How to Stand Out From the Crowd
AI-Generated Transcript below. There may be errors.
Claire Davis 0:00
welcome to another episode of today's medical sales leader, a show where we talk all about the modern methods of mastering medical sales. Because if you're still doing medical sales like you were 12 years ago, you're still doing medical sales like you were 12 years ago. And today, I have a really wonderful guest. His name is Chris Bogue, and he's one of my favorite people, when it comes to what we're going to talk about today, which is about performing well, and really reaching your customers and building those relationships on video. So if you've ever wondered, thought about the nervous about selling on video, Chris is the man. And so today he's going to share with us some of his best tips, we're going to talk a little bit about the course hopefully, that he just launched, and how you can gain access to those hard to reach untouchable customers by using your phone and video. So Chris, thank you so much for joining me on the show today. I'm so excited to have you here.
Chris Bogue 1:14
I'm so excited to be here, Claire.
Claire Davis 1:16
So let's start with sort of the origination of how you got in this business. Because I think that for a lot of us who are still in the generation of we grew up with a time where technology and video wasn't really a thing yet. And now it's something that we use every single day. It's a huge transition for the majority of people who are in medical sales, in management roles and up and even in, you know, if you've been in the industry for 10 years, you know, video is now here to stay. And so I'd love to hear what really drew you to using video in a business sense. Why did you start using it for sales in the first place?
Chris Bogue 1:58
Yeah, so great question. I got on video pretty much by accident, I did not plan to do this. I was selling education technology at the time to universities. So universities, they are sprawling bureaucracies, each with their own, you know, history. And they're they're complicated organizations to sell into. There's a tenure track, you know, the people at the top of the chain, say what goes a little trick about education. The longer someone's title is, the less important they are. If you see somebody who's like, specialist for the blob of books, they're they're not as important as the person whose name is just professor. If the professors don't like you, you're pretty much doomed. And as a seller, that's rough, because it's a profession where they're not changing decision makers a lot, you're not going to be lucky and they're all of a sudden going to replace their top professor, now you got a fresh shot. But that person doesn't like you, or they don't trust your company, or they're not answering your phone calls or emails. You're kind of behind the eight ball. And it's a difficult sale, because these are large institutions that are not designed to change quickly. And even worse, at the time when I was doing it, it was right before COVID happened, you know, so I was used to the three main methods to reach my prospects were the phone, calling their office, you know, visiting them on campus, or visiting them at an educational conference. All of a sudden, all our conferences were canceled, our flights were canceled. You cannot go visit them on campus anymore. And guess what? They're working from home. So nobody's there answering phones in the office anymore. Yeah. On top of that, you know, it's like I had small territory small lead list, you did not have a lot of people to reach out to. So I had to get inventive. And I found the solution. And this was just getting on video. And it's this really weird democratizing thing where everybody has this incredibly sophisticated camera on them. Right now we all own, like even an iPhone seven, will give you incredibly professional looking camera quality. But nobody ever figured out how to do this for sales yet. You know, like, it's not something they teach you in business school. It's not something that MBAs learn. So I just started experimenting with it. You know, I started getting on camera. I started coaching others to get on camera. I had a diverse group of people working with me, so I had, you know, different account managers, different backgrounds, you know, and I discovered that it was like, Oh, actually, it's very effective to just jump on camera for 30 seconds, and talk directly to the prospect and all of a sudden, I was getting meetings with all these people who had been ignoring us for years. And I realized like, oh, wow, it is this really powerful way to like, just humanize yourself. You know, people don't trust institutions, they don't trust celebrities, they certainly don't trust advertisers and marketers, but they trust the people they interact with on their phone, you know, this is the screen where they interact with their children and their spouses. And this is where they go, and they spend too much time watching Netflix. And all of a sudden, if you're a face, on their screen, and you're talking about the things they care about, you know, you just become part of their consciousness. And then when you pick up the phone and call them, now, you're not this pushy salesperson who's trying to steal their time, you're that person who made them think, you know, because you got in there. And, again, nobody knows how to do this yet, because there's nobody who's explaining how to do it, except me. So great. I'll teach everybody to do this. Now.
Claire Davis 6:15
I was I'm so glad you are, it's your video, to me feels like the great equalizer, because it doesn't matter if you have a C on your title doesn't matter if you're new to the workforce, or if you're not working in the workforce, it is so awkward, and makes you feel very vulnerable in the beginning. And I remember somebody telling me long time ago, because now I do a lot of video for work. And I never thought that that would be reachable on a regular basis. And I remember somebody telling me, the only way to get comfortable on video is getting the reps in. So it gives me hope, because I feel that's very similar with selling in general, in a different way. It's one of those things that you've got to practice and you've got to flub every once in a while, and you've got to make the mistakes, so you fix them. So, you know, what are some of the things if you were to say, okay, you know, if you're just brave enough to try video this week, what are some of the things that you see people doing that they shouldn't? Or some things that you see that people should do?
