Video can make a prospect’s concerns go away
October 8, 2012
Video is a very useful medium that most companies underuse. But when they are used…they’re typically used to sell or teach. All of that is well and good.
But I think you might be missing the boat on an opportunity to make your prospects concerns go away.
I’m in Arizona for 10 days — a mix of working with clients and speaking at a conference. I didn’t want to pack enough clothes to cover all 10 days so I decided to pack for 5 or 6 and hit a laundromat on my day off, in between meetings. I know…the glamours of business travel!
So now it’s Saturday and for me, it’s “find a laundromat” day. I’m in a city I don’t know and I’m heading to a laundromat, which is usually not a high end consumer experience. So I have some concerns.
- Will it be clean?
- What hours is it open – can I go during daylight?
- What’s the neighborhood like?
- Is it crazy expensive?
- How many machines do they have? Will I have to wait?
So I turn to the digital yellow pages. Now I am really flying blind. But, on one of the listings — the laundromat had a video. They showed me how clean it was. They showed me the neighborhood. They demonstrated that there’s always a staff person on-site. They even showed me how much the detergent etc. would cost. Their video made my concerns go away.
It wasn’t the closest laundromat. But, because of the video I was happy to pay for a longer cab ride to go to Ginny’s Washhouse. Why? They’d nullified my concerns.
All the laundromats had text in their ads that said they were clean and safe. But only Ginny’s proved it to me by showing me that it was true.
How is this relevant for you? Your potential customers have worries about you too. They might worry that you’re too far away or hard to find. They might be concerned that you’re too expensive or you don’t understand their industry. But deep down inside, every prospect has a worry or two about you.
Some of them will show up anyway. Or pick up the phone and ask about their concern. But many will simply fade away, not ready to proceed with that nagging worry in the back of their head.
The old marketing model would have been to put the spotlight on all that you do right and ignore those worries, hoping they’d go away. Today, we know better.
Attack those buyer concerns and worries. Pull them out into the light and deal with them. And a really powerful way to do that is with video. Our brains may believe bullet points and text but our hearts believe what we see. Video packs a multimedia punch that can use emotions, strong visuals and even music to create a tone of reassurance and confidence.
Keep in mind that sometimes their fears aren’t as easy to visually deal with as whether or not the floors are clean. You may need to use a testimonial approach where a current client looks into the camera and says, “I thought AB&C was going to be way out of my budget range so I was pleasantly surprised when I found out it only cost $X.”
Get creative — but get to their worries and answer them right up front.
