorder is far superior to a long, drawn-out email with links to multiple support articles. The former shows you're listening, that you care, and that you're available to diagnose further. The latter feels like work for a frustrated or confused customer. And they have that video to play over and over as needed. The video serves as documentation.

That video replay ability isn't just a win for customers, though. When a ticket gets reopened by another team member, watching the video is a great time-saver compared to reading a long back-and-forth email exchange. Remember the 81.9% decrease in resolution time? It's 11 minutes for video and 61 minutes for typed-out text. Getting the tone right on the first send takes time. And because it's typed-out text, it's not as rich and helpful a piece of communication, so you wind up in an email exchange that takes even more time. One of the reasons video's so quick is due to its ability to produce one touch resolution.

Another great use of a truly personal video is follow-up after a phone call to thank a customer, reiterate the key points, and provide encouragement going forward. Especially because we're helping people build and establish the new habit of getting face to face in simple videos, that follow-up can make a big difference for someone who's short on the clarity or confidence needed to go forward. That type of attention and care doesn't just boost experience and build success, it also breeds loyalty.

Do customers like video? Though their overall satisfaction is only one percentage point higher, people who receive support videos give feedback far more often. Based on what we just shared about evergreen videos and personal videos, can you tell which customers received which style of video from their comments? Also watch for the enthusiastic use of exclamation points, all caps, and first names.

• “Thank you so much! Best part was you just sent me the video! That's exactly what I needed! Thanks again!”
• “Zach is awesome! He walked me through how to correct the issue I was having via video, which was so helpful. He is VERY knowledgeable!”
• “Excellent. Answered all my questions and immediately prepared and sent me a how-to video.”
• “Excellent—especially when he sent a video to remind me how to use the video to reach customers better.”
• “Above and beyond. Hands down, THE BEST customer service of any company. Never a long hold, the Customer Service rep is thorough, and I LOVE that you use your own product and put a face with the name by emailing a video after the call. Rea was super encouraging and took it a step further by challenging me to reply to her email with a video and not to watch it after and re-record! And I did it! Lol! Thank you again for your GREAT support!”

Video's benefits are conferred to your team members and to your customers. When you serve customers with empathy and respect instead of treating them like numbers, tickets, and problems, it's rehumanizing for everyone. And video does this better than text. “That's made the difference,” observes Paul. “That's why the responses are higher.”

THE FIRST SALESPERSON TO SEND 10,000 VIDEOS

“Video helps you establish a relationship in a way you just can't reach with a phone call or text-based email,” according to Danny Doerksen, who is likely the first person to record and send 10,000 videos for the purpose of building relationships and increasing revenue. He hit that number in January 2018, about three and a half years into his video journey. As this chapter's being written, Danny's well over 13,000 videos and counting, making him a not-so-average software salesperson. He started as an inside sales representative following up with, nurturing, and converting marketing-generated opportunities. Today, Danny's an enterprise account executive reaching out to C-level and VP-level executives representing large sales teams and entire companies.

Like so many of us, Danny was initially uncomfortable on camera. Out on the sales floor, he was surrounded by a couple dozen people, so he felt self-conscious. But, “You get over it as you send more and more” videos. You can waste two hours sending a 20-second video by rerecording and trying to be perfect. Instead, he recommends that you stop scrutinizing yourself and your videos. “Know that every imperfection adds to the human quality of the message,” explains Danny.

Here are a handful of lessons learned on his journey to 10,000 videos and beyond:

• A video play “shows true engagement.” Most systems will show you an email open, but you can't tell if a person actually read your message. When someone clicks play, you know they've met you and you can see how long they watched.
• Pair videos with phone calls. “By sending a video email first with my phone number below, I introduce myself and let you know I'm going to give you a call ‘at the number below,'” explains Danny, who calls from that now-familiar number shortly after his video gets played.
• If the video doesn't get played, “You can't give up.” He continues with phone calls, text-based emails, and video emails to produce meaningful engagement. “Video just allows you to diversify your outbounding.”
• Always write the person's name or an important, personal detail on a whiteboard or note and hold it up to start the video. This lets each person know that video is specifically for him or her, not a generic, mass send. The result is higher play rates and reply rates.
• Don't type much additional information into the email body; only type in information that drives the video play or reinforces your call to action. “The less text I give them around that video, the more reason they have to push play on it.” Text he includes in every send: multiple ways to contact him in his email signature.
• “Don't overthink it any more than you overthink a voicemail.” And once you've established some rapport, feel free to have a little fun with it. “I love reaching that point where I can send a goofy video to someone. When you can laugh together with someone, that's when you level up the relationship. As a salesperson, that's exactly where you want to be.”

When Danny's in the office, he sends about 20 videos per day. Like you, he talks faster than he types, so it saves him time while also building rapport – a win-win. He tries to keep each video under 45 seconds. The reason he keeps going? “There's no single aha moment. You see the relationship you can build so much more quickly with a video. That's what keeps me using it.”

A SALES TEAM THAT'S SENT 10,000 VIDEOS

Screen recordings, customer education, rate updates, next steps, lead responses, client check-ins, congratulations, birthdays—Clifton Saunders and his team send all kinds of video emails and video text messages. Together, the four team members drove Amcap Home Loans in Laporte, Texas, past the 10,000-video milestone in just two and a half years. Video's been “a huge game changer” and a time saver for them.