Chris Bogue 7:21
Yeah, so this is a great question, because I take issue with a lot of the video training that I see out there for sellers, it is my personal belief, as someone who trains people on this, that we get too obsessed with needing to show the prospect something where you see a lot of people doing is, you know, a lot of these, these video programs have like a screenshare option. So what people will do is, they will make themselves very small, they're like a little corner of the screen and a little circle. And they're showing you their app. And they're like, hey, Claire, here's my app, it does this, and it does this, and you could use it to do this. And you could use it to do that. And then people watch 10% of the video and don't respond, and the sellers go, Gee, I don't think video works. And, you know, it's like, it almost sounds too obvious. So I don't want to like insult anybody here. But I'm sitting here being like, Okay, you sent that person a product demo. But they didn't ask for a product demo, you know. And then you're in this unfortunate situation where you've got the prospects attention, maybe this is the only chance you have to break through in there. But you're just describing something they could have seen on your website. And the person watches for 10 seconds goes, Okay, salesperson selling me something, I don't need to watch this. Yeah, what I suggest sellers do is you're sending, you know, a 32nd video about your prospect. And you always want to deliver it to the person, you know, I am talking to Claire, I'm sending a video to Claire, I start I say, hey, Claire, here's why I'm reaching out to you. And I usually start by talking about a person's goals or that person's values. These are usually pretty easy to find. These are things you can find in mission statements in press releases. You know, organizations like to be upfront with what their values are. So that's almost always where I start from, say, I know you value this. And I see a lot of alignment. This is what I value as well. And I know this is your goal as an organization. And here's this elephant in the room problem that I help people with. And I'd like to have a conversation with you about that. You know, and I'm not sitting here showing my product. I'm not explaining everything I do. I'm being interested in them. I'm noticing them the way they want to be known First, and then I'm making it easy to meet with me. And I'm building a little bit of curiosity, you know, because once you actually get that sales meeting, you get all these extra powers, you know, you have the power to show them data, you have the power to demonstrate the product, you have a power to ask them questions that are typically inappropriate. You can ask them about budgets, you can ask them about course corrections and mistakes that they've made. But you can't do that until they let you in the door. First. There's a term I really liked from Nick thicket, where he calls it the vampire Sales Rule. It's just like a vampire. They have to let you in before you can do anything, you know. Yeah, like that. So it's like, yeah, it's a video about them. And 99% of people sending videos in sales are not doing that. You know, it is, it is such a simple thing to be interested in the other person. And especially when you're talking about medical sales, or you again, I was in university sales. So most of these people had PhDs. Yeah. And the seller tells themselves, you know, what, I don't have a PhD. So what can I possibly offer this person? You know, why would they ever want to talk to someone like me, and like, you have to realize, when you're reaching out to a person who's educated, or affluent, or whatever, they don't necessarily see themselves that way. You know, they're thinking about how they have to sell their summer home, because it was a bad investment, you know, and they're thinking about this new process that they rolled out, that's not working the way they wanted it to, you know, and they've got these frustrations, their spouse isn't listening to them. Whatever it may be, if you show up as a person who's open and attentive, all they see as possibility in you, you know, and if you do your homework, and you're talking about what they actually care about, they're not going to go google how educated you are. They're like, Oh, wow, this, this person is actually talking about the things that I care about, you know, and then you call them, you email him, you knock their door, whatever, they're not going to slam the door in your face and be rude about it. Like, even if it's not a great time, even if it's not what they're looking for right now. Usually the let you know, you know, and that's what happens. Sales is like, okay, you know, you're it's not the right time right now. Well, when is the right time? When do you evaluate decisions like this? When do you talk to vendors? Let's get that process started the right way, you know, and, again, I found it's just this this shortcut, where it's like, you need to build credibility. There's nothing that builds credibility faster than looking someone in the eye, even virtually, and showing you showing them that you know, something about that.
Claire Davis 12:55
Brilliant point, you're looking somebody in the eye, and you're skipping those levels of trust building, right? I mean, instead of it taking for emails or for random, you know, times of bumping into each other, getting to be with someone, like you said, on the device, we're holding 90% of our day, for everything else is, but is bonding, I think, and it's what I like about the way that you teach this. And the way that you talk about doing sales in general is that there's a lot of sales theory out there. And there's a lot of tactics where we're trying to slyly say something, but not really. And we're trying to sell but pretend we're not salespeople. And I think that that really just becomes sort of a vicious cycle, where people who are in sales can feel bad about what they're doing. And it's a shame, because in this case for a lot of people who are listening to the show right now, and thank you for doing so, you know, we're in medical sales, that means that, you know, in 1015 years when I need a hip replacement, those doctors should the medical sales people perform well will have the most modern technology, my grandmother will get the best care if she needs to go in and have her lungs with a get an MRI. So it's it's a valiant thing to be in sales. And I think that the way that you go about it with being very straightforward with the elephant in the room, let's talk about what your goals are. And I see this problem happening in the industry doesn't make sense to chat further. really takes the pressure off of feeling salesy or pushing, because it's just having a real conversation and a next to normal way, right. It's next to being in a coffee shop with them when you're on video.
