Build a video sales letter

1. A video in front of every call

What follows is given as the 80-20 of it.

• Whatever call you hold with a prospect, a video should always come before it.
• A two-call close means two videos. A three-call close means three.

2. What your video is for

Take everything your sales team ends up repeating call after call and load it into your video, so the customer has it before anyone speaks to them. When the call starts, they already hold that information. The salesperson is then free to do the part that is left: make sure the prospect is able to make the decision, and personalize it to help them close.

The same idea, seen as a sales aid that moves the stretch of a script that breaks false beliefs ahead of the sale, is on SOP 152, section 5, with its own running order for a video watched before the call.

3. The opening: five P's

The opening is made of five P's: proof, promise, pain, plan and picture. After proof and promise comes a note that this is not an order, and then the rest. That note can mean that the five carry no set order, or that the order listed is not the right one; the example below runs promise, pain, proof, plan, picture. A second listing runs the same way, opening as any video that teaches does: promise, pain, proof, plan, with a picture to close where there is a visual to show. This page does not settle which reading is right.

If that looks close to a YouTube video, it is: that shape is what earns attention and keeps people watching.

The example given, for a business that gets its clients appointments through LinkedIn. The opening says, in substance:

• It can help you book appointments via LinkedIn.
• Tired of poor-quality leads who do not show, of having to make fresh creative, and of fronting your brand yourself? It can help.
• Here is proof: ten other companies like yours it has helped do this.
• What follows takes you through a one, two, three-step process.
• A clear visual shows you where you stand.

One practice here is to open it that way.

3.1 After the opening: the old way and the new

Next comes what you do differently, the thing that is yours alone. The way usually used here is an old way set against a new one, a classic way to describe anything: how most people go about it, where that falls down, the new way, and why it does so well. The same step, as the solution and what makes it better than other people's, is steps 5 and 6 of the running order on SOP 152, section 5. On ads, SOP 110, section 1, found the weak ones talked about the business and its 'unique mechanism' rather than the customer.

4. The body: one block per big objection

Think of each block as an FAQ entry. The entries are the biggest objections, numbered from one. You can go up to five. One practice here: not usually past five, and try to keep to three to five.

Flag: when to stop adding blocks. SOP 247 — Put a video sales letter before every conversation, section 6, runs the same steps as a loop and repeats it until no reason for not buying is left unanswered; a second account of the steps also repeats them for every objection people raise. Here the blocks go up to five, by one practice not usually past five, and three to five is the aim. This page does not settle which reading is right.

Each block breaks one belief. For each, you cover:

• what the prospect believes;
• the reason that belief is mistaken;
• what is actually right;
• the proof.

The proof can be a statistic, which makes the case with numbers and logic, or a story. Stories are more powerful, and both together better still.

Work through every such block in turn. Together they answer what most people object to, the prospect's own question: why would I not want to buy?

Where the blocks come from. After the old way and the new, the rest of your video is finding out why people are not buying and answering each reason in turn. If you have not heard from the people you sell to lately, call them, hear the reasons they give for holding back, and work those in. One practice here, offered as the 80-20 of it: take your call recordings, have an AI tool list the common objections and draft a reply to each, then match proof to each. Why people do buy is SOP 246 — Write a why-people-buy document from the calls that closed.

4.1 The example given

The objection: a lot of people would rather not travel to the city involved.

The reply puts what is wrong and what is right into one line. Getting up in the air gives you perspective on the business, literally and physically. You need that time and that separation for your thinking to settle, and then you can plan, strategically, what you will implement.

The proof: people who made the trip, named one by one, who said distance from their business did them good, because it lifted them out of the chaos. They had real physical distance. They could take their notes, and they could arrive with intention and could leave with it. It turned out to be one of the most valuable moves they made, they loved the city, and the memory by itself would have been worth the trip.

What the block does: it takes something the prospect expected to be a reason to stay home and turns it into a reason the thing is good.

