I was driving to work this morning and heard a pop hit from 1979 on my car radio, “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. It quickly reminded me how video has had a transformational effect on sales.

In many ways, we should not be surprised by this transformation.  It was somewhat inevitable that as bandwidth increased streaming video would become a key component of every company’s sales and marketing strategy.  Today, company’s websites are designed to “pull in” potential customers through the allure of video.  Not only is video more inviting than static web pages, but it also conveys information far more rapidly than other mediums.  Perhaps the former CMO of Kodak, Jeff Hayzlett, summed it up best in a presentation that I attended a few years ago when he said “if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth ten thousand.”

Our propensity to watch video was instilled in us at a very young age (most of us spent way too much time watching TV). It should therefore come as no surprise that companies are now sharing their videos on leading social networks including YouTube and Facebook.  They are also embracing online meeting capabilities such as WebEx, Live Meeting, and Adobe Connect Pro to conduct online meetings that include the use of web cams and videos.

Sales organizations are now actively using videos to develop and cultivate relationships with clients. Video clips are included in e-mail campaigns, personalized e-mails, online presentations, demos, and post-sales support.  They are also used by sales organizations for training purposes, including sharing best practices among reps, providing information on new products and services, and to reinforce key selling skills. The use of video has also allowed for more personalized selling with web cams being actively used by inside sales reps who cannot meet with their prospects and customers in person.

I should also credit Selling Power’s publisher and founder, Gerhard Gschwandtner, for helping expose me to this mega trend at his Sales 2.0 Conferences and persuading me to join him for a few Selling Power video presentations last fall.