Should You Use Video in Sales? ft. Melissa Gaglione

Your job as a manager or as a leader is to make your team better. It's not to drill them with the numbers. It's not to hold them accountable with all. It's literally your job to make them better.

Welcome back to another episode of the Revenue Reimagine podcast. We have so many great guests on this show, but very rarely do we get someone that I truly admire, that I've followed for a long time, and that has been instrumental in my and our inbound outbound, inbound to outbound motion here at Revenue Reimagined. So with us today, we have none other than the incredible Melissa Gaglioni, who I knew when I first saw her coming up at Deal on LinkedIn. She moved over and started her own thing. Melissa Gaglioni LLC. We could talk a little bit about what that looked like, and now she is the head of sales at the best video company out there, SensPark, which we'll talk about as well. Melissa, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here.

Oh my gosh, I'm so happy to be here. And how weird is it to talk to you both virtually because I feel like we're always in person?

Right? This is like a flip because usually the first time we met was in person down in Tampa, and so now we're just flipping the story.

So the current position you have at SensPark was based off your original company that you started building on your own. So why did you build the company? What was the origin story of your company?

Yeah, for sure. So I started Melissa Gaglioni LLC, and it's funny because I recently got married and I was like, my name must live on forever, so I made it an LLC. It's forever one. But it all started naturally, you know, not on purpose. I wanted to get some content creators together. I wanted to throw a community event and I wanted to bring the amazing people that I met on LinkedIn to one place where we weren't sitting, you know, listening to someone else speak. Like we could really start to network and collaborate. And truthfully, there wasn't much intention behind it. The whole purpose was just to bring people together, but it became so, so, so much more.

That's why when the event was being successful and people were giving me money without an LLC, without any sort of business behind me, I was almost joking with them: "You want to Venmo me, or what?" But getting all of these different large brands to buy into the idea of bringing people together for a community event is what sparked for me to start my official business, where I help companies throw events now. And I also do individual coaching for whether that is video selling, which is something I'm very skilled at, social brand building, even interview prep. So just trying to make myself available for the community that really shows up every single day and is just trying to get better.

Love that. So you are probably the best at video selling that I've seen. I think that it is definitely a skill that takes people time to get comfortable with. It's not simple. It's just pop up a camera and talk into a camera. And it's hard. When you originally started in sales, my guess is you probably weren't great at video selling. I don't think you were an A. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think you were an A-player in sales day one. You weren't like, "I'm the best video seller out there." How did what prompted the use of video? That ultimately, we'll come back to the Creator stuff, but what prompted you to say video is the way to go? Because I feel like a lot of founders we talk to and a lot of early sales teams we talk to are a little video resistant.

Yeah, it was actually when I was an SDR at LivePerson. I don't know if you know Brandon Flaherty, but he personally mentored me when I was an SDR, so that definitely set the pace of what greatness looks like. And you know, while I was there in my first few months, I was such a loser. I was not booking meetings, and I was using the same sequences and the same talk tracks as my peers. And I was like, you know what, this isn't working for me. I kind of felt like a robot. I heard of people doing voice notes, but I was like, let me take it a step further and I'm going to send a video, because I was previously an on-air news reporter.

So I'm pretty good on camera. I felt comfortable with it. I know how to tell a story in ninety seconds. I know how to tell something that's compelling to keep people involved. And I'm not going to lie, my first video was absolute garbage. But I booked a meeting with a C-suite executive from a big furniture company within thirty minutes of sending that video, and I said, this is it. I'm now sending videos. And that's how I was able to start getting into the largest accounts, enterprise accounts.

So then I had all these top AEs like Brandon right wanting me to help them prospect into these accounts, and I was able to get an AE role that then led me quickly to enterprise AE because I was breaking into those accounts within one year. So that's how I was able to climb that very, very quickly was leveraging video.

Now, nowadays, it's really difficult to get in people's inboxes. So talk to us a little bit about how video and blending into SensPark, how that can help people get from not being heard, not getting in the inbox, not being read, to actually being read. Like, what are some of those tips and tricks you have?

There are so many tips and tricks, and there really is a science to it. So just like there's a science to writing an email and you know doing a cold call and doing social, there is a science to how do you make a compelling video that tells a story, that solves a problem, that is now trigger-based because it can't just be, let me show you my solution. It really has to be, what is the purpose that you're reaching out for? What have you identified and what is the research that you have to prove that when I'm reaching out to Adam or Dale, I know you're looking for this. I know you have this pain. I know that whatever the trigger is, so that way it's kind of you put it in their face.

But really, what makes a video stand out and where I'm seeing it trend is, let me ask you a question, Dale. How do you take content in when you're on Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn? What's the easiest way for you to absorb information?

It's definitely video. It's video is fast, but it's so quick now. Like, that's the other part. Even on the video piece, you get like those first few seconds and the thumbnail. Right? Those two things super important.

