Surviving Outside Sales

Redefining Sales Strategies through Personalized Videos w/ Matthew Ray Scott | SOS Ep. 338

Mike O'Kelly Season 1 Episode 338

Get ready to embark on a journey from the battlefield to the biotech industry with our esteemed guest Matthew Ray Scott. 

With a resume boasting of roles as an ex-Army officer, medical sales consultant, distributor, agency owner and a driving force in the biotech industry, Matthew is in a unique position to share insights on standing out in a crowded market. Co-developer of Virtual Sales Rx, his mission is to help medical tech companies differentiate themselves from the competition by leveraging the power of personalized video content. 

In our conversation, we delve into the art of video sales, exploring the role of authenticity in building personal connections and trust. Matthew candidly shares his perspective on the often-overlooked buyer's journey, highlighting why it should be the cornerstone of creating personalized videos for prospecting and sales. We also dissect the neuroscience behind personalized video, discussing how this powerful tool can help build trust and connection with buyers.

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Speaker 1:

All right, we are live. Business of sales. Live, we are ready to go. I'm gonna wait for Matthew to come in. We'll allow people to kind of shuffle in right now at noon Matthew is going to hop on, so we'll wait for just a few moments In the comments. If you want to let us know where you are tuning in from, that would be greatly appreciated. So let us know what city you can, let us know what industry, et cetera. I do apologize. I was scrambling to send the login information to Matthew. I felt a lot going on this week and realized we got our systems crossed, so Matthew should be joining shortly.

Speaker 1:

So, if you are new and you are just watching this for the first time, my name is Mike O'Kelly and I am the founder of Sales Builder Academy. I was in medical sales and total sales, pharmaceutical sales, for about 15 years and I've been in sales and management for about 20 years, and one of the things that I've realized and one of the things that I've learned over that time is there is a difference between selling and running a business, and so there's two sides of basically the same coin, and the first one is what I call the sales as a business, and that's the closing aspect. The other side is business of sales, and that's what this webinar series is about. The business of sales, it's everything in between allowing you to get to the close. So think of it in the terms of a football field. If you take a kickoff at the 25, closing is like being in the red zone and scoring a touchdown. How do you get there? You got to go from the 25 yard line to the red zone in order to score a touchdown. Now, statistically speaking, that's where most of the touchdowns happen, which is inside the 20 yard line. Well, that sales as a business. That's the closing aspect. That's handling objections, that's getting them to sign on the line that is dotted. But there's another big piece to that and that is the business of sales, and that's one of the reasons why I focus on that. I talk a lot about that, because I feel like there is a need and there is a lack of that type of information. So that is the business of sales, and so this webinar series.

Speaker 1:

If you are new, thank you so much for showing up. If you are new, this happens every Thursday. There's gonna be different topics, and the topic today is virtual selling. So I'm a new. Oh, I'm getting hold on one second. All right, I apologize. Matthew says he can see me, but he is not on. Let me send this over. I apologize. I'm still in the growing phases. You have to understand that in business sometimes you have to make some mistakes, you have to fail a little bit. So give me one second. Yes, if you're watching, keep letting me know where you are calling, where you are watching. I gotta shoot over another login for Matthew. Give me one second. I do apologize.

Speaker 1:

This is the non-sexy part of the industry or these events. So, all right, apologies, matthew, I got 8,000 tabs open. Here we go, all right, thank you. Everybody's pouring in different areas Austin, texas, st Louis, nashville, raleigh, north Carolina, seattle, washington. Thank you all. I really also appreciate the fact that this is East Coast time, where people are waking up. They're starting their day in this area Richmond, virginia. Hey, kevin, what's up, man? I love to see all of this. Thank you so much as a reminder if this is your first time. This happens every single Thursday. All right, got, matthew, this happens every single Thursday at noon, so tune in live on LinkedIn. You can kind of catch this in your lunch break if you're on the East Coast or just hop in when you can. If you can only catch five minutes, great, but hop on, because what my goal is to bring on some really smart people to talk about various aspects of selling that aren't talked about a lot, so I'm gonna bring on Matthew Ray Scott. All right, hey, hey.

Speaker 1:

Mike how are you? I'm good. My apologies, matthew Ray Scott. Why don't you? I've already kind of talked to the audience. Why don't you kind of talk to the audience who you are and why we're having this conversation right now?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I'm Matthew Ray Scott. My background is former Army officer, turned medical sales consultant, turned part of a biotech company that sold our company to Medtronic distributor and agency owner. And the way that I like to characterize that from a professional standpoint is many of the people that are listening to us bike. They come from a medical sales background, and so many of those folks who are watching us right now they've gone through the paces of figuring out what their career looks like, and I think that my journey may be representative of fewer people, or it may be representative of a lot of people who you're in an industry and you're saying is this all there is? Is there more? And where I'm at now in this season of life is helping med tech companies tell stories that differentiate them from the sea of sameness.