Chris Bogue 14:54
Yeah, you have to own it and so much of sales training Something that I disagree with is about like evasiveness like, Oh, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna tell you what I'm doing until you set this meeting with me. And again, you're dealing with doctors, you're dealing with medical professionals, like, when they're telling you that they're busy, they're not lying. You know, I've always learned, it's like, if somebody tells you, it's a bad time believe that. I feel like so much of traditional sales tactics are like you're trying to outwit the buyer. Yeah, the buyers are smart. You know, they know what that means. They know, you're asking, Oh, how about seven minutes on the calendar, they know, you're going to take more than seven minutes, you know, and in the case of enterprise sales, you know, so if you're an enterprise seller, you have to worry, if you step out of line, you might get blacklisted. You know, if you're trying to sell to a big organization like Microsoft, and you're not on their approved vendors list, you get on the blacklist, all of a sudden, that company you work for is not allowed to sell to them anymore, you're probably going to get fired, you know. So all these salespeople are trying to figure out how to like, be sly, and be coy, and how to talk your way around these people. Where I suggest again, one you get, you spend a couple minutes on their mission statement, and you see what they value. And then you find the person to go to and you make a video being like, look, I'm reaching out to you, because I want to start this process. I want to get this started, right? I know you've valued this, I know, this is where you're taking the organization. And someday I'd like to be able to speak with you about that. So I'm reaching out to formally request information about your vendor list and what I can do, you know, to build that trust with you. And again, I am not trying to outwit them, I'm just coming out here, but I'm owning it, you know, and I'm, I'm showing them that respect, and I'm being like, hey, I don't want to do this wrong, but I think I have something to offer you, you know, I think I can help you get to where you're going. So yeah, please respond to this, I'd love to hear we can go from there, you know, and the buyer is in control. This is the thing we we constantly see this drive sales leaders nuts, because sometimes the buyer is just like, I want a demo. And they're like, Well, we're gonna have an SDR qualify you. And it's like, the buyer is in control they're gonna buy when they want to buy, as a salesperson, you need to be in control of the few things you can control. And one of those is your first impression. You know, are you going to come? Are you going to interrupt them in the middle of dinner? And they say, No, I'm not interested. You'd be like, Oh, can I just have somebody? Is that? Is that really how you want your first interaction to be then pushing you off? And you desperately trying not to let them shut the door on you? Or do you want to show up as the most confident, relaxed, relevant, interested and helpful version of yourself that you can be? Because there's a chance that person isn't ready to buy, you know, but if you send that video, let's say they don't even respond to it, you send that video, you're like, Hey, I'm Claire, I want to do this right away. I want to get, you know, on your process, as you're figuring out your information about your process a couple months later, if they are talking to vendors, and you get back in touch with them. And they go look at Claire, what was the last thing she sent me? Oh, was it a pushy? You know, misleading email where she wasn't being upfront with their intentions? Or is this an intelligent, respectful person who took the time to actually reach out to me, you know, I have all the time, people will ignore my videos. And then eight months later, they watch it, you know, and I can pick it right up, because I almost always have the same call to action, I end the video and I say, if you're interested in chatting with me, respond to this message with anything. If you send me a thumbs up emoji, I can send you some available time. So you could choose one that's convenient for you. And if this is not in your wheelhouse, just let me know. I will you know, I won't contact you this way anymore. I don't take it personally, let me know. And no matter what you decide, I appreciate you watching the video. You know, the beauty of that is three months later, they send me a thumbs up. I send them some times we're back off to the races. But salespeople will tell you to do all these ridiculous things to like send a breakup email, send an email being like, I reached out to you six times. Yeah, I guess I'm gonna have to go away forever. Right? Like, they don't believe that and they didn't want to meet with you in the first place. And now the very worst part is if they change their mind, and they decide they actually do want to meet with you now you made it awkward. Now you did this, oh, I guess I'm gonna walk away forever. You know, whereas I really leave it open. I'm just kind of opening the door and saying like, Hey, I think I might have something you're interested in checking it out. I'm interested in you. You know, and it's like my job as a seller is not to sell everybody at all times. It's to open Then the door of communication and keep it open. Because when they are talking to vendors when they are talking to, you know, like they are seeking out what I'm selling, I want the chance to speak to them, I want to be invited into the room. And it's a long game, anybody who's done sales knows you're you're playing the long game, you know, what you never want to do, though, is break that trust and get them to shut the door. Because now you're backwards, now you're, you're at less than zero, you're gonna need to pull a rabbit out of a hat and work really hard. Just to get back to zero just to get be a person that they're not actively rejecting every time they see your name pop up.
Claire Davis 20:41
You know, for those listening, and they're thinking, Okay, I'll try. I'll try it. What are some things not to do?
Chris Bogue 20:49
I say start small. Sometimes people are like, Oh, I'm gonna go send 100 videos. Well, that's hard. You know.
Claire Davis 20:58
So you'll be exhausted.
