Selling is Teaching
Some of the best sales people in the building product world are great teachers. They have a way of understanding the needs of their customers and can communicate solutions to real problems in an eloquent way. The act of taking someone from ground-zero and walking them step-by-step through a solution from beginning to end is an act of teaching.
The customer experience used to be done largely in person, when it comes to building product sales. A representative would put on a suit and tie, carry a large heaping pile of samples in to an architect’s office and make a great and informative presentation.
Arm your Sales Staff
I recently got a tour of a brick plant and one of the shocking things to me was there seemed to be more people, effort and expense going into creating the product samples than there was actually making the actual end product. The time and monetary investments are being made on the front-end of the sales process making the product samples look just right. That sample room is an arsenal of ammunition for the sales staff to use. Here is a new weapon for your sales staff – the 3d animation.
Bring a Machine Gun to a Knife Fight
Educate your sales team with 3d animations which demonstrate the what, how and why of your product in high definition detail. It is a very powerful sales training tool that can make sure that all the most important technical points and installation nuances are being addressed correctly.
Even the most boring and invisible aspects of a product can be illuminated and highlighted with a great 3d animation. Once the sales team is armed with this information, they can hit the ground running.
Take Customer Experience to the Next Level
The days of the boring powerpoint presentation are coming to an end. Your customers are completely desensitized to moving bullet lists and boring slides. Instead, if you show them full resolution, full motion 3d animated product tours and installation demonstrations, you will get their attention, you will educate them more thoroughly and they will be far more likely to remember the information you present to them.
Improve the customer experience with video demonstrations that do not just list features and benefits, they demonstrate them in real time.
Why is YouTube the Second Most Popular Search Engine?
YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world because people love video. Video is engaging and is particularly effective when you are trying to demonstrate a highly technical concept. We will be at a point where customers are going to expect a much higher level of sophistication from product manufacturers and I think that time is drawing near.
Support the end-user and decrease problems in the field
A multimedia demonstration can help contractors and do-it-yourselfers understand the processes and procedures that need to be followed in order to correctly use your products. A step-by-step animation, often the same animation that you used to sell the product, can also serve to reduce warranty claims, callbacks, complaints and litigation.
An end-to-end solution
I have a map on my wall from Mark Mitchell (seethewhizard.com) it is a map of all the different paths a building product can take through the building product channel. At every touchpoint from architect, to general contractor, distributor – every point at which a building material moves from manufacture to installation can be improved and even transformed by a simple 2 minute video like the one shown above.
It’s There When you Cannot Be
Here is a quote from a customer who had a product animation done recently “I’m a product manager and I cover the entire US. Obviously I cannot accompany each salesman during their sales presentation but having a 2-1/2 minute video point out all the highlights of the system is huge help. Our customer’s time is very valuable and many times you only have a few minutes to pitch a product. The video gets directly to the point, pecks their interest and opens up the dialogue.”
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