What an objection is, and which kind you are facing, is SOP 99 — Classify an objection.

5. The call to action, with the offer

After the blocks comes the call to action, with some form of the offer built into it: book a call, take the next step, whatever the next action is.

Sometimes you can do it another way: build a piece of the offer into each block, so that each part of the offer can knock down an obstacle. That works as well. Either way, you still have the call to action and the offer.

6. Before an in-person meeting

For those who meet prospects face to face (by one guess, like 30 percent of sellers), you can send your video before the prospect meets the salesperson in person.

Inside your video, you can ask them to send back a keyword. The examples given:

• The shirt color they would like.
• The shirt size they need.
• The dynamics of their deck.
• How many years old their business, or their house, is.
• Or anything of the kind.

The reason for asking: when the answer comes back, you know they watched.

7. Sending it: the script

In a setting like that, where you are nurturing a lead, you would say something like this, in substance:

• You would like to send a video, because it holds all the graphs, charts and statistics, and it is far better than trying to cover it off the cuff.
• Would they prefer to watch it together with you, or by themselves?

Nobody answers that they would not want to watch it with you. They say they will watch it alone. They have now told you how they want to watch it, and it is the way you want them to watch it too.

That answer sets a precedent. If they have not watched it, you can say you did not get their text, suggest they pull your video up while you step away for a coffee, and then carry on. That way they have the full context, with visuals you probably could not show with your hands.

8. The proof roll

After the call to action and the offer, run proof: from there to the end, your video keeps showing people who have been through what you sell, or their experiences of it.

9. How long, and how simple

This is the quick and dirty version, at five to seven minutes. Take it one, two, three, four; keep it very simple.

10. One between every conversation

You want a video between every conversation. As the sale moves along, the prospect might raise different objections at different stages, and you make a video to meet them.

That sometimes means someone might watch two videos that differ but sell the same thing. That is fine. The claim offered here: selling a person more does not make them less likely to buy.

11. What this page does not decide for you

• Whether the five P's have an order. What the note can mean is set out under the opening. This page does not settle which reading is right.
• Who the script is for. It comes straight after the in-person passage and is introduced for that kind of setting, where leads are being nurtured. Whether it is meant only for in-person meetings or for nurturing leads generally: this page does not settle which reading is right.

12. The checklist

Step	What to do
1	Put a video before every sales call: one per call the close takes
2	Load it with what your sales team repeats call after call
3	Open with the five P's: proof, promise, pain, plan, picture (whether they have an order is not settled)
4	Set the old way against the new: the usual way, where it falls down, the new way, why it works
5	Add one block per big objection, from why people are not buying; you can go up to five, and one practice is to try to keep to three to five
6	In each block: the prospect's belief, the reason it is mistaken, what is actually right, the proof (a statistic, a story, or both)
7	Follow the blocks with a call to action carrying the offer; sometimes you can also build a piece of the offer into each block
8	Meeting in person: you can send it first and ask for a keyword back
9	When you send it, ask something like whether they would rather watch it with you or on their own
10	Finish with a proof roll
11	Keep it quick and simple: five to seven minutes
12	Make one for each conversation, for the objections at that stage

13. Where this sits

• Closing too few, the branch of the money question that names this video among its fixes: SOP 197 — Solve a leads, sales or profit-per-customer problem, section 3.2.
• Deciding who reaches the call in the first place: SOP 208 — Set prerequisites, raise lead quality and add friction.
• Pulling the claims your data supports, for the proof: SOP 110 — Claim your proof from the data. Making each piece land harder: SOP 109.
• Keeping a steady supply of proof you can drop into a video like this: SOP 123 — Run the standing proof streams.

14. What this page does not cover

Filming and editing a video are not covered on this page. Qualifying on the call is SOP 98 — Qualify with the four-letter test. Closing on the call is SOP 101 — Run the general closes.