Chris Bogue 21:00
Yeah, I recommend like, I spend more time making the list than I do filming the videos. My videos are very short. Sometimes I'm sending 15/32 videos, but I'll make a list where it's like, it's a similar buyer type, similar buyer persona, maybe it's similar size business, you know, maybe they're managing a budget around the same size. Maybe it's my territory, maybe I'm going after all, you know, hospitals in one state. Whatever it is, I'm going to try to get five of these filmed in one sitting. You know, I say beginner mode is three, you know, but I always start and it's like, let's just get five out, back to back to back, you know, and then send them out and see how it does. And I say Junko for your top accounts. First, you know, I have a classification system. For my leads. It's either green, yellow, or red. Green is someone who has a greater than 50% chance of speaking with me. Maybe I'm already working with a colleague of theirs. You know, maybe we already had some pleasantry some pleasant exchange in the past, you know, maybe they bought from me in the past, whatever they're Greenly, they're more more than 50%. Likely, a yellow lead is total coin flip. I have no idea. I know, they fit my ICP, I know that I know, they would be good for my product. They've not signaled to me one way or another. And then there's the red leaves, which are the people that have already told me now said less than 50% chance. So a lot of sales leaders will tell you oh, they're ignoring you and hanging up on you go send him a video. I don't do that. You know, the, that bucket might get put into a more kind of general kind of outrage. But it's like, if I'm going after my VIP is I want a mix of green and yellow. You know, it's like, okay, this person has a greater than 50% chance, well, then why aren't they talking to me already? You know, what do I gotta do to get them into the pipeline? And then yellow? Yeah, you want to see how your message plays with people that don't have any particular predisposition for you. And you know, I do recommend I have a course about this, I do recommend DON'T GO video. Immediately. I usually like there's a number of techniques you can do if they're on LinkedIn, I connect with them on LinkedIn, you can interact with a person's content. You know, sometimes it's like, I've met them in person before. But it's like, yeah, I have some some little touch point beforehand. And then yeah, send out five videos and see how they perform. And, you know, this isn't, it's an interesting thing, because there's no magic words. You know, I always say, What I mostly teach is like, how do you talk to the camera? You know, do you speak to the camera like an equal? And it takes practice, you know, and I've had coaching clients where we're doing one on one stuff, and again, I get them to come up with the list and like, tell me the name. Okay, this is Dr. Jones. All right. I'm going to turn off the camera right now, you're not going to see me, but I'm going to start 60 seconds. And just talk to Dr. Jones. What would you say if she was in the room with you right now? You know, and always the same thing happens, they do their first take, and I stop and I'm a coach. So the first question I get is, what did you feel about that? How do you feel about that performance? What do you think happened in there, and then I give my perspective, but usually what happens is they turn on the camera, and they talk about themselves for 60 seconds, you know, and they talk about their product. They talk about how much money they see they save or whatever, and I go okay, let's try it again. I want you to focus exclusively on Dr. Jones. You're talking about her, you know, and again, I try to like actually imagine that person sitting in the room with me. And I always tell them like, pretend you are in their home drinking coffee. coffee with them. Yeah, because you are like, there's a high likelihood as person is sitting in pajama pants. Right now, you know. So the idea is you want to simulate just one on one human conversation. And yeah, this sounds so obvious as the words are coming out of my mouth. But I really, if you watch how sales trainers teach, they're teaching you to do a presentation, you know, teaching you to be big on stage and be loud. So you can hit the people in the back of the room. And like gang, these microphones that we have, are so sensitive, you know, and still yell into them. No, you don't need to. And if you're a warm personality, HD cameras pick up on all these subtle movements of the eyes. You know, and if you're a caring person, if you're a person with high emotional intelligence, which is what most people in sales are, you know, if you're, if you're good at sales, it's because you're good at talking to people, you're good at listening, you're good at reading cues, you know, we say attentiveness, is the hallmark of quality, you know, you pay for a coach, you pay for a trainer, you go to a fine dining restaurant, you know, you are paying for someone to give you their full attention. And when you are giving your full attention to the camera, that's powerful. You know, you don't even have to be saying anything, I'm just sitting there, just looking fully at you. And I'm talking about you, I'm giving you so much more than 99% of the people in your life give you including, possibly your friends and family. You know, true, yeah, oh, this the thing is like these, these brilliant people, these doctors, who are saving lives, who are you know, they're working very hard on things that only a very small percentage of people can understand. And they're carrying all this stress around, they go home and their spouse is like, Honey, I can't listen, you talk about work, like we're gonna, we're gonna watch Paw Patrol with the kids, you know, and then we're gonna go on a walk, and try to talk about anything other than work for 10 seconds, you know, but these are the things that's on that person's mind. And when you give them an opportunity to talk about what's on their mind, you know, that's, that's not what they usually get. People are asking them for their effort, and their time and their emotion and all this. And it's like, yeah, I'm showing up just interested in them. I noticed them. And, you know, I know I'm rambling now, but it's like, you know, I would be mentoring young people, you know, and young people would would ask me, you know, I had a very talented account manager, she's in her early 20s. She's like, 23. And she's like, What am I supposed to say to these people? These are PhDs, you know, it's my first job ever, I just graduated college. And like, you gotta realize they're not looking at you that way. You know, they're looking at their divorce, and, you know, bad investments and all this stuff, and they see you. And they're like, look at this young woman with her whole life ahead of her. Yeah, you know, look at her working for this tech company. Like she's so put together, she's so like, I would love to be her. I've got all these responsibilities right now. This, this woman, this young woman seems pretty on the ball, you know, and again, it's not because you're sitting there explaining all these things that you can teach them, it's like, you notice that you notice them, and you're interested in them. And you're helpful, and you're professional, you know, that's what they're going to notice about you. And, you know, half of that is just because you're looking at the lens, this is this is going to you what you're asking earlier about, like what's the thing that people do wrong? They look at their appearance on screen, when really you should be looking at the lens. Yeah, if you're looking at yourself, you're gonna get self conscious, you're gonna get distracted your eyes get these little micro movements, because you're, you're looking very subtly back and forth at different things. And, you know, if you're looking straight at the lens, you just look so confident. And yeah, you know, you're selling the conversation, not the product, you know, you're an interested professional person who's interested in chatting with them. And that's what this is, you know, it's like once you get the green light once they let you in, once you get your presentation, yeah, go nuts. Go do your homework, go get your case studies, you know, go run the numbers go go make that business case. But right now, you're you're trying to you got to have some sort of human spark in there before they they let you anywhere near their budget.