Speaker 2:

Feed, the agency, has been around for 13 years working with some of the leading surgeons in the world and helping to develop their brand. And then I'm a co-developer of Virtual Sales Rx with a colleague of mine, eric Anderson. We were old buddies at Smith and FU. There's another subject line for us, mike, about always stay in touch with good friends, because you never know when you're gonna be building businesses together and today at Virtual Sales Rx, we help professional salespeople and lifestyle design entrepreneurs use personalized video To differentiate, build trust and grow sales, and so that's how I would describe the professional side of where I've been and where I'm going.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, not to mention the kick-ass videos that you produce. And if you are not following Matthew Ray Scott right now, please follow him on LinkedIn. And if you were following Matthew Ray Scott and you came to this, follow me as well. I'd love to get to know every single person because I want you to understand. There's a couple things that we myself and Matthew Ray Scott or Matthew we are here for the future of the medical sales world and the medical the sales world in general, and we're trying to help people navigate the shifting landscape.

Speaker 1:

And everybody went through. Covid in 2020 was. We don't have to talk about what changed, but I didn't even know what video conferencing was. I did not own an iPhone, so I wasn't even really familiar with FaceTime. And then 2020 hit and all of a sudden, everything went virtual and it was almost like this new world that I entered, this amazing new world that I entered. And now virtual selling is one of those things where, if you're not doing it, if you're not putting yourself on video, if you're not building that catalog of your thoughts, processes, systems, who you are as a sales professional, you're gonna get left behind. Is that a fair statement?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a fair statement, Mike. You see, 2020 for me was my greatest year ever, when it was everybody else's worst nightmare, and I think the truth is that it was in 2020 that I began taking a step back. You see, most of us who are in sales were focused on learning how to sell. The truth of the matter is and this is where the money's at you and I should be focused on how people want to buy from us. You see, the Semantics twist, mike, between that. I'm not denying that learning the art and science of selling's important it is, but therein lies the crux of the problem. If we don't understand psychologically how people wanna purchase from us, then our tendency to pivot 15 degrees in a way that aligns.

Speaker 2:

So 2019, 2020, I see the handwriting on the wall. And in my space, the medical technology space, and in the small business ownership space, the rules of engagement were clear. Everybody's distracted, disinterested, disengaged. What now? And you see, there are people right now who are dropping brochures off to Gloria the Gatekeeper and Mike, she's gonna grab those brochures and when they leave, she's gonna throw them in the trash can. There are people, as we speak, stalking doctors at the ScrubSync. There are people, as we speak, stuck in a commute every single day because they don't know better. And so what I began to do in 2019 and 2020 was begin an earnest study on how people make purchasing decisions, how I could take that data and use personalized videos to differentiate myself, build trust and, ultimately, grow sales.

Speaker 2:

Now, whenever you hear somebody on a podcast, use the words transform. Your defensive antenna should be sky high. Your spidey sent your speed truck sky high, but it's transformed our business. I think not because I'm great, not because I'm a good communicator, but seemingly we're the only people in town who is using personalized video to connect with some of the busiest people in the world in our case, vp of marketing and sales and some of the top surgeons in the world. I'm agnostic about personalized video. If you're watching me right now, I'll drop personalized video like a hot potato when it stops working, but it's been four years now. It has helped me average over 24,000 personalized videos, average a 75% attention and watch rate. It has helped me to 3X increase consultations and it's helped me to double my business year over year, and I'm not selling anything new.

Speaker 2:

So, mike, 2020 was my best year, in part because when I launched Feed, I lost my way in the recession of 2008. So you see the parallel 2008 and 2020 were a lot alike and in 2008, I learned my lesson. I was hunkered down in a foxhole, trying to preserve cash, trying to play it safe, and it did not help me. 2020 rolls around and I go like an old platoon sergeant the first time that I was ever in combat and the military goes LT, run towards the sound of the gunfire. It's the safest place that you'll ever be. And he was right, sergeant First Class Owens, back in the day when I'm a young lieutenant. And he was right in 2020. So hopefully that answers the question, mike.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and you know, just so, if you're watching right now, we have 30, I think 39 people were at its peak. 39 people are watching this live as we speak. I want to ask everybody in the audience how many times have you gotten 39 people together to listen to you talk? This is the, this is the sales philosophy of one to many, and this is what video and virtual selling can do. Yes, you can send this video, or you can make a video and you can send it to one person. But, matthew, I kind of believe the best strategy is to create various types of videos that you can send out in mass and they can still be personalized. It doesn't have the video doesn't have to start to say like, hey, dr, so and so, or hey, mr or Mrs, prospect, is that fair? Or do you have kind of one video strategy or multiple? Walk through that process.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, let's first diagnose the brain on video. The human brain on video goes. This is different. I feel like I know Mike. The second video wait a minute. I feel like I trust Mike, the third video man I know like and trust Mike. You see, personalized video decreases the time that it takes for us to build trust. I argue Personalized video is better than face to face, because when you and I are on video, or right now, you and I are face to face at scale it's what you just said, mike, it's the ability for me to send out one video to 100 prospects. And, granted, I've got to give my best stuff away. You see, personalized video doesn't work if you just show up and say the same lame stuff that you said before. Yeah, personalized video works if you take the principles that we teach in virtual sales or X and you understand the six P's of their decision making. You understand how the human brain works and how to punch people in the amygdala. And here's where everything's at and here is where salespeople are struggling.

