Behind the scenes look at SuperFastBusiness’ news videos with James Schramko and John Romaine.
Pre-filming stage
John: Here we are with James.
This is a bit of a behind the scenes shot at, what would you call it James, a bit of
video editing?
James: It is a business news video.
John: It’s a what sir? (laughs).
James: We’re making a business news video so we’re just erasing this SD card which
is done.
That is where the news is going to end up.
John: Right down here I got the whiteboard.
All ready to rock and roll.
James had scribbled some notes on there.
This is quite interesting actually, because we normally don’t get to see any of this.
The microphone set up is, what’s that called?
A Rode what?
James: It’s a Rode NTG.
John: And of course James is not wearing shoes (laughs).
James: Shoes ? optional.
John: Shoes ? optional, right.
We got the Canon 60D set up on the tripod here.
James: In self view mode.
John: So we got the remote.
James: It’s too tall so I’ll just pop it down here.
John: How do you know where you’re looking?
James: I’m looking at the camera there.
Hear the kookaburra?
Sounds good.
(Both men laughing) Self focus.
John: Ah okay so you take a shot.
You’re taking a…
James: And it is focusing okay.
John: Right, so it’s actually taking a still.
James: Right.
John: Let me take a shot of that.
So you can actually see yourself.
James: Yeah, so I’m looking at the flip camera of me.
Microphone is pointing straight at me and up to the sky so I have to be conscious of
airplanes flying overhead.
John: Right.
Occasionally we do hear a bit of background noise with traffic and…
James: That’s the reality.
John: But you usually power through those.
I’d probably crumble or (laughs) start over.
James: It’s time for the prompt board here.
John: Where do you want it?
James: This goes here.
John: Like a multi-purpose tripod.
James: That’s it, because I’m usually doing this myself.
John: Okay.
James: So now I’m going to film and put this on.
I’m going to do a test, “James here testing sound and video”.
So I’ve got my marker.
John: That’s like high-tech stuff right?
(laughs)
James: That’s where I’m standing, I’m just going to check this…
John: The twigs.
Right, so you just do a proof.
Show a proof.
James: That looks fine.
(Always pointing to me)
John: Okay it flips around.
This looks expensive, don’t touch anything it looks very expensive.
(Both men laughing)
James: Alright, so, we’re going to go and film the video now.
I’m just having a look at the board and see what I’m talking about.
John: Yes right, I’m quite familiar with this backdrop.
James: The board is a result of a phone call I just had, so it’s fresh in my mind.
And I know exactly who my target audience is and the main points that I want to make.
But during the call I’d probably look down at the board but I’ll edit them out later.
Okay
John: (Laughs at dog) Security detail.
James: Guest star.
John: This is Wardrobe here.
James: Yep.
John: (gently pats dog while laughing)
Filming the news video
James: “James Schramko here with a business tip.
In this video I’m going to be covering a very successful sales strategy, so stick with
me… and I’ll be revealing something really cool”.
How to get more sales
“Before I had my own business I worked in other people’s business and one of the most
common roles that I had was a sales person”.
(I’m going to start that again because of the horse).
“James Schramko here, and in this business tip I’m going to be covering a successful
sales strategy that you can use to make your business really profitable”.
“In my previous roles when I was working for other people, I used to work as a sales
person.
And in that sales role, I read everything I could about sales and developed a system
that might be useful for your business”.
“What I did was I broke down the stages of a sale.
Now everyone obsesses about making sales but if you want to go to the very core level,
think about it as leads and conversions = sales”.
What you need to make a sale
“So the first part is leads and there’s a lot of information about getting leads,
and then there’s conversions.
My first tip is, focus on increasing your percentage of conversions.
Rather than just the dollar value or which is going to pay you the biggest commission
upfront, focus on increasing your conversion percentage because even small sales and a
high conversion can give you that customer who later on can re-purchase and increase
the gross per person”.
“Think of yourself as a problem solving machine, and only ever sell solutions that
are perfect for your customer”.
“Here are a few of the steps to the sale.
There’s going to be the opening step where you get introduced to a customer, maybe over
the phone in which case you want to make an appointment.
