Let your sales people video their best customers and find out what they think!

I had the pleasure of attending a presentation here in Atlanta called “Collaboration tools for remote training teams”, hosted by the Atlanta Chapter of the Technology-Based Learning group. The group is made up of people who are involved with corporate training and Robert Gadd was the presenter. Robert is President of OnPoint Digital which provides innovative e-learning solutions and rich-media content that is delivered to all types of mobile devices.

Robert wasn’t there to promote his company, but instead provided insight into how companies are leveraging new technology to deliver content to people who need it, via a number of different formats.  Since almost everyone has a device that will take pictures, or short videos from mobile devices like cell phones, Robert gave an example of how one of his customers is using that technology to better understand why their customers bought from them and what was important to them in the process.

His customer came up with the idea for their sales people to go out and record a short interview with their best customer. They wanted to see if there were any reoccurring issues or themes that came up that they could use to improve their sales process. They instructed their sales people on how to take the video and save it, so it could then be uploaded into their system for review.  Needless to say, the whole idea was a great success.  Once all of the videos were taken and uploaded to the home office, they went through each video to see if they could uncover any reoccurring themes in the sales process that they could capitalize on. They took what they discovered and used it to create a more powerful value proposition and sales strategy for their sales people.

This whole process brought all parties closer together. The sales people liked being part of an active interview, and the customers felt important and appreciated by being asked to give their honest feedback and feelings. Sales and Marketing were brought closer together because they were collaborating and exchanging information in a way they hadn’t done before.

When Robert mentioned this, I thought it was a great idea. What a great way to get feedback right from the customer’s own mouth as to how they felt about your company, products, and solution.  Keep in mind that the videos were limited to only a few minutes in length depending on the device that was taking the video, but that was even better.  Obviously the customer was provided with some idea of why they were conducting the interview, but it was up to the customer to respond as open and honest as they chose to be. Since the feedback they were going to provide was going to be used to try improving the products and services they were getting from the sales person, they felt free to be honest.

So, if you are the least bit interested in what your clients have to say about your company, products and solutions, then this might be worth giving a try. You might be surprised at what your customers are actually saying and thinking about you. More importantly, you might just find out why they bought from you and how you can use that information to more effectively target other prospects.

One other idea that came out of this was to give each of your sales people a task of recording the one thing that they do best. Again, the things that you might learn from this experience may well be worth sharing with the rest of the team as a coaching experience.

I would love to get your responses to this and hear whether any of you have used anything like this and what your experience has been.