Speaker 2:

Many of us on this call grew up in the environment of the whole. Key is to get an appointment with a busy prospect. At virtual sales or X, we never verbally ask for an appointment. How contrarian is that. You'll never catch us verbally asking for an appointment, because what we learned to do with virtual video because we are virtual at scale is nobody wants to make an appointment with you. Now, people love to buy from you, but no one wants to schedule an appointment with you. So what we did is we stopped groveling for an appointment and we started giving away our best stuff for free on one minute, 90 second, two minute videos, until the prospect said let's chat.

Speaker 2:

We've been doing it for four years and again, the reason why that's impactful for this audience, mike, is let's take the emphasis for now off of video and let's put the emphasis on the psychology of purchasing. I would ask people in the audience right now in the chat section how many of you have received a personalized video from a B2B or a B2C situation? Just to put this into context, mike, for four years my agency has been working with some of the top spine, neuro orthopedic, foot and ankle cardiology surgeons in the world, and God is my witness. I've asked everyone who's come through my pipeline have you ever received a personalized video from a medical sales rep? To this day, not one doctor.

Speaker 2:

So what we're doing is we're a red X in a C of white O's, and that's one of the reasons why video is so effective. Number one, you'll be the first. Number two, you will be different. And number three, you will punch people in the amygdala, because this is what busy people want to receive in a distracted, disengaged inbox is they want to get to know. I can trust you and I submit to most people on this call most of us are not skilled enough in the sea of sameness to deliver a Tolstoy war and peace version of a text email and we're fooling ourselves if we think that busy people are going to read manuscripts. They're not.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's interesting. I always make the reference to two things that I think line up with sales perfectly sports and dating. And so everybody at some point you know I'm married, a lot of people might be married who are watching, or engaged or dating there was something about that person. That was what Matthew different. Something stood out amongst the rest and, yes, it could have been attractiveness, but let's be honest, we're we're old enough to know that that fades and that's not what drives decisions long term. It really isn't. There's something else. It's something different. That person stood out. That's what my wife told me and that's what I told my wife. You were different than every everyone else I had dated. It's no different with the buyer's journey. I did not.

Speaker 1:

I think my education as far as the buyer's journey has you know, a hundred X since I walked away from a W2 position working for other people in 2020. And I started going into business for myself because things that I didn't know or didn't understand, or I didn't know what I didn't know, and I ran into all the cold emails that I used to get people acting like I was their best friend and, I'll be honest, I used to send some of these because that's what I thought. That's what people recommended. All those terrible. I use the words follow up, punching the circle and back and following up.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1:

And you know, but you learn. You learn through failure and you learn from. You know, expanding your horizon. I mean shoot, you know there's still about 40 people watching right now. You all are doing something different, so you're taking action. You're wanting to know what is different, so you're elevating. It's not to me that anybody who's not on this isn't. I realize people are busy, but I can't stress enough. I mean I now do everything virtual. That is how I make my living is virtual, and if I was terrible, in fact I was shitty. Okay, I apologize for using that word, but there's no other word. I was shitty.

Speaker 1:

If you saw some of my early videos, I started with video podcasting. I have the podcast reviving outside sales, about 300, some episodes. Now my first video is. It looked like I was in a cave. I had no lighting. I didn't really know what to say. I was super nervous. My voice was probably shaking, because being on camera, being on video, is completely different.

Speaker 1:

It's a skill set you have to develop. What does that mean? You're going to suck. You're going to be terrible. It's going to be horrible in the beginning. However, like Matthew said, if you're one of the only ones doing it, your prospects and buyers aren't going to know the difference. So you've got to jump off that ledge and go all in, because this is the future and, as you mentioned, I mean towards the end, I definitely saw a lot of people dump my packets. I used to make all these packets, handwritten notes, all that you know, 2018, 2019. I was still doing that and I used to see just a couple, you know, dumped in the trash and that's when I was like, okay, yeah, this just isn't working anymore and you keep testing it's not scalable.

Speaker 2:

It's just not scalable. You know, mike, I see my boy, zach Griffith, in the audience there. He's a virtual sales RX agency coach and Zach writes hey, I've sent several, I'm up 30%. You know, this is the joy that we get about personalized videos. So here's the problem with sales If you're dependent on access access in the form of I, matthew Ray Scott, need to have access face to face access with Michael Kelly to move business forward. I'm not scalable. So what personalized video does is it makes us virtual face to face at scale.

Speaker 2:

And here's the human brain from a. You know, I've got a neuroscience back, behavioral psychology background, so I'm thinking about how can I punch people in the amygdala? And here's the neuroscience. Any anybody on this call who wants a copy of this neuroscience study of your brain on the difference between receiving a text based email and a personalized video, shoot me a direct message. I'm easy to find on LinkedIn at Matthew Ray Scott, and I'll make sure and get you a copy of the neuroscience of personalized video. It'll literally and figuratively blow your mind.