Rather than sell high priced products over the phone, it is generally better to sell
them face to face if you have a face to face environment”.
(Harsh wind blows) “Secondly…
(What was it)… the next phase is the questions phase.
So you might want to ask questions…
(Just going to let the wind die down, it’s going to ruin my shot)”.
John: Right
The next phase to making a sale
James: “The next phase is the question phase.
This is where you investigate and find out everything you can about the current situation
of the customer so that you can then solve it.
The more aware of the problems your customer becomes, the bigger the solution value and
this will be useful for you to go and look up spin selling.
That’s where I found out a lot about this information.
Spin selling by Neil Rackham is highly recommended”.
“After you’ve investigated and found out the likely solution, you want to demonstrate
that that is the right solution.
So demonstrate incapability”.
In the case of cars it was simple you go for a test drive.
In the case of other things you might want to demo or a trial version if it’s software
perhaps”.
The Call to Action
“After that comes the call to action.
You want to ask for the order.
Be clear about this”.
“A lot of sales people never even ask for the sale.
You won’t sell everyone straight away so that’s why you have follow-up mechanisms.
And with follow-up mechanisms, it’s about you being dedicated to following-up the customer
to solve their problems”.
“If you can solve their problems…” (chuckles) Nice one, it’s not the horse neighing that’s
distracting me, it’s John with the camera (laughter).
It’s alright, it’s funny.
I’m not used to that stalker cam.
“When you ask for the order, not everyone will buy straight away and that’s why you
have follow-up mechanisms.
Make sure you follow-up”.
“A lot of people forget about the follow-up.
It’s the follow-up where you get that extra percentage of customers where other people
would leave them.
If you follow-up better, you make more sales”.
Doing things a little differently
“Now a few things when you’re putting together this series of events or these phases,
it’s okay to do things a little differently than everyone else”.
“A perfect example of that; in the car dealership, most sales people will throw the customer
the keys for a car.
I used to drive the car first and find a convenient hand over spot to demonstrate the features
of the car, and then to make sure that my customer was comfortable”.
“Rather than having to drive off in a busy dealership in a brand new car, they were now
in a quiet place where they could comfortably focus on learning this new vehicle and that
would make a better experience.
Plus it gave me the opportunity to explain some of the features and the controls of the
car, to set the radio, to set the air-conditioning, to point out some of the experiences that
the customer is about to experience, to build up that excitement, and it really worked”.
I was able to sell more than everyone else”.
Lock in your system
“So when you start implementing your sales system, you’ll start to get better results
than everyone else.
And a great way to do this is to lock in that system with some kind of template, framework,
or document”.
I use what’s called a write up sheet.
It had all the things on it that I needed to do every time, so just like a standard
operating procedure, use the checklist every time.
Build in a sales system checklist for your business and you’ll be profitable”.
“I’m James Schramko.
This is SuperFastBusiness.com, I’ll speak to you soon”.
After the recording session
John: (chuckling) And there we go.
James: So basically that’s all there is to it.
So we’ll just check this and make sure that I actually record it.
John: Did you get my little gallop or did you kill the camera?
James: I killed the camera, unfortunately.
John: That would have been a seller.
James: Hang on we’ll go back.
Gallop now.
(Laughter)
James: Alright so it worked.
Let’s switch her off, remote away.
So I have a pack down procedure.
Remote goes back in its pouch.
John: Right
James: Camera off, sound off.
Now I fold the legs so they fit through the doorway of the house like this keep it from
bashing stuff and that’s it.
Let’s go.
John: So from here back to the computer and we chop it up yes?
James: Back to the editing suite, yes.
John: That’s a nice choice of shirt James.
James: You like this one?
This is a classic FastWebformula one.
John: You should’ve went with maybe a print.
James: You think so?
John: Yes (laughs)
James: I had a print on and you decided that wouldn’t be good enough.
John: I told him to change it.
James: …directing the choice.
Having this microphone allows me to just have one sound card.
I used to have a separate mic, this synchronizes straight to the camera.
John: Right, it’s all in one grab too.
James: I can’t show you in.
It’s super private.
John: Alright, we’ll kill it.