If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then what is a video worth? How well do you incorporate videos into your business? Here are a couple places to start:

Customer Testimonials

Salespeople are always trying to convince potential customers that their services and products are better than their competitors. The problem, of course, is that every salesperson is making the same claim that their company is the best. I have found it is more powerful to show a potential customer a video of one of their peers singing your company’s praises.

You should have a number of videos of various customers discussing either the products that you sell or the services that you provide. You can have videos attached to your home page or links embedded in your email.  I would also suggest starting a YouTube account and referring your customers to that site.

If your most influential customers are willing to be videoed, they will serve as a strong advocate for your business. The top contractors in your market all interact with each other, whether they sit on a board for ACCA or are involved with their local HVAC technical college, so a video referral can have a major impact given the fact that the HVAC community is so closely tied together. Success breeds success and if a contractor finds out that a fellow contractor is doing business with a successful wholesale supply house, he will not want his competitor to have an advantage over him, so he is likely to transfer his business.

Educational Videos

If you are providing valuable training for your customers, ensure that you videotape your classes so they replay the video whenever they want. They might decide, after attending a class, that it would be wise to share what they have learned with their staff and, thanks to your video, they can roll out the training to their employees. 

You may also have a number of customers who wanted to attend the training but were unable. Now thanks to your video, they can watch and learn whenever it is more convenient.

New Products

A great way to introduce your customers to a new product line is to send them a link to your video presentation of the product. It is important to show not just the corporate video supplied by the manufacturer, because if that is all you show, customers will not see any local person as an expert with this new product. In short, they won’t recognize the expert. You should also produce a video using your own personnel demonstrating the benefits of the new product. The combination of both local and national videos will provide a wonderful, one-two training punch.

Technical Training

It is very important to have technical training available for viewing. Imagine your customer calling your help desk describing a technical problem they are experiencing with a piece of equipment they purchased from you, and you being able to send them a link to a video that will show them how to troubleshoot and fix the problem. It sure beats reading them a solution from a manual. It is becoming quite common for field technicians to carry tablets, so it would be even more valuable for the technician to watch the video on his tablet while he is working on the unit.

Facility Video Tour

I would recommend a customer-friendly video tour of your operations, taking the customer behind the scenes, giving them a first hand look at everything that is involved in getting the customer their products. I would show the shipping and receiving departments, a tour of the warehouse, a view of the accounting office and finally a trip inside the office of the manager, who should thank everyone for viewing the video tour and thanking them for their business.  

Conclusion

We try to provide at least six high-quality training classes per year. We also seem to roll out two to three new product lines every year, which means you could easily have eight to nine new videos annually for your customers.

The more videos you produce, the more transparent your company will become, allowing your customer to feel a tighter bond with your business because they will have gained a deeper understanding of what you do and how you do it. You will have shown a behind-the-scenes look at your business, shown your customers (who referred you) and displayed training and new products.

If you are regularly creating YouTube videos of yourself and your staff teaching and educating contractors in your local HVAC market, you will be viewed as an expert.

The biggest mistake people make when it comes to videos is they simply don’t make them, thinking that they would need to hire a professional, or the production of a video would take too much time and editing. I purchased a digital high-resolution camera that also takes excellent video for under $250.00. I would also recommend purchasing a tripod so that the video you take is stable and clear. I have taken a number of videos with this inexpensive set up and it has worked fine and been well received.

 Your competitors more than likely aren’t showing video testimonials and training videos. If you want to separate yourself from the rest, you have to be willing to do what others won’t. Videos are slowly becoming more mainstream, so now is a great time for you to bring your customers visual proof of why you are the best. Your salespeople will now have video proof to back what was once just a hollow statement.