Speaker 2:

I'll summarize this in a Cliff Notes version, mike the human brain cannot tell the difference between you and I sending a personalized video or being in person, comma. But preference loves that. You're not all up in my mug, mike, so I'm virtual enough yet you can pick up my mannerisms. You can pick up my tonality. You can start making judgment calls on whether you know me or whether I'm too polarizing. We can make those judgment calls.

Speaker 2:

And so what a personalized video does is it does exactly what we hoped it would do increase the likelihood that you're gonna develop no-like in trust. So it's pre-qualifying in nature, it's scalable and again I can see my boy, zach, on here. I remember when Zach was first using personalized videos and I'll never and Zach, you can put in the comment section if this is accurate. But I remember Zach kind of being a little bit concerned about being himself, and what I've seen Zach develop into is he is himself and as such, he is now getting ready to increase engagement et cetera, because it's the talent that was already there. It's just that he's at scale. He's no longer driving around Colorado hoping to bump into somebody, and that's how I summarize personalized videos.

Speaker 1:

So I'm gonna. I apologize for the little blip in the screen earlier. I was trying to find the right, so I don't usually do a lot of these slide decks, but I wanna show an image real quick. Matthew, this is the customer buying journey. Okay, and so a lot of people have seen this before. This is my gospel unaware, aware, trial user advocate the five phases of sales Somebody going from unaware to aware. You're taking them into using the product, but they're not a customer yet. Then getting them to be a user, but they haven't gone far enough as to recruit other people. And what Matthew's talking about is the.

Speaker 1:

There's two sides to sales. There's a one-to-one conversation and then there's a one-to-many. When you wanna start scaling your business and you wanna start escalating your sales, you've got to do a one-to-many. You have to have that approach, one-on-one conversations. You don't have enough time during the day. Access is getting restricted more than ever. You don't have those opportunities.

Speaker 1:

But if you see here you've got sales call. You've got email marketing, youtube video, video sales letter Notice how the video sales letter is in there. You've got another. You've got a sales meeting. You have a text message sales call. You maybe have a FaceTime or a Zoom. You have a buying meeting email recap.

Speaker 1:

Every buyer can go through a different journey. But here, have you noticed, this is not face-to-face, hand-to-bro-shore, face-to-face features and benefits. Face-to-face XYZ. There's email video sales letter. There's FaceTime Zoom. There is a big component of getting people through the sales cycle and video is just one of those touchpoints. Matthew, what is so? Is this just something that's cell phone related? Because I mean I'm gonna show you right now. I mean I got my cell phone. This is the latest iPhone. It's the latest and greatest and we were talking pre-show that it's probably got a better camera than a lot of the professional cameras out there. Are you talking about just shooting a video in your car? Are you talking about trying to do something like what we're doing right now, with kind of studios per se, run through actual steps that people can be taking?

Speaker 2:

Hey, it's never been easier to take this phone or this webcam that you and I are on, mike, so everyone on this call this is in your back pocket, and everyone has a laptop or a desktop with a webcam, and so there's a reason why this is called personalized video. You know, mike, tell them my tip that I gave you about the personalized video and how that could sound a little bit contrarian.

Speaker 1:

Oh man, you gave me like four. So were you talking about just being like really raw and just spontaneous? Okay, yes, and it's interesting. So I'm gonna nerd out a little bit Well, kind of nerd out a little bit.

Speaker 1:

But if you have listened to my podcast before, if you haven't, I'll just tell you right now I don't use scripts. I have one topic that I wanna talk on and I riff for as long as I think the topic needs to be riffed on, and I do believe sometimes I beat a dead horse, but I don't follow scripts. And so the people that really love the show, that they interact with me, often say I love the real and rawness, I love the fact that it doesn't sound scripted, I love the fact that I can hear your brain kind of working through what you're talking about, and that is something that they connected with. And what Matthew's talking about is what buyers are looking for today. It's not the best product is gonna win. Okay, I'll tell you this right now.

Speaker 1:

I spend a lot of money on my businesses. I don't buy the quote, unquote best products. I buy products with a relationship Somebody has recommended it, like, for instance, we're using StreamYard. I know Matthew is a big fan of Vidyard. I think Vidyard correct, yeah, vidyard. But the person that got me to StreamYard I knew like entrusted, so I went to StreamYard.

Speaker 1:

I know that I'm not knocking StreamYard, but I know that there are other platforms to do live webinars. That may quote, unquote, be better or industry leading, what have you, but I have a connection with this brand and that is what people are looking for. It's not about going with the biggest name anymore. What people want is they want to buy something from somebody that they believe is going to be there after the dust settles, after the purchase. Okay, so what happens is I'm not gonna get into the whole psychology and all the fancy words that Matthew used but if you believe that person, because you've listened enough to them, if you believe what they have to say and you've built that connection and you believe they're gonna be there after the fact, that is who people want to work with. I believe no longer are the these words the biggest, it's the best. People say we're number one in the industry. Congratulations, you're a dinosaur.

Speaker 2:

People are gonna laugh at what's going on?