Claire Davis 29:51
Yeah. And, you know, I think that in the last couple years, obviously, when we were all separated from each other and In one way or another, we lost a lot of closeness with people. There's an incredible difference in the way that many and most of us go to work virtually now. And so it's a natural adaptation of the in office environment to interact over the screen. But it's still has a range of ways that can be done. Well. There's ways that yes, it can be done. But creating, I like how you share how to create that very warm, very client focused very, you know, humanized way of coming across on the camera. And what's interesting to me, is that a few years ago, if you'd asked me if I'd ever jumped on a camera, the answer would have been absolutely not. But my family and I ended up moving right before the pandemic. So not only were we locked away like everybody else, but we weren't anywhere near family anymore, we moved two months before the lockdown. So video really did become the way that we related to our family and friends. And I don't know if it weren't for getting those reps in, if I would have kept doing it, and then eventually did it for business. But I was surprised at every time I would send a video message eventually to a client, almost always, they would say, Wow, I've never received a video before. This is so cool. How do you do that? And what that tells me is that at least in healthcare, at least in the medical side of things, medical sales, specifically that learning to do this, well will make you an absolutely outlier. It will make you an outlier in this business. There are other industries that have gravitated toward video more rapidly. Healthcare is not one of them.
Chris Bogue 31:50
Well, actually, I'm going to push back on you there. Because I've actually been doing a little research this week. That is very surprising to me. So I've been reaching out to hundreds of account executives and STRS this week, and I've been asking them two questions. Okay, so one, does your organization use video in their outbound sales, and to how many videos each week is the average rep making? The numbers are very surprising to me. Most organizations are sending fewer than three videos per week per rep. Like, that's the like, the ones who are the average sales rep is probably not even sending five videos every month, you know, it and I was kind of blown away by this. But the more I'm talking to them, the more it seems like what happened was 2021 happened. Everybody went remote. Everybody had these video solutions that COVID was very good to the video companies, some of whom I love and use and indoors. And then they just kind of stopped. They tried it for a couple months. And then they stopped and as a coach, and you know, I can say this. It's because they're bad at it. Like,
Claire Davis 33:04
what happened is we love you anyway.
Chris Bogue 33:07
We love, you gotta learn but no, and it's not even their fault. You know, um, you look at some of these people who are really killing it, who are at the top of their sales game, who could run a presentation with anybody cold call anybody cold email, anybody and perform above average. Ask them if they learned that in a month. I guarantee you they did. You know, they tried a completely new type of sales outreach, with no coaching, no playbooks, no guidance, and they gave up because they made 10 videos and it didn't succeed, you know? And I tell them, I'm like you would never ever in a million years, let an SDR tell you, Hey, I made 10 cold calls and didn't get through. I guess cold calling doesn't work, you know, you would tell them right? Well make cold, cold, cold, more cold calls, or let me help you make better cold calls, you know, um, and it's like, yeah, actually what I'm discovering and this was my hunch all along. What I'm discovering is every sales team has a Video Star, and it's often not the top closer on the team. The person who is the top cold caller and cold emailer is usually not the best person on video. And I say good listeners are good on video that empathy shines through. Or if you get performers, people who were actors, people who were dancers, you know, artists, that person who is good at connecting with an audience. They've got different skills that actually translate really well on video. So yeah, in most industries, sellers are not doing video you will stand out you will be different and if you really want to stand out and be among the top one The percent of elite video sellers, yes, you'll do what I do, which is what nobody else does. And you'll caption your videos. Ah, that is my secret sauce to again, I, we talked earlier about the sales reps who just send the product demo, and they're just describing what's on screen. They're not using captions, my videos are me sitting here just like this, calmly, professionally speaking to the audience, but the captions are burned into the video file. So you can read the captions as you're watching the video. And I say, you know, this is what I call the Uber test. Right? So imagine you're trying to sell to a medical professional. And they're riding in the backseat of an Uber to an airport. And they get two videos in their inbox. One is a five minute product demo with no captions. And the other is a 32nd video from me. And you can see in the preview that the captions are burned down to the screen. And it says, Hey, Claire, one thing I wanted to add, you know, the message cuts off. Which one do you think they're gonna watch? Are they going to take out their air buds? So they can watch your five minute presentation? Or are they going to check out this short video because they can read it and they can watch with the sound off, you know, and I'm like, You don't understand, like, sometimes they want to watch the video. And it's just not convenient, you know, they can't do it. Or you think of like a parent, you know, you've got like a sleeping baby, you know, on your knee and you're sitting there scrolling through because you don't want to wake the baby up. And there's the video there. It's like, are you going to softly turn on the sound? Are you again? Are you going to fish out your headphones? Or are you going to ignore it? You know, and I'm not an accessibility expert. I kinda, that's another thing I kind of accidentally, like, I get a lot of clients from the accessibility world, which is another one that's famous for being a really technical. You know, it's firmly like in the DEI space, so it's started this very serious and important topic for very serious and important people. And yeah, the more I started, just kept getting my stuff, the