Accelerate sales and improve customer experience
Every day, most working professionals entrust their most important messages to a form of communication that doesn't build trust, provide differentiation, or communicate clearly enough. It's easy to point to the sheer volume of emails, text messages, voicemails, and even social messaging as the problem that reduces our reply rates and diminishes our effectiveness. But the faceless nature of that communication is also to blame.
Rehumanize Your Business explains how to dramatically improve relationships and results with your customers, prospects, employees, and recruits by adding personal videos to emails, text messages, and social messages. It explains the what, why, and how behind this new movement toward simple, authentic videos - and when to replace some of your plain, typed-out communication with webcam and smartphone recordings.
• Restore face-to-face communication for clarity and connection
• Add a personal, human touch to your emails and other messages
• Meet people who’ve sent thousands of videos
• Learn to implement your own video habit in an easy, time-saving way
• Boost your replies, appointments, conversion, referrals, and results dramatically
If you’re ready to influence, teach, sell, or serve in a more personal way, Rehumanize Your Business is your guide.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xiii
About the Authors xv
Introduction xvii
Part 1 Why It’s Time to Rehumanize Your Business
Chapter 1 The New Way to Communicate, Connect, and Convert 3
A Simple Video Makes a Big Difference 6
Video for Relationships, Not Just for Marketing 11
It’s Like We’ve Already Met 13
Video Makes You More Familiar and Approachable 14
The Numbers: Video Email versus Traditional Email 15
The Stats, Claims, and Hype to Ignore 20
The One Question to Ask Yourself 22
Chapter 2 Email: The Indispensable, Broken Tool 23
“You’ve Got Mail” 23
Alternatives to Email 25
The Indispensable Tool 27
The Problem of (Over)crafting Your Emails 28
So, Emojis? 30
Repairing Email 31
Chapter 3 Video: The Personal, Rehumanizing Tool 32
Relationships Are the Whole Point 32
Millennia of Human Brain Training 34
Our Faces Speak the Same Language 36
The Eyes Have It 38
Talking with Your Hands 39
The Warmth of Your Smile 41
Outsmarting Our Mental Shortcuts 42
Chapter 4 Six Signs This New Approach Is for You and Your Business 46
Sign 1: You Teach, Train, Sell, or Serve 47
Sign 2: You Drive Opportunities Toward Face-to-Face Meetings 48
Sign 3: You Want to Improve Customer Experience 49
Sign 4: You Risk Disintermediation by Web Apps, Tools, and Automations 51
Sign 5: You Benefit from Word of Mouth 52
Sign 6: You Win More Opportunities Face to Face 54
Six Signs That You Need Personal Video 55
Part 2 When to Rehumanize with Video
Chapter 5 Nine Stories of Sales Acceleration and Better Customer Experience 59
Author Dan Pink and Professor Dan Smith 61
The Most Important Sound in Any Language 62
Leadership, Video, and the Handwritten Note 65
Appreciation You Can Feel 66
More Sales Replies and Fewer Support Replies 68
Even More Success in Customer Success 70
The First Salesperson to Send 10,000 Videos 73
A Sales Team That’s Sent 10,000 Videos 74
Personal Touch, Faster Conversion, and More Referrals 76
It’s Not About the Video 77
Chapter 6 Ten Times to Use Video Instead of Plain, Typed-Out Text 78
Top 10 Times Video Says It Better 78
When Not to Send Video 95
Part 3 How to Record and Send Videos
Chapter 7 Sending Video in Emails, Text Messages, and Social Messages 99
Three Ways to Send Video in Email 99
Screen Recording 107
Sending Videos by Text Messages 108
Sending Videos in Social Messages 110
Delivery, Filters, and Firewalls 112
The Video Viewing Experience 114
Face to Face in Any Channel 115
Chapter 8 Why You’re Not Sending Video and How to Get Comfortable on Camera 116
Why We Stop “Doing Video” Before We Even Start 117
You Look (and Sound) Great 118
You Know What to Say 121
Your Process Results From Execution 126
Seven Tips for Better Videos 128
You’re Not Alone 130
Chapter 9 The Salesperson’s Guide to Video Cameras 132
Video Camera Tips 133
Video Setup Tips 140
The Right Tool for the Right Job 144
Part 4 Improving Video Results
Chapter 10 How to Get More Opens, Plays, and Replies 147
Top Reasons for Video Email Underperformance 147
How to Get More Email Opens 150
How to Get More Video Plays 153
How to Keep People Engaged in Your Videos 154
How to Increase Your Reply Rate 155
Tips for Prospecting with Video 158
Chapter 11 So, You Sent a Video . . . Now What? 163
How Tracking Helps You Follow Up More Effectively 164
What to Do If Your Video Email Didn’t Get Opened 164
What to Do If Your Video Didn’t Get Played 166
What to Do If You Didn’t Get a Reply 169
Multiple Views, Latent Demand, and Long-Term Follow-Up 171
Now What? That’s What! 174
Chapter 12 Where Rehumanization Is Now and Where It’s Headed 175
More Effective and More Satisfying Work 176
The Soft Edge 178
The State of the Movement 179
Measuring More Than Opens, Plays, and Replies 182
Your Next Steps 183
Rehumanize Your Communication and Your Business 185
Notes 186
Index 193