Speaker 1:

Go ahead.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Mike, you bring up such a great point. Again, there's a reason why it's called Personalized Video In sales. We have enough salespeople running around in a commodity market preaching the same features, and thus most of us are selling in a commodity market, whether we realize it or even like it, and so we gotta look for points of differentiation. I mean, could I get any more redneck than this, Mike?

Speaker 1:

I'm having difficulty. What is that? It's a nose. What is that?

Speaker 2:

It's a red X and a bunch of O's. There you go, and this is what people see. If you're not a red X and a C of O's, you're in a race to the messy middle. Yeah, so when we think through Personalized Video again, everybody thinks of Personalized Video as a form of self-promotion. It is not. You wanna know, the number one thing that prevents salespeople and entrepreneurs from using Personalized Video imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome was put on this earth to rob, cheat and kill you. And what it says is and, leslie, I'm getting ready to answer your question, sir and what it says is you're an imposter. Nobody else is doing this. You're gonna look like an idiot. Don't stand out, just fit in. That's what imposter does. So, leslie, you ask a really good question.

Speaker 2:

In these recordings, when I'm using personalized video, how much of the time is spent with only me on the screen, versus talking and doing screen share? About 20% of my videos are me in selfie mode and the other 80% are using graphic or educational resources in the background. Careful word choice, though, leslie. Careful word choice is in these personalized videos, because we never, ever, ever talk longer than three minutes ever. I can say ever more, if you need me to. We never speak longer than three minutes. It doesn't come across as a presentation, it comes across as a conversation. And, leslie, you may find this interesting.

Speaker 2:

We teach this course called Virtual Sales or X. We've developed 52 tested topics. Isn't that interesting? So, instead of like go through a course and then go okay, start talking, start recording, we tested topics, we call it the content cookbook and it's under our module of content rules that a lot of people find helpful. So what we did is we took the excuse factor away from our students of well, I don't know what to talk about, because you see, here's what a confused mind will default to. You said it earlier, mike. A confused mind will go hey, just circling back and following up. If you use the word circling back and following up, you're done, it's over.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, look, I said I'm guilty, everyone's guilty. This is not a whole earth and thou conversation. I didn't realize how awful it sounded because I was being very literal. Hey, I'm literally following up. It's just you can't say that Again.

Speaker 1:

I go back to the dating analogy. You know you kind of have to play a game in the beginning. You're not sure. Too much interest. You don't tell anybody you like them on a first date. It turns the other person off. It's the exact same thing. And so you know the personalized video. Again, I'll go back to the buyer's journey. Everything should be a step forward every time you reach out, every time you email. So instead of saying follow up, or hey, did you get my last email, I can't even tell you how many times I get that during the day hey, did you get my last email and I want to send finally send an email back, yeah, I did. I'm not interested, but a lot of people do. Is they just ignore it? They saw it, you know. You sent out a video. They saw it. You post something online. They saw it, you know. And I sorry, I was just reading. Did I say the F word? Stop using the F word. Oh, follow up. Oh, sorry you know, mike it.

Speaker 2:

What's interesting about personalized video that makes it so scalable? My philosophy has changed on this. It's true, you'll never catch me circling back and following up with people, but here, call it semantics, call this contrarian, but if you're a prospect of mine, this is going to cause people to scratch your heads. If you're a prospect of mine, and for the record, if you're a prospect of mine, I decide that on January one you can ask anyone on our team. On January one I pick who we want to do business with and people find this hard to believe that. I'm not like waking up on a Thursday going, okay, who can we prospect now? We pick our targets and our targets align with our demonstrated revenue goals. So it's a little contrarian. If I get all 50 of our prospects, our number is done, we've met it, we've exceeded it. So here's the contrarian part. If you're a prospect of ours, I will send you a valuable personalized video every 11 days. I'm talking prospect. I will send you a valuable personalized video every 11 days until you say, for the love of all, that's holy man, stop adding value. Or you respond and say let's talk. And so when an old school dinosaur sales manager with dust blowing off of his tongue, says to me man, there's no replacement for face to face. I just call it like I see it, I go. You're only 50% correct. The key is to become face to face at scale. You see, here's old Matthew when I was, you know, selling spine implants and orthopedic implants. Here's old Matthew. I'd reach a point, sooner rather than later, where I'm like yep, dr scratch and sniff is not interested in this. But the reality of the situation is that modern day Matthew, thank you through personalized videos is every 11 days. It's clockwork. I use literally a reminder system. I use a CRM database. I learned my lesson. I will not mention this surgeon's name, but the number one surgeon in America in a specialty, every 11 days. Let's do the ROI math on this Every 11 days. I sent him a personalized video where I never verbally asked him for an appointment ever and I never use the words hey, dude, you get my other 32 messages just circling back and following up. I skipped that part. I kept adding hyper personalized value, value, value to him 10 months and 11 days later on the calendar. I use pipe drive, brian. I've used HubSpot, but what I like about pipe drive, brian is the affordability.