“When it comes to converting leads, introductions to new real estate agents, follow-ups to people I just met, past clients, everyone—video's made all the difference,” according to Clifton. In addition to sending simple videos by email, he also takes video links and sends them by text message in this B2C sales process. In both cases, “it goes over very well. I get lots of responses. And they're surprised almost every time. They love it.”

Were you the best writer in school, a master of spelling and grammar? Neither was my coauthor Steve. But Steve, like Clifton, shines when he's face to face. Do you write or type quickly? Clifton doesn't, so he used to use Dragon's “talk to text” software to dictate his emails. Now, he just clicks “Record,” talks into the camera, then sends the video. He benefits from the time and energy saved by simply speaking as before. But video gives him the added benefit of “showing people I'm a real person” and overcomes the problem that “tone doesn't come through in text messages or emails.”

How did he get his team on board with video? He's still working on it but reinforces two main behaviors: come prepared to be on camera and don't think about it too much. While seemingly at odds, these ideas are complementary. Being prepared is not about having a perfect appearance. How you look on camera is how you look in person. If someone doesn't want to work with Clifton or one of his team members due to physical appearance, he feels the same way about that person. Instead, preparation is about mindset. It's about getting out of your own head and out of your own way. “We like to have fun in our videos,” says Clifton. “Just be yourself. You'll see instant results as soon as that happens.”

Another team with high usage and great results is led by Justen Martin, who gets his team on board with video by recruiting, hiring, and onboarding into a “video-first culture.” Five of his iHomes Colorado team members have each sent more than 1,000 videos. A dozen have sent 500 or more, and 50 of them have each sent at least 100 videos. And they've got fewer than 100 active accounts at the time of this tally! They set up a private Facebook group in which team members can practice video recording and get feedback from their peers. Their people and processes are video-oriented because the single most important aspect of their business is how they make clients feel. Justen credits their collective, cultural commitment to video with “helping us with our response rates and conversion rates and, more importantly, our service and review rates.”

PERSONAL TOUCH, FASTER CONVERSION, AND MORE REFERRALS

“In our industry, as in any sales industry, you want to have as many touches as you can with your potential clients. Before they come in for a visit, after they come in for a visit, and after they become a client,” says David Blackston, a financial planner in The Villages, Florida who's sent nearly 1,000 videos in about two years. His team members have sent about 1,000 more. “We never send a video that's specific to anything related to products,” explains David. “We use it as a relationship-builder, not as a selling tool.” If you're in a business that works to increase appointments set and appointments held, David's processes are for you.

His office sends mass video emails to their entire database regularly, including invitations to client appreciation events like shopping trips and golf outings. Even more valuable, though, are their weekly market update videos. Again, it's never product-focused; they talk about the economy and the markets in general. When the stock market took a negative turn one week, David says that market update video reduced inbound calls dramatically, saving him and his advisors valuable time. Prior to starting that process, they would have taken 50 to 100 inbound calls from nervous, anxious, or curious clients. Now, their clients know what's going on and feel the team's warmth and competence.

More valuable, though, is their process for one-to-one video for prospective clients. As soon as the first visit gets scheduled, he sends a video with a welcome message to convey excitement about having them in and to remind them what to bring to the visit. When they arrive, “it's 100% different” from the way meetings started before he used video. It takes away the anonymity of the financial planner and makes the client feel special. Before the client ever gets home from the initial visit, another personal video from David waits in his or her inbox. He thanks the person for coming in, expresses enjoyment of their time together, previews what they'll do in the next visit, and makes himself available for any questions in the meantime.

One Thursday afternoon, a husband and wife came in for an initial visit with David. As soon as the visit concluded, he recorded and sent a thank-you video. That Friday evening, David's phone lit up with real-time alerts over and over as his video was played 10 times within a half hour. When the couple returned for their second visit, David asked about it. “I loved the video,” the husband said. “We were having a dinner party at our house and I was showing all the people how my new advisor communicates.” Mind you, David wasn't their “new advisor” on paper, but he was in the hearts and minds of this couple. And they were already referring him to family and friends!

David's team used to get 250 to 275 referrals each year, but since they started sending personal videos and mass video emails, it's been “steadily climbing.” And he finds it so easy to do: Recording videos “is like walking down the street.” David's tips for you:

• Just get started and do it.
• Smile and wave to start your videos.
• Place the camera above eye level so it's looking down at you rather than up your nose.
• Make sure your background is clean but personal (think: photos of your family).
• Put the majority of your information in the video rather than in the email body.

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE VIDEO

Through these stories, examples, and lessons, you may have started to see where video can fit into your processes. In every case, it's not about the video. Instead, it's about people and relationships. Video is simply a container for your message, just as the words written then printed onto this page are one of the containers we use to convey this philosophy of rehumanizing your business with video. Even if you're not directly selling products or services, you're moving hearts and minds. You're changing people. And video gives you a more personal and powerful way to do it. If you enjoyed some of the tips these practitioners provided, you'll be pleased to know that there are many more in the pages ahead.