more I got all these deaf fans, because they're like, oh, wow, most of the content we see on LinkedIn doesn't have captions. You know, if somebody's sending them a prospecting video, it doesn't have captions, they got to try to lip read. And the more I do this, the more I was severely underestimating how many people suffer from hearing loss. You know, it's a pretty sizable part of the country. And once I learned that, I'm like, oh, yeah, you know, my dad uses a hearing aid. You know, I didn't even think about that. But again, it's like you send a video to him, it's after hours, when he's looking at it. He's not going to be able to hear it unless he goes gets his hearing aid in, that's too much work to ask of him, you know, and I tell people, and they're like, Well, I don't have time to caption my videos, I go, Okay, well, your time to send that five minute screenshare. You know, you did all the work to get that video out there. There are free programs like cap cut, which is a popular editing program for the iPhone for phones. So people edit a lot of their tick tock videos, that has auto captions built into their like, literally, you press the auto transcribe button, and then you go through and you fix the typos, you know, you just fix you capitalize the names, you fix the spelling, and it takes you two minutes. And again, they're not going to be getting a sales video. But if they are getting a sales video, it's probably doesn't have captions. So you show up, you're relevant, you're looking professional, you're well framed, and it's got the words on the screen. So it's a reading experience, while it's a watching experience. And while it's an auditory experience, you're getting that message to them on all levels. And, you know, again, I'm like that that, that Uber ride might have been your one chance, you know, you had them there, they were there, they were looking through their inbox. If you delivered a 32nd message in the way that was most convenient for them to consume it, they would have watched 100% of it. Like you'd be in you got into their head, you got into their consciousness, you've established yourself as a relevant person. But, you know, most people don't take the time to do that. They send off the same generic email that they sent to 100 people and they're like, Wow, I got three responses to them or take me off your list. But hey, maybe there's one person. And again, is that is that really the first impression you want?
Claire Davis 39:34
Right? And because it's documented, it'll be the last impression as well. Right? So like you were saying before, if we've all had those opportunities presented to us in the DMS or in our email, and it just wasn't the right time. And then six months later, you think Oh, yeah, that one he was talking about leads let me go back and look, and it can, it can either be your best salesperson And right there, your videos your best salesperson 24/7 or something. That's maybe what everybody else is saying, too. I think that's what, what strikes me so, so much about video is that we have, we have mastered and tweaked and found all the different ways that we can write something right there. There's so many brilliant ways brilliant ways of persuasion in writing. But video is still largely unknown. For most people, most people haven't tried it. So even just getting those early reps in giving it a shot, focusing on your customer like Christmas sharing, is really going to help to make you stand out, even if it's not perfect. But the more that you try it, it seems like it will it comes, you know, yeah, it gets more comfortable.
Chris Bogue 40:51
Yeah, go the next time you're scrolling through Facebook, or Instagram or your newsfeed. Watch how many giant brands have ads, where they're just like, whoa, hey, we're all just hanging out here at the end. Like they're trying to look like a regular person. Because that's what people trust, right? You don't trust the media, they don't trust politicians. They don't trust institutions. Sometimes it would be nice if they trusted experts more, but they don't. And they trust the people they interact with on a daily basis. And if you're here, during that circle of people, you know,
Claire Davis 41:31
it doesn't go Go ahead. So I think something you mentioned to me that that really struck home the other day when we were chatting was when you said there's only one screen, right? I mean, we've got one phone that we're looking at, and it's a few inches across and a few inches high. And we're all competing for the exact same screen with whomever is holding that phone, whether it's sales, entertainment, infotainment, pictures of their kids, the weather, whatever it is, it's all right here. It's that's it. And so when you have the chance to get on someone's screen, that means you're doing it in place of all the other things right, and in a place where they're already so comfortable. So at that, I don't know why that just really sunk in for me the other day.
Chris Bogue 42:26
Thank you. Yeah, I'm glad it didn't. I mean, you're a great example of that, too. Because, you know, I know you mostly from your LinkedIn content, and it's very good. It's very good. I always look at you, you always, again, it looks more professional, than most of what I see on that platform. And a lot of it is just because like, you have a compelling personality, you're looking to the camera, and speaking with confidence. And it's like, you look like a person who knows what they're talking about. And it's funny, because a lot of the people you're selling to, might be more accomplished than us, but they're not as good at that. You know, and it was this irony, where it was like, I was speaking to these elite professors, sometimes at like Ivy League universities. And all of a sudden, they couldn't connect with their students anymore, you know, and their shot was a mess. And they're, you know, the camera angle was terrible. And the lighting was terrible, and they weren't looking in the right place. And it's like, okay, well, this person is smarter and wealthier and more well credentialed and connected than me. And audience wouldn't know that, you know, if they just saw the two of us, they'd be like, Oh, that guy must be the smart guy. Because look at our professionally looks, you know, I have a saxophone in my background. I'm not good at it. You know, but there are a million saxophone players who are amazing. And they never go out there on camera and play saxophone. So, who's the audience? Like, who are they going to think is the musician me? Who they can see has a saxophone, or that person who never puts themselves out there.