Speaker 2:

So, leslie, I'm prospecting six days a week and would you believe me that Saturday is my most productive day to prospect? I send seven personalized videos before 7 01 am. You can ask my work colleagues yesterday. I'm in New York City, I'm on a flight, my flight leaves at ODARC 30. I'm going Kobe Bryant on prospecting. I wake up at 2 45 and get my seven before 7 01 in. And so, mike, when we think through using personalized videos, through prospecting, we are evergreen, virtual and time shifted. And would you believe me that 10 months, 11 days later, I look on this phone right here and I'm pretty bougie. So I'm getting ready to show you. I'm busy, I'm book solid, I don't struggle with getting appointments anymore as I'm using personalized videos.

Speaker 2:

That surgeon shows up on my calendar, mike, and I'm like oh man, this is game. On the first. He shows up on a zoom and here's exactly what I said this is going to really really register with folks. Here's exactly what I said, dr Blank. What made you curious, after 10 months and 11 days, to schedule a chat with me? And his answer taught me a timeless lesson the timing wasn't right for me, matthew. The timing is right for me now, and I want this and that and this and that, send me a PO. And I learned my lesson. So let's chalk up the ROI, because the audience may be going man, matthew, this must have taken you forever. Let's do the ROI. I spent less than five minutes creating the video and delivering it twice a month. So I'm out 10 minutes of my time every month. What's the ROI of me spending 10 minutes to land the number one surgeon, priceless? Kevin asked Matthew, are you sending those videos, email or text or a combination? Kevin, in prospecting, let's just draw the delineation In prospecting.

Speaker 2:

Let's assume that I don't have their text. I don't have their mobile number. I'm getting ready to give you some value, kevin, you're going to love this. So let's just make the assumption. Since I'm prospecting, what I do is I default to. I have a strategy where I'll find them on LinkedIn and I begin commenting on LinkedIn so that they can see that I'm a majestic hillbilly who adds value. And then I send them a LinkedIn DM message. And what people don't tell you is that LinkedIn DM goes to typically their personalized email. So when they open up their personalized email, they're going to go. Huh, I never get a direct DM on LinkedIn. And then, secondly, in my case, I work with orthopedic spine neuro. I purchase a list, cost me $500. I've had great success. Surprisingly, I've not had a bounce back rate.

Speaker 2:

And then Kevin and Stephanie to answer your question. You're going to love this. This is worth the time of you showing up. Here's the golden rule. When that prospect meets with you, here's what I say to get their mobile number. See if you can pick up on the semantics of this. I say the meeting's over with. I will only schedule a 15 minute meeting. You will not catch me scheduling meetings longer than that. Why 15 minutes? Because I tested 30 minutes, 20 minutes, 10 minutes and 15 minutes. 15 minutes was the tops by far. They know it's not enough time to just like melt their cerebellum off. They know that. 15 minutes. And here's the question that I say to them at minute 14. If the conversation meets with yes, I would like to learn more. Yes, I am sufficiently interested. Here's what I say.

Speaker 2:

Dr Scratch and Sniff, do I have your permission to provide you with my mobile number so you have direct access to me and we can avoid a lot of the back and forth? Oh, audience, I need you to pick up on something. Operative word is permission. So I'm a psychology nerd by academic and by profession background. So I ask do I have your permission to send you, provide you with my mobile number Nine times out of 10, you're going to love this audience.

Speaker 2:

Here is their response. Why don't I just give you my number? Yep, and I don't care, like yesterday, if I'm catching a flight from New York City or New York Chicago, I'll stop the plane if I have to, because I'm a large man with a majestic beard, so the plane's going to stop if I'm in the middle. Wait a minute. I got to send a personalized video and I will send them a personalized video that goes like this hey, dr O'Kelly, we just completed our talk, thought this would be a more personalized way to follow up. Have a good day. And from that point I'm sending text messages. So you can ask any of our hundreds of clients. I'm on a text basis with them at that point, not because I'm bougie, but because I earn the opportunity to communicate by text, and we all know that text response is higher than going through. Glory of the Gatekeeper.

Speaker 1:

And Matthew, I'm going to add a little thing as a business owner. During the day, just like these surgeons or anybody you're calling on, I think most of the people here in medical sales the doctors are busy. The offices are like Fort Knox now. I run a lot of businesses. My free time plus I have two toddlers my free time is between 5.15 in the morning and 7 AM when I'm at the gym or coming home from the gym.

Speaker 1:

That is where I catch up on emails. That's where I really take the time. If I'm on the treadmill and I don't run anymore I got bad knees being a catcher in baseball so I just walk and I'm just sitting there on my phone. I'll listen to a podcast and I'm going through every word of every email. The value of what you're doing with virtual selling, the value of creating video, is that you are catching the buyer at their best time. Don't forget this. It's not about us anymore. We have the suits. I don't know if ties are still in the field. I haven't been in the field in a couple of years but everybody's well dressed.

Speaker 2:

Mike, admit it you don't even know how to tie a tie anymore. You use like a clip on both ties if it's called hey. You and I were catchers in college. We're not smart enough to tie a tie.

Speaker 1:

OK yeah, we just grow beards and distract people by doing this.

