Posts

How to Use Video as Business Training Materials

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Video Training|How to Use Video as Business Training MaterialsUsing videos as part of your training resources is a no brainer in this day and age.

Videos can be a great way to increase the retention of information by trainees; in some cases, up to 90% of the information compared to written text alone.

It’s not just enough to film a PowerPoint, though; video content needs to be interesting and enticing to keep your employees on task.

Stick to One Topic

Just as your marketing team will tell you that every piece of content needs one, and only one, call to action, so too does your training video.

It’s better for everyone if your training videos are shorter and designed to tackle one aspect of the role rather than an epic feature-length video that covers everything.

As a business, you’ll want to make your training videos available to your employees to come back to if they’re going to, they are much more likely to do that I the videos are in short and easy to digest chunks rather than hours long and a little on the dull side.

Decide How You’ll Approach It

How you’ll approach your training materials and training videos is very much dependent on your company culture, but it’s important to remember that people learn better if they are entertained rather than just lectured at.

Very few lecturers and trainers can be charismatic and interesting while delivering a talk, but even the most uninteresting of topics can be made better when you spend some time considering how you’d like to present the material.

Don’t Be Afraid to Be Bold

Speaking of how you’d like to produce the material, there’s no reason why you can’t be bold with your training videos!

Include some epic b-roll, a few cinematic effects, and maybe even some sound effects to get the party rolling.

Most training videos will be internal, so as much as they need to be on-brand, you can afford to be a little looser with your brand than you would be in public.

Script and Storyboard Your Training Videos

Once you’ve got everything planned out, you’ll need to script and storyboard your ideas.

It’s a good idea to get them down on paper and make them official before you start, as this will be the key to keeping everyone on-task and keep the momentum up when you’re putting together your training videos.

One of the biggest bonuses of scripting and storyboarding is that you can plan exactly what to say and ensure that no important information is left out!

Stay Away from PowerPoint!

If you’ve ever seen the video ‘How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint‘ Ted Talk by David JP Phillips, you’ll know exactly what is meant by staying away from PowerPoint.

In this pandemic-hit era, many of us are used to webinars over Zoom and, although they are useful in these challenging times, it doesn’t mean they are exciting or interesting.

Ditch the PowerPoints and focus on the story of your training videos!

How To Maximize Your Business Sales

/in /by

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Business Sales|How To Maximize Your Business SalesWhen you run a business, you need to make as many quality sales as you can. Without making sales, you won’t make any profit, and no profit over a sustained period of time means no business. The whole point of having a business, no matter what sector it might be in, is to sell, and whether that’s a product or a service, the process and the end result is the same.

This means, of course, that if you want to have a successful business and one that grows over time, you will need to do whatever you can to maximize your business sales and make as much money – and profit – as possible. Read on to find out how to do this and boost your business dramatically, even during lean times.

Optimize Your Site For Mobile

If you’re a savvy entrepreneur, your website is going to be an attractive, easy to use one full of excellent, informative information. Your website is, after all, your store window, and without it, or with one that is not of good enough quality, you’re going to miss out on sales that otherwise could and would have been made. So of course, it’s highly likely that your website is already up to scratch and people are visiting it.

But is it optimized for mobile? More people than ever are using their mobile devices to browse the internet and visit specific websites, and if your website is not optimized for this, you’re going to lose a lot of potential customers. This is true even if your site is perfect in every other way. This will make no difference if your visitors never see the desktop version because they only ever visit on their smartphones.

The first thing to do is to look at your site on your own phone. How does it look? Does everything line up as it should? Is it easy to navigate? Does it load quickly? Does it – perhaps most importantly of all – fit on the screen? If not, you’ll need to put some work into changing your site so that it is optimized for mobile; a good web designer will be able to help you here.

Collaborate With Influencers

To make sales, you need to put your products and services in places where your target audience is going to not only see them but be intrigued by them. This might mean collaborating with influencers on social media.

Influencers are those people who have a large fanbase or following and who will, usually for payment, post about various products and services. Their thousands, often millions, of followers will see those posts and read that information, and be tempted to use the same products themselves. Imagine the boost in sales if that was your product that had been put in front of millions of potential customers and shown in a positive light by someone they know and trust. Yes, this will eat into your marketing budget, but if your target market is online, then it could also be money well spent.

Give Your Staff Sales Training

Any kind of business training is always going to be useful. Not only will it teach your team new skills or enhance those they already have, but it will also show them that you care about them and keep them loyal to you.

When it comes down to specific sales training, this can substantially increase your sales and maximize the profits that come from them. Although some people are naturally gifted when it comes to sales, the truth is that, with the right training, anyone can become a good salesperson, and it is good salespeople that will help you to build your business. You need this even if you have a great product that people find without being sold to – if you’re already doing well imagine how much better things could be if you had dedicated salespeople on your staff too.

The right sales training means that you can ensure your staff is going to treat customers in the right way and promote your products or services in the right way too. It also means there will be a consistent sales technique used across the business.

Focus On Your Existing Customers

One of the best ways to improve your sales, even though it might sound rather counter-intuitive, is to focus on the customers you already have rather than expending a lot of time and effort attracting new ones. Those who have already bought from you will know what your products are like. They will know what it was like to deal with your business. You won’t, therefore, have to go to the trouble of telling them about this and persuading them that you are the right business to use for their needs.

Not only is it easier to focus on your existing customers, but if you do a good job with them, they are likely to let other people know what a great experience they had. They will, in essence, do your marketing for you when it comes to finding new customers. Just make sure you keep introducing high-quality and relevant new products to your range. If you can do this, your existing customers will be happy to come back time and again.

Learn About Your Competitors

Many business owners are comfortable with the idea of finding out more about their competition. They don’t like acknowledging that there is competition in the first place, let alone delving deeper into their practices (especially if they are particularly successful; it can be a humbling and even concerning experience).

Yet even if you don’t enjoy doing it, and even if it makes you feel worried, it must still be done. If you want to maximize your sales, understanding more about how your competitors are selling is going to be helpful. You’ll gain some new ideas about what to do and, if you’re outselling and outranking them, you’ll find out what to avoid too.

Promotions

When you offer some kind of promotion within your business, whether it’s money off or a free gift, or anything else, you are sure to attract more attention; customers like getting the best value they can. This will usually lead to more sales, and even if the overall profit is a little less because of the offers you are giving away to your customers, the volume of sales should make up for it.