Claire Davis 44:09
I'm hoping that after this show, people think that I'm a real artist that's a brilliant point. I mean, you know, it's it's funny, I used to always joke with my co workers, they'd say, Claire, you're always wearing something to talk about. I'd always have like something where if you know, if I was carrying a bag, I would make it a college alumni alma mater bag or maybe my Chi Omega bag Oh Chi Omega. And, or I'd wear like shoes with like, I've got these ridiculous Uggs and they're been dazzled like crazy from when my girlfriend I thought that was a really great idea when we were Black Friday shopping a few years ago, but always something because I love starting conversations on a very, you know, low pressure Your level oh my gosh, I love your shoes or Hey, great Valerie year went to Ohio University. And so I feel like the way that you have your sex in the background is something so memorable. And it's always there. We can come to expect it. It's a great conversation piece. I think it's great. It's it's strategic to have it there.
Chris Bogue 45:19
You have you've stumbled upon some this is not an accident. Everything you see in my shot is designed for a prospect to be like, Oh, Chicago. Alright. Yeah, I'm in Chicago. Yeah. Oh, you're a Simpsons fan. Oh, you're a board game player. You know, like, I'm, the shot kind of tells a story before I've said anything, you know? And yeah, again, it's like, a lot of what you aren't saying is powerful, you know, and if you haven't, you should make a note, as you were talking, I was like, oh, Claire should really make a video about that. You should really have a video where you've got something attention grabbing on, you know, and like how you purposely like work conversation starters into there.
Claire Davis 46:07
That's a great idea,
Chris Bogue 46:08
I think of it is like I always said in sales. It's like purposely leaving a thread dangling out of your shirt. And I'm just waiting for a prospect to pull. And then it's like, yeah, you just let them Paul and Paul and Paul, you know, and the trick I always used to do back I don't cold call anymore. I you know, I did the video thing I went all in, I'm like, Alright, I'm the video guy. Not cold calling. I'm not cold emailing anymore on video. But my trick when I was cold calling was I would always talk about food. But I always talk about food. This actually is still works, if anybody's if any cold callers and are in the audience. Oftentimes, cold callers are trained to ask how do you been a popular cold caller? Question is, how have you been? Oftentimes people say, Oh, I'm fine. How have you been? And whenever anybody would ask me that I would always say something about food. I wouldn't say like back when I'd be in the office, I'd be like, You know what? Someone brought doughnuts in this morning. And I am trying to resist the break room. Oh, so you know. And, again, I've given them a point of view. And I'm just gonna see what they do with it, you know, or I'd be like, somebody would tell me, they'd be like, Oh, yeah. How's your morning, go? And I'd be like, you know, what? I Girl Scout cookies for breakfast? So that's my answer, you know, make of that what you will. And then sometimes they're like, Oh, I love the Thin Mints, you know, and now they're talking about their feelings about it. Or with the doughnuts example, it'd be like a turn on not eat those doughnuts. You know, you get the maybe somebody's struggling with their weight. And they're like, oh, gosh, me too. Or maybe they're a health nut. And they're like, You know what? Good for you. You can do it. You can like whatever it is. What I actually did was I just told them a little micro story that's five seconds long, and I got them to be on my side. We don't know where that story's going. We don't know. Am I gonna eat the doughnuts? Or am I not? But they've all of a sudden, they're kind of rooting for me. And I'm like, by the way, would you mind if I mentioned why I'm reaching out? You know, and what are they gonna do slam the phone and be like, No, it's like, they're like, sure.
Claire Davis 48:22
You don't not eating swindler? Yeah. Do you think that? Do you think that some of that strategy comes from your if you don't, if you haven't met Chris, and you're not following Him by now, make of note, do it immediately and come back to this conversation. But Chris has also got roots in comedy and improv. So do you feel like some of what you learned in in improv it helps humanize it and keep you to sticking to the real things that bind us like eating doughnuts or trying to avoid them.