Speaker 2:

And spit on people's ankles.

Speaker 1:

You got to catch the buyers on their time and that's really the dynamic shift that's happened. I won't give it a time, but at least in the last three years. So it could be at night, it could be that surgeon, that prospect, that buyer they have a time at 8 o'clock where they're just decompressing and they're like, hey, let me see this interesting video that was sent to me. They don't feel any pressure, they can watch it on their time and here's the best part, they can watch it over and over and over. And, like Matthew said, I can't tell you how many times I've gotten coaching students or consultant jobs or somebody consumed information that I put out nine months ago on my podcast, a video on LinkedIn, which I'll tell you. I've done a really bad job of doing personalized videos. Matthew's kind of kicked me in the butt, so if you follow me, you'll start seeing more of those because they help out. Yeah, I'll check your heels up.

Speaker 2:

You've got to be doing more of that. We like what you have to say.

Speaker 1:

Mike, I know I've got to do more, and that's the thing.

Speaker 2:

One of the things that I would say that you're picking up on that. You made such an important point. You and I talked about this before, so it depends on who your client is. In my case, my clients are surgeons and VP of sales and marketing. You will not catch me sending them a prospecting video after 7 o'clock 1 AM. Let me classify this. I send prospecting personalized videos to VP of marketing and to surgeons before 7 o'clock 1 AM and after 7 o'clock 1 PM.

Speaker 2:

I've sent more personalized videos than I'm pretty sure anyone. I mean I've got a software company saying, yep, you send more personalized videos than anyone. So I've never once this is important for our listening audience I've never once had a recipient say Now I've had recipients say no, I'm not interested. And what a blessing that is. I don't have to drive all over Texas to get an answer no, I'm not interested, or yes, I'm interested. And so what I've learned through this process? I've never once had somebody say you're bothering me, stop. And I think it's because A I'm sending it at times where I'm earning their attention. And when I tell you I'm not making this up, when I tell you that my personalized videos are giving away my best ideas for free.

Speaker 2:

When people watch me in action, they're like it's not at all what I thought you were going to say. People think that I'm going to put on a bougie sport coat and start going down the heavy sales hand when I make it all about them. I'm telling you, I do my research and I'm like hey, last Thursday you posted on opening up a new ambulatory surgery center and, in our experience of working with ASCs, here's the top two challenges. The purpose of this video in the next 90 seconds is to share with you the top two marketing challenges that you're going to have in competing against Holy Cross Hospital. Now why are they going to get angry at that? They're not. They're going to look at that and go. He's not selling, he's sharing.

Speaker 1:

And Matthew, let me, let's add on to that. So what Matthew's talking about is not just features and benefits, ramming down product knowledge or product information. It's doing the research. Again, people will respond to things that are personalized when people send out DMs to me. I get tons of DMs on LinkedIn. I get tons of emails. I can tell I've been doing this long enough. I can tell when these are computer generated, ai generated, or they're just kind of a cut and paste, or when it's personalized, where they're putting something in there specific, I always pay attention to those and I discard the rest. And so what Matthew's talking about is that's the best way to follow up, as opposed to not using the F word or circling back. You don't have to say, hey, you know, last time we talked about X, y or Z, you're moving the ball forward Again. Let's use the analogy of the football field, matthew.

Speaker 1:

Before we got on, I kind of talked about the business of sales is moving the ball from the 25 yard line to the red zone and then you can close. I didn't have a chance to add one thing to the audience, which was there are chances. If you got a Patrick Mahomes or a Josh Allen, you can throw a 70 yard touchdown Every once in a while, but if that is your strategy, it's not going to be long term. You have to systematically move the ball down the field with each buyer. Some are going to take longer, some are going to be shorter. Those buyer journeys can be different and we all know the buying cycle can be longer or shorter. But you have to make sure that you are moving the ball down the field. You're not repeating what you have said prior. The best way to do that is to simply to get people to know, like and trust you. It's not more about your product, but it's the specificity of the better future state by connecting something that they're complaining about they're bringing up, like Matthew said. So take what they said, it's a great opportunity. Hey, I just saw that you were talking about your frustration with XYZ.

Speaker 1:

Let me tell you the three ways that this can be alleviated using my product or service, xyz, something like that. It's interesting and that's not selling. What you're trying to do in the wholesale process is reach out a hand and convince the buyer to grab it so you can pull them to a better future state. All you're doing with virtual selling is you're throwing your hand out there hundreds of times when you're standing still in one place. That is the seismic shift of what virtual selling can do. That, look, I used to be the door knocker. My philosophy was if I can be face to face, they're not going to say no, but if they can say no on email, they can say no over the phone, and my philosophy has changed. So I hope that we're not beating a dead horse, but your philosophy needs to change if you're going to elevate your game. And the good news is, like Matthew said, hardly anybody is doing this, so you're automatically going to stand out, no matter the quality of your videos. What say you, matthew?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well said, mike, my personalized videos. When people go through our course and virtual sales are X and they get to see some of those and we teach them, it blows their mind because they quickly learn. And let me rephrase that it's not because I'm any good, it's just that I take a contrarian approach. For example, this morning you know yesterday I'm flying from New York City, chicago. Guess what I did at ODARC 30 this morning? I sent seven personalized videos. One of those personalized videos was me taking a surgeon who hopped on LinkedIn recently. He's on my prospect list and at the beginning of the year he was on my prospect list. I've been sending him here's the game count Every 11 days I've been sending him a personalized video that never lasts more than three minutes. I never asked him for an appointment and I never used the word circling back and following up. So here's what happened today. You know, whatever the date is today, you know August 10th, so every 11 days, and I've noticed that he's talking more and more about how he, as a physician, sees the value of LinkedIn.

