Mobile Videos: An Engaging Substitute For Mandatory Conference Calls
Ryan Junius isn’t nearly as famous as Jaime Lannister, the “Kingslayer” from Game of Thrones, but he is far more popular than Jamie ever was, especially among sales reps.
That’s because Junius, a sales training executive at Legg Mason Asset Management, was responsible for “slaying” the dreaded but mandatory 7:30 a.m. conference calls with Allego mobile videos, earning him the nickname, “The Conference Call Killer.”
And he isn’t alone. When it comes to keeping sales reps updated on the latest market news and trends, content creators at other financial services firms also recognize the benefits of substituting short, easy-to-digest mobile videos in place of emails and conference calls.
Mobile Video Drives Engagement
“The conference calls were at 7:30 a.m. on the East Coast, or 4:30 a.m. Pacific Time,” said Junius during a recent panel discussion. “It was four days a week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Is 7:30 a.m. a great time to hop on a conference call? It’s probably the worst time … but our salespeople were expected to dial in.
“Across the U.S. we have about 250 salespeople and others who were expected to attend. On a good day, we’d get 120. So I’m a bit of a hero at the firm because I killed the conference calls by moving to Allego.”
By replacing the calls with short videos prepared by subject matter experts around the world, Junius has significantly improved engagement among the reps while dramatically speeding the delivery of product updates, market news, sales tips, and best practices.
A Centralized Distribution Platform
Instead of forcing reps out of bed to attend conference calls, they can now access all the information they need–whenever and wherever they need it–from a centralized distribution platform.
“Our salespeople now have the opportunity to walk into a meeting armed with the intelligence for that product or market segment or strategy at their fingertips,” said Junius.
In addition, the people creating the content no longer have to repeatedly email or phone in the same information in response to multiple requests. “I don’t have to ask them over and over for some of the same evergreen stuff. Instead, we can video that content, and it will live on for future trainings.”
Some Minor Challenges
Of course, the switch from conference calls to mobile video was not without its challenges. At BNY Mellon, Vice President & Head of Internal Sales Vincent DeRose noted that content creators such as portfolio managers and portfolio specialists required a lot of rehearsal to hone their messages and trim the videos to a concise five or eight minutes.
“One obstacle was portfolio managers wanting to talk for 45 minutes,” said DeRose. “We needed them to get their messages tight because most viewers will zone out after five or six minutes.
“The other hurdle was getting some of them comfortable with not delivering a perfect performance. Our portfolio managers are used to being highly produced when they’re on a video that goes on our website. So I said, ‘Let’s not worry about this video being perfectly lit and everything coming out of your mouth sounding like silk. If you can get the message across, that’s the goal. Trust me: you’ll be getting it across in a much easier and digestible manner.’”
Because not everyone is familiar with creating and accessing videos via Allego, Junius suggested that companies introduce the platform at a national event.
“We rolled it out at our national sales meeting to get everybody comfortable with it. It was as simple as ‘record your biggest win of 2017.’ Or, you get a sales manager to video a welcome message, and throw in some pre-work items that get people to use the platform.” DeRose added that doing it this way also pre-populated their Allego instance with useful content that helped increase adoption right away.