Chris Bogue 48:59
Yeah. So improv is a huge part of what I do. And I'm nervous about bringing that up because I say improv. And people instantly think I want them to go be funny. And one thing I always say as an improv trainer, especially if I'm working with new improvisers, people have never done it before I do an exercise where I go, breathe in. Breathe out the need to be funny. We are not telling jokes out here. We are not I do not want you to tell me jokes. Because what happens with jokes is when you're like, Oh, I'm gonna tell you a funny joke. Yes, there's an inclination not to laugh at it, you know. And in improv, you don't tell jokes, you play games. And you're trying to find these moments where you and the other person are bouncing off of each other. And one thing they actually teach you in improv that I actually do in sales, which is again cutting against sales orthodoxy, is in improv they say don't ask questions. You're making a move. You're initiating a move You're not asking questions, when you ask a question. In improv, you're stealing information from your partner and you're forcing them to do something interesting, you're putting pressure on them, you know. So I'm always trying to find something where we're kind of like collaborating together. And the food is just an example of that, I made a very specific observation about a very specific thing that they're going to have an opinion about, because we all have to eat, you know, and now, no matter what they say, we're kind of playing off each other, you know? Yes. And that's even a thing to where it's like, you know, oftentimes, and especially in in, you know, medical sales or something, we're referrals are your best friends. You know, a lot of times I have a name drop, you know, and a lot of times, it's like, Hey, I'm actually reaching out to you, I wanted to talk to you about some of the work I've been doing with Dr. Davis, you know, over in this practice or something, especially if that's a name, I know, they're going to recognize, you know, I don't exactly know how they're going to react to that. But however they do react to that is going to tell me a lot, you know, and back when I was in higher education, technology, and I was getting all this training about like, oh, this challenger sale, you know, why don't you Why don't you go in there and show them you have all the secret knowledge that they don't know, about critical thinking, well, actually, what I do is I get them to tell me about critical thinking. I get them to tell me a story. You know, when I'm, when I'm like, when they're telling me about what they did today, like that's so important. And I actually usually, I try to get them to tell me about something that happened earlier today. I'm going to ask a question like, Oh, how'd your morning go? You know, because if I asked them questions, like, what are the three top priorities of your organization? You know, they've got the answer for that. They've got the answer for that already. So you know, like, one thing I would do when I was talking to college professors, I'd be like, I had class go today, and be like, alright, I'd say, Did you get any good questions? I'd stop. And they'd be like, you know why? I did get one question today. A student, they actually, they asked me, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, what I've actually done is I've made them the performer now, you know, they're telling me a story. And I can, I can bounce off them, I can play off of them. And, you know, improv is all about setting the other person up to look good. You know, it's all about can I put my partner in a situation where they look smart, where they look cool, or they look funny. You know, if I want to get on someone's side during a sale, I'm going to set them up so they get the hilarious line. Yeah, you know, if they're the one who gets the laugh, if they feel smart, and they feel validated, and they feel supported. Again, it's like that, that Maya Angelou quote, like, they won't remember what they said, but they'll remember how you made them feel. Yeah. And it's like, every time they're talking to you, they feel smart. They feel heard. They feel understood. Like, that's what you need to get them to not ignore you. When you pick up the phone when you knock the door when you send that email. And yeah, it's just I always want to create this thing where it's like, every time they talk to me, they feel like it's fun. They feel smart, they feel they don't feel disrespected. And it's because I like people. And I have a lot of respect for people. And I believe that I have something to learn from everybody.
Claire Davis 53:45
And can they learn more about you and connect with you and maybe check out your course on how to do video?
Chris Bogue 53:52
Well, awesome. Thank you for teeing it up. So if your audience is interested in following me, the best way to do that is to go on LinkedIn got Crispo. org and ring my bell. So there's a bell feature on LinkedIn. I'm a creator, I'm posting new content every day, posting new comedic sketches. Every week, I talk a lot about sales and video, how to be confident on video, how to do it efficiently and quickly how to caption your videos. So I get free knowledge away on LinkedIn every day. And I'm a chatty Cathy. So come shoot me a DM and shoot me a connection request. I love talking to people on LinkedIn. And yeah, if you want to take your video to the next game, I have a course that I sell online so it is it's called The Complete Guide to selling on video. You can find that at Chris boge.io. So again, this is not something they're going to teach you at business school it's not even something they're going to teach you. If you get you know the program like Bom Bom or vid yard or drift. They'll teach you how to use the features they won't teach you how to create a human connection on video you know, so Um, yeah, the complete guide, it is fast. But thorough, you know, I really broke it down. It's broken out into six modules. So we cover the on camera performance. Where do you put the lights? Where do you put the camera? You know, we build the sales strategy. There's LinkedIn growth and LinkedIn connection strategy in their downloadable materials for your lead list. And then it's, you know, script writing. So there's different ways to talk to somebody you know, versus somebody you don't know. There's language in there, how you ask for referrals? How do you get stuff in the mid pipeline to actually show up to the meeting, and then it ends with the outbound so I show editing, I show how I do batch footage. So I shoot a lot of videos in one sitting. And then I show you how I edit it, how I caption it, and then ends with sending it on LinkedIn versus Gmail. So you made the video, how do you actually get someone to watch it and respond to it and take action? So yeah, the complete guide selling on video that retails for $249. And you can find that at Crispo ugh.io.
Claire Davis 56:05
Oh, my gosh, thank you so much for creating that you guys. I've taken it. It's an excellent course. And I've taken a lot of courses, but I have to say, Chris, the way that you broke it down and made it very easy. There's no overtures. There's no overproduction. It's just straightforward advice, real advice. And it's really easy to listen to, and to take in what you share. So thank you so much for making it and for making it the way that you did, it's very easy to digest, and then practice and use. And you guys, he even has sections where he'll count down. So you can do many practice runs. So it's very easy to do. And I for one, have it playing while I'm driving my kids back and forth to school. And I can focus on it and practice in my when I have it in my ear. And it's been really, really helpful. So thanks for that. Thank you, Claire. Yeah, well, thank you so much for being with me today. It's so nice to catch up with you. And I hope everybody listening gives video a chance and and connect with Chris, check out his course in and give it a try. Because you know, one thing I don't want to glaze over that Chris mentioned earlier is that video is here to stay. And if you want to get good at video, you've just got to start somewhere and you can be an outlier in you know, a few months of trying and even in a year from now, you will absolutely amaze yourself at how confident you can feel by getting the reps and just like anything else. And if you want to have a if you want to go back and watch your videos from a year ago, don't worry, we're all we're all having that cringe moment where we're like, Oh God, I said that. I can't believe I did that. So don't worry. That's all that's all normal to. So thank you all for joining. It's so great to see you Chris. And until next time. Thanks for watching today's medical sales leader.
Chris Bogue 57:55
Bye bye. It's great to be here. Thank you
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
