Video prospecting that gets replies with one short sales video

The first video message I ever got from a salesperson was 90 seconds long and opened on the company logo. My name appeared once, in the first word. I watched about eight seconds of it. It was a sequence with a face on it.

Video prospecting works for the opposite reason a sequence works. A sequence scales because it is the same for everyone. A video earns a reply when it could only have been made for one person, so a video that scales turns back into a sequence.

One prospect per video

Record each video for exactly one person, and say their name in the first sentence. This sounds obvious, but it gets skipped because the arithmetic looks bad. Forty seconds per prospect, plus a retake, is a few minutes each. Twenty prospects is an hour.

The hour is worth it. The prospect can tell within a few seconds whether the video was made for them, and that shapes how they treat everything after it.

If you record with hi.video, the page the prospect opens shows their name above the video. That makes a reused video hard to pass off, which I think is a good constraint because it builds the habit.

One observation about them

The middle of the video is one thing you noticed, such as a job post that went up this week, a line in their product changelog, something they said on a podcast, or a pricing page with three tiers when their competitors have two.

The observation proves you did the work. It also gives the prospect something to react to that is about their world rather than yours.

Pick something specific over something flattering. "I saw you are hiring three SDRs in Austin" beats "I love what you are doing", because the second one is what everybody says.

Resist connecting the observation to your product in the same breath. "I saw you are hiring three SDRs, and our platform helps SDRs ramp faster" turns the observation into a setup, and the prospect hears the setup coming. Leave the connection for them to make, or save it for the ask.

One ask, and only one

End with a single request that is easy to say yes or no to: a 15-minute call next week, a one-word reply, permission to send a two-page document, or the name of the right person if it is not them.

Two asks make each one less likely. "Book a call, or reply, or check out our site" is three doors, and the prospect walks past all of them.

The ask should match the button on the video page. hi.video lets you attach one button, either an email address for a reply or an https link such as a calendar. If you say "grab a slot on my calendar" in the video, the button under it should be the calendar.

A 40-second script you can adapt

Here is the structure I use, with rough timings. The bracketed parts are yours to replace.

(0 to 5 seconds) Hi Priya, it's Pranav. I recorded this for you instead of sending another email.

(5 to 20 seconds) I noticed the job post for three SDRs in Austin went up on Tuesday. [One or two sentences on what you have seen happen when a team hires in a batch like that, drawn from your own experience.]

(20 to 32 seconds) I have a two-page writeup on how one team handled that first month, with the schedule they used. It says nothing about our product.

(32 to 40 seconds) If you want it, reply with "send it" and I will. If the timing is wrong, no problem at all. Thanks, Priya.

Say the name at the start and at the end. Look at the lens during the ask rather than at your own face in the preview.

What makes a video feel like a sequence

• A branded intro screen or a logo before your face appears.
• Your name and company before their name.
• Reading from a script word for word. Use a few bullet points on a sticky note next to the camera instead.
• A generic observation, such as "I have been following your company for a while".
• A feature pitch in the middle.
• Running over a minute.
• Three asks at the end.
• An AI avatar, or a video edited together from clips. People often notice, and if they find out later it costs you the trust the video was meant to build. hi.video does not allow avatars or uploads for this reason, and the trust page explains how recording works.

Where to send it, and what comes after

Email and LinkedIn both work, and the link is the same. In an email, put the link on its own line after the first sentence. In a LinkedIn message, the link may show as a preview card, so keep the text above it short. How to add a video to a cold email covers the email side in detail, with a full example.

A first-touch video earns the discovery call rather than replacing it. It does the part of the call where you prove you understand their situation, in 40 seconds the prospect can watch while waiting for coffee. Personal video vs discovery call goes into when each one makes sense.

Once the link is out, you can see when it has been viewed. Use that to time a single follow-up a few days later, rather than to send one the same afternoon.

Getting set up

You can record your first hi in the browser without installing anything. New accounts do a camera check first, which helps you catch a bad angle before the link has gone out. The free plan gives you five published videos a month at up to a minute each, which is enough to test whether this works on your list. If it does, the Pro plan is $14.99 USD a month for videos up to ten minutes and a custom username in the link. Both plans are on the pricing page.

If you want a longer structure for a warmer prospect, the 60-second introduction video script is the next step.