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Video: Our Best Tips to Create Irresistible Personalized Sales Videos

Picture of Chad Diller Author: Chad Diller

In the last two videos in this series we explored how using personalized video in your landscaping or lawn care sales process can actually help you sell more work in less time.

Today, I am going to walk you through these steps and also show you examples so you can understand what I mean. And the live action version of Ted, the old school salesman from our Green Ways comic book, is also going to make a few appearances. Stay tuned.

 

(Check out the video with description, resources, comments, etc. on YouTube)

 

Video Transcription

If you haven't watched the first two videos in this series, you're going to want to hit pause now and check out those this video series from the beginning

A Seriously Compelling Message

I want to start with the most important part of this and that is creating a compelling message.

Don't underestimate the power of this tip because if you get this part wrong, it won't matter what else you do right, it's going to waste your time and also your prospect's.

Keep it brief. You want to aim for about 30 to 45 seconds max, and remember the video's goal is to pique your landscaping or lawn care prospect's interests and have them take the next action.

Next, remember that if your technical knowledge is at a level 10...

Ted:  "Well, you see Angie, when you get to a 100 to 149 growing degree days and the pathogen has a chance to incubate on the host plant..."

Your lawn care landscaping prospect probably only wants information at a level two or three. So resist the urge to use a lot of technical jargon or industry slang. Keep it simple but not stupid.

Better Alternative:  "It has a little bit of a fungus on it. You can see these spots and also the twisting of the leaves. It's called anthracnose."

Next, if your normal demeanor is not that expressive and also kind of dull, you're going to want to take it up just one notch. You can get away with doing this a little bit more on video. Be a bit more expressive with your face and your tone of voice and use some body language only as it makes sense, but isn't distracting.

Also, very important. Go for about 90% empathy and about a 10% authority mix. Your message should be all about what's important to your prospect, not you. 

Now in my example, I was talking about a problem on a tree, so I'm going to want to talk about the tree, but I really want to make sure to some empathy and have that be obvious in my demeanor, my expressions, and my body language.

Something like this... "I know you guys love this tree because it has all those great pink blooms on it in the spring and it also gives you a little screening from your neighbors next door."

I know you're going to want to talk about your company and your services as it relates to solving this problem, but just don't overdo it because if you do, you're going to sound either desperate or very arrogant.

Empathy is greater than authority. You could know it all, but if you come off seeming like you know more than you care, you're gonna lose to another sales person that gets this right or really turn off your prospect.

A Great Call to Action

Toward the end of your personalized lawn care, landscaping, sales video, you're going to want to position a choice for your prospect. They're going to have to choose one thing or another. Just do this subtly and then also give them a simple call to action about whatever the next steps would be.

Something like..."Now there's some things that we can do for that to really help protect this tree and preserve it for some time, make it even look better, and I put a proposal on your front door, I wanted to send you this quick video just to explain to you what was going on. If you have questions, please reach out to me. Otherwise we can get this started for you very soon. Thanks a lot."

If you follow these tips and format each time, this is going to get easier and easier.

The Gear

Now in my last two videos I did give you some mobile apps that you may want to use to send your personalized landscaping or lawn care sales videos. The links are in the description, but now I'd like to share with you some other gear that I recommend and also give you some tips for actually shooting these videos.

First is your smartphone. If you don't know what this is, well 2002 called and it wants it stuff back.

Next I recommend getting a tripod. Don't just walk around and hold your phone. You may want to go with a more traditional tripod, but I'm a big fan of this kind. It has flexible arms that allow you to wrap it around things like patio furniture, tree branches, or Tiki torches, you name it. You can really wrap it around anything.

I also recommend getting a Bluetooth shutter button because this will allow you to remotely start and stop your videos without fumbling around and touching your phone screen. I posted a link in the description for the products that I actually use for this, but if this is something that you plan on using for a long period of time or you might be a little rough on it, you might want to do some research and find something that's a little bit more beefy that can take a little bit more abuse.

Depending how well your phone picks up audio, you might want to look into purchasing a Bluetooth microphone that you can clip to your shirt as well. My iPhone does pretty well with this, but keep this in mind because it's really annoying when someone sends you a video and there's a ton of background noise.

Shooting Tips

Now while you're actually doing the shooting, I have a lot of tips for you that are going to save you some time and actually make your videos look much, much better if the conditions are cooperative.

Position your camera with some familiar context in the background. As you can see here in this example, you'll see that I'm standing on my prospect's back patio. Imagine you're a prospect and you're getting this video. It's gonna make you a little curious. They'll probably say, wait a minute, that guy's on my back patio and that will encourage them to click on it and to watch.

If it makes sense, introduce a prop early into your video. Some messaging platforms allow you to have the video auto-playing in the preview. Again, this is just another way that you can help pique your prospect's curiosity. If you're holding a gnarly leaf or weed in your hand, be sire to look at the actual camera.

Your camera is located on the side of your phone, not in the center. So if you are not looking in the right place, it's going to make you look like you're either looking at somebody's chin or you're looking at their ear or somewhere off screen.

And it's always a good idea to watch your video before you tear down your tripod and all your gear. That way you won't have to go and drag it all out again and shoot your video over again.

The more often you do this, the better you're gonna get at it. You're going to develop a flow that allows you to do this in about 10 to 15 minutes. Now, while that might seem like a lot of time to spend on a sales call, think about all the time that you are wasting chasing down prospects that won't get back to you. It is time well spent.

Advanced Tips

So I have a couple more advanced tips for you.

At minimum, you want to learn how to edit your video to trim off the beginning and the end of your video, because a lot of times when you start your shutter button, you're going to have a second or two and then you're going to get into it and then same blank space at the end. But that's pretty easy to do. A lot of software on a phone will let you to do that and trim it pretty easily.

You might want to look into some other editing software like iMovie or something like that for an Android because you might want to splice together several videos to make one really compelling video. Now, you might not want to do this for say a $350 or $400 lawn care estimate, but consider this.

If you have a prospect that's considering a quarter of a million dollar landscape project in their backyard, you could record one video just like we've showed before of you talking on camera in their backyard, and then splice together a couple of other videos or small segments of videos of another project you've done like this at another customer's property and then come back in again at the end.

You're going to have to be able to splice those videos together and then take that one video and upload it into your personalized video platform. Now, this can seem like a lot of work, but if you think about the fact that this might be what it takes to be super compelling and get that prospect to sign a design agreement, maybe put $10,000 to $20,000 down on that job, then it could be time well spent.

Getting Started with Personalized Landscaping & Lawn Care Sales Videos

I hope this really gets your creative wheels turning and you're starting to think about some scenarios where you can use this to sell landscaping or lawn care work. Well, that's the next topic in this video series, so make sure you subscribe because I'm going to give you a bunch of practical ways that you can use these videos in all types of sales situations.

Here's to amazing your lawn care and landscaping sales prospects, and also helping you to sell way more work in less time and aggravation. Thanks a lot. Have a really great day.

Want regular, practical tips like these to take your lawn care or landscaping business to the next level? Then consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. Or if you'd rather read our in-depth articles on Landscape Leadership's website, you can also subscribe to our blog   

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Picture of Chad Diller

About Chad Diller

Chad is the President of Landscape Leadership. Prior to joining our team he served as a marketing manager for one of the Top 150 Companies in the Green Industry. In addition to his vast marketing experience, he also has held certifications such as an ISA Certified Arborist and Landscape Industry Certified Technician. He currently resides in beautiful Lancaster County, PA.

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