Speaker 2:

You know what I did, mike, in the past week. I gave him one week's worth of post as if it was written by him, but written like experts that people pay us at Feed the Agency. I gave it to him. I said here's exactly if I were you, with all due respect, and you hired us to be your brand manager, here's exactly what I would write about. And for the first time, I got a response from him. He's one of the top orthopedic surgeons in America and his one word response was interesting. So, mike, in the time that you and I pre-call to now, I looked at my phone. Guess who I have an appointment with next week?

Speaker 1:

You got it.

Speaker 2:

You got it. So, if you can take away from this call, stop sharing information. Rather, give away. Hyper-personalize your best ideas of how you, your product, your service solves problems. That's my money-making formula.

Speaker 1:

And video is a great way. It's really three-dimensional chess. Everybody else is playing two-dimensional. You're playing three-dimensional chess working on different boards and again, I can't stress it enough, it's selling one to many. And I'm not trying to be an advocate of the of the. I'm not talking about a numbers game. I'm not talking about the shotgun theory, where you're just shooting shotgun shots everywhere and you hope you hit a target. It is multiplying. I, you know, I always talk about sniper rifle versus a shotgun. Sniper rifle it's target, it's targeted, it's focused. You're only taking one shot. What video selling and video, personalized video is? It's basically just buying hundreds of of sniper rifles. So you have the same medium, the same tool. You're just multiplying it exponentially. There's no way.

Speaker 2:

Here's a perfect example. So you see what I'm wearing right now. What are the odds that three people got this personalized video for me today? And when I tell you it's exactly this, I'm telling you the truth. So these are prospects. They commented on a recent LinkedIn post. What are the odds today that I sent this video to them? Hey, so and so I'm glad that my post punched you in the amygdala. Have a great day. I swear to Oprah, I'm telling you the truth.

Speaker 2:

How long did it take me to record that personalized video? 10 seconds and my response rate has gone through the roof when I see a new face in my comment stream show up and I go hey, glad that post punched you in the middle. Now here's what an old school person would say. An old school person would say no man, you left it within the one yard line. You should have then said hey, are you available to chat this week? Hey, you know, let's schedule a time to meet.

Speaker 2:

I don't do that anymore. The reason why I don't do that anymore, contrary to popular belief, is you and I are dealing with smart people. They're not confused that you and I have something to sell. The gig is up. If you're not on this call, if you sell, they know you're trying to sell them something. Just stop doing the obvious of that. If I would have added the hey, glad you like it, let's meet next Thursday, and all that, I have statistically tested this more than anyone I know. I'll never verbally ask somebody for an appointment, ever again, and I'll never use the word circle back and following up. I'll just keep giving you three minute or less hyper-personalized Michael Kelly, it's as if I'm living in your backyard to gain this knowledge? Observation to where you're like that's different than anybody. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

We're going to wrap up, so please connect with Matthew. If you're not connected to Matthew Ray Scott, it is worth the price of admission. Just sign up or follow him on LinkedIn. Also ring the bell so you see every post that he has, because he puts out multiple examples. So if you just literally want to copy some of the videos, have at it. Follow me on LinkedIn. I post every day. Also have a podcast. You can get into my circle. I do sales coaching, sales consulting. I teach the business of sales a lot. We talk about helping people get to the red zone to score. I also help people do that, but I primarily help people build businesses. Everybody's got a sales territory or sales market. Treat it like a business. So, matthew, you have got a course that you just recently posted. Tell them real quick. We got about 30 seconds.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'll make it shorter than 30 seconds. At Virtual SalesRx, we help salespeople and entrepreneurs create and send personalized videos that differentiate, build trust and grow sales. Just simply go to Virtual SalesRx from $9.97 to $97.497. We have got a course where we teach you the step-by-step approach Awesome.

Speaker 1:

And if you want to check out my courses, go to MikeOkellycom. I'm constantly building courses for any phase of your sales career getting in, if you want to dominate, if you're in, you want to scale, I got a course for that. And then if you're also looking to get out of your current role into something bigger or something different, I have a course for that. So reach out to both of us. Thank you all for watching. I think at the most we had 42 people. Again, folks, when are you going to get 42 people listening to your voice and hear what you have to say, matthew? Thank you so much. I really do appreciate it. Hope everybody has a great day and we'll see you next time. Bye-bye.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, Mike.

Speaker 1:

Bye, bye.

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