Episode Summary

Whether you have yet to try video prospecting, you want to tweak your go-to script, or you need to refresh your research process, Melissa Gaglione can offer up sage advice and guidance.

Like many of the best salespeople, Melissa struck gold with her video prospecting process because the other go-to methods recommended for SDRs — from cold calls to countless emails —  failed her. A colleague recommended she try sending Voice Notes on LinkedIn. But with a background in journalism and teaching, she opted to send a quick video instead. That video made way for her first meeting as an SDR, and now she’s the video prospecting pro.

On this episode of the B2B Power Hour, we gain tactical advice from Melissa who shares strategies for identifying the purpose of your video, the key points to cover in a script, and production pro tips.

Melissa says that research makes the difference between novice and expert video prospecting. Take the time first to make sure your video will resonate with your prospect by learning about their problems and goals.

Find proof of the problem through reviews or articles, and look for proof that the person you’re contacting has a personal motive for solving that problem. Collect this proof as you go in the form of screenshots that you can later use as “B-roll,” or the background footage for your video.

With practice and repetition, this process becomes easier and quicker, and should take just 15 minutes per prospect.

We detail how to evoke the right emotions, ways to use video internally, strategies for testing video types against particular personas, and Melissa even shares some of her video prospecting mistakes — plus, what she’s learned from them.

What she does: Account Executive at Deel

Key quote: “Video evokes emotion. So do you want your prospect to be annoyed? … Or do you want them to actually feel like, Wow, they took the time to really learn about my goals and my needs, and they're coming up with something that could actually help me?”

Where to find her: X (formerly Twitter) | LinkedIn

B2B Power Plays

Top takeaways from this week’s conversation

🎭 Evoke the right emotions with your video.

When you send a video you have the power to make your prospect feel something. If you go on a rant or stay generic, you’ve wasted their time — and you’ll just draw out frustration or boredom.

But when you conduct thoughtful research and show that you understand their problem, you can make the person on the other side of the screen feel heard. You might even get the prospect to take the meeting just because they see the effort you’ve put in. “They’ll give you their time because you gave them your time first,” Melissa says.

🎥 Use this four-sentence (+CTA) script to answer your prospect’s questions and land the meeting.

Melissa uses an airtight script template to get ahead of what her prospect might be thinking as they watch her 90-second video. Steal this script structure (plus her approach to a call to action):

  • Sentence 1: Lead with the problem. What is happening with their company, and why should they care? You want to stop the prospect in their tracks, and you might do that with proof using a review of their product or an article about the problem.
  • Sentence 2: Let them know why you’re reaching out to them. Why is the problem this person’s responsibility? It might be a goal that falls within that particular person’s role. Or you might identify their personal motive for solving the problem through an interview they gave on a podcast or something they posted on LinkedIn. This might seem challenging, but Melissa promises that this is possible.
  • Sentence 3: Choose to share either the cost of inaction or greater impact. Speak to what will happen for the company if they leave the problem unresolved. Alternatively, you can paint a picture of what would happen if they implement a solution and talk about how their life and business will be better when they solve the problem.
  • Sentence 4: Talk about how you’ve helped others with this problem. Ideally, you want to share about a similar company to your prospect’s. If you can’t, share how you’ve solved the problem for someone else and the results, or share a brief visual of what your solution looks like.

Close your video with a call to action (CTA). Some people prefer a hard CTA, like asking to meet on a specific day at a specific time, but Melissa prefers a soft CTA that offers the prospect flexibility to pick a time from her calendar.

⌚Don’t wait to identify a prospect’s channel of choice until after you’ve recorded.

Make sure that your prospect is reachable during the research process — not after. Look out for an email address that consistently bounces or a LinkedIn profile that hasn’t been active in months. These are warning signs that the channel you have in mind is not the prospect’s channel of choice — which might indicate that you should focus on the next person on your list at that company.

Episode Highlights

Inflection points from the show

[1:50] It’s all about the plan: What sets expert video prospecting apart from novice attempts? Research. Melissa shares how and why she started with video and the research process she uses.

[7:43] Write it out: Whether you use a written script or a teleprompter, lock in what you’ll say before you hit record. You’ll save time and sound more polished with a plan.

[16:25] Tell a story: Over 65% of the population are visual learners. Melissa taps into her teaching background to share how learning styles play into your audience’s retention.

[19:11] Four sentences and a CTA: Melissa breaks down the four-sentence script (plus call to action) she uses for targeted and effective videos.

[28:19] Don’t fear the edit: Whether you use Premiere, CapCut, or Final Cut, edit your videos with the tool that makes things most easy and efficient for you.

[31:46] Problem, why, cost, solution: As a former reporter, Melissa typically records one take — and she shares about how teleprompters help her make that happen.

[33:10] One t-shirt: You don’t need fancy equipment (or a big budget) to record prospecting videos. Your laptop or iPhone and an editing tool are all you need.

[34:50] Channel of choice: During your research (and before you film), make sure you have the right prospect by making sure they’re reachable, whether by email, phone, or LinkedIn.

[38:59] Testing, 1, 2, 3: Over time, learn what kind of video works with a particular persona, which channel they prefer, and which visuals resonate with which type of prospect. Melissa often requests feedback from her prospects on her videos.

[42:37] We’ve all been there: It hasn’t all been best-case scenarios. Melissa shares the horror stories of negative responses to her video prospecting.

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