Yes. So you have to be quick with it. You have to be straight to the point. You still have to be engaging. You also have to be personable, right? And then the other piece of it is, when they do book that meeting, you know, think about your reps that are really good at demos that can really be compelling in a video call, right? Those are the reps that should definitely be using video because they come off really well on camera. And I mean, we're on Zoom calls every single day. We're practicing the questions that we need to ask, our negotiation tactics, all of those things. I remember in the beginning people were getting, like, hiring acting classes so that way they could learn how to pitch on demos and things like that. Video is that way too. So if you can do your demos over Zoom, you can send a video. It's the same skills that you're using there that's a super good point. That's a super good point. It's people don't think about that, right? Like, these skills do transfer.

So Melissa, you were an SDR, you were an AE, then you turned business owner, and now that has propelled you into a head of sales role. But not a lot of people get that experience, especially at relatively young ages, to own businesses and use that to propel them into something else. Talk to me a little bit about the journey of, hey, I want to own a business, because sitting on this side, that's a crazy decision. And then I'm going to use this to propel me to ahead of sales role because of why.

Yeah, well, I think that all sellers, we are our own business. You know, you are running your own book of business. You're responsible for your own pipeline. You're responsible for your closes. You're responsible for your customers. Like, that's something that I've loved about sales is that I really feel like it is my book of business. This is my little operation that I'm running. This is my little business that I'm running. You know, the company I'm working for is just supplying the product and like a few other things, thanks for the legal, but you know, it is my own book of business.

I also come from a family of business owners, but small business owners. So my dad came over from Italy and he started his own landscaping business. So I've always been around it. And you know, even though this business is the one that I started first, like it is so not going to be the last. I have so many big dreams and great plans and all of those things for my future, and what that's going to look like, but I needed to first take the first step.

# Step One: How Do I Get Incorporated

What does this look like? What does it even look like when taxes come around with the CRA? Yeah, like why would I wait? Let me just try to take even baby steps. You know, because if I have a long-term goal—something that could happen in 10 years from now—why not start taking baby steps and gaining experience now? Why would I put it off 10 years from now? Why not start getting customers or clients, or building my brand, or building out people that would suggest or use me or anything like that? Or getting better at teaching and educating others, or marketing, or the books—all that—why not start that now at a small scale so that way when I'm ready for the bigger things, I already have a little bit of knowledge to help me.

**Speaker 2:** 100%. I love that. I love that. So you're a new leader and you've worked for many other leaders. What have you learned in past leadership—and not calling anybody out—but what have you learned in past leadership that you want to bring in, and what are some things from a leadership perspective that you don't want to bring into your team?

**Speaker 1:** Yeah, so I had the pleasure of working at Deal directly for Mike Gardeau, which I personally prospected when I was choosing where I wanted to work. I was choosing not just the product but who I wanted to work for. So when I saw that he was specifically hiring for a role that would be reporting to him, I wanted it. I had two compelling offers with another company, and I chose Mike because I literally said to him, "I choose you. I want to work for you." And it was the best decision because he was the greatest boss I've ever had, and he taught me so much.

I didn't always have great bosses. I've had a few other careers before sales. I was an elementary education school teacher, and my principals were rough. It was not great. I'll tell you that the system sucks. I didn't have a good experience with those bosses. I was also an on-air news reporter for CBS, and I had a very timid boss where all the news reporters really ran the station, which is a problem when you've got a bunch of girls fighting for airtime. So I also saw what it was like to be a boss over, sort of. Then I had a few bosses at LivePerson and things like that, but Mike really showed me what it was like to be an empathetic leader but also listen.

Something that I really learned with him was the way that he would solve problems—he would keep me involved in it. He would ask me what my opinion was for a problem that he was overseeing and wanted suggestions for because I was the one doing the work and talking to so many different people. What I saw was that I was valued because he values what I have to say. So I think that just asking your people for suggestions—"Hey, I'm trying to go through this problem. What do you think about this?"—and letting them feel that they have a sense of ability to make a change just by offering ideas instead of the changes just happening, that was a huge point.

That's the type of leader that I'm going to be. I'm not going to push my problems on my reps. Absolutely not. There's a big difference between pushing problems and making them figure it out than it is to say, "Hey, this is a problem I've noticed. Like, how would you feel if we did something like this? Do you have any other ideas about it?" and hearing from them.

That's something that I'm definitely going to do. And most definitely, anything that I've learned from my other careers is to encourage and give proper feedback and coaching, not to be tough in a sense of tearing people down. That's something that happens in news. There's a different way of how to give feedback and encourage people for sure. It's hard, right? Being a leader is hard. I have no other way to say it.

**Speaker 2:** I think you nailed some things that make a good leader when you talk about being encouraging and giving feedback and not pushing your problems. I think all of that is so important. I think a lot of founders struggle with being leaders, right? Some of them were either great sellers or great CTOs or really technical product folks, but haven't necessarily had to lead people before. Making that transition into leadership is difficult as you are moving into leadership and building out, God willing, a massive team at Senspark and video selling becomes the most important thing. What are some of the things that you've experienced that you won't do? And other than praise and stuff, really tactically, what are a couple really great things that are critical for a great leader?

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**Speaker 1:** Yeah, yeah. We all know the Ivory Tower, right? We need to avoid that. Dale sits in it. Tower? Oh, I don't believe that, but you know what I mean. Like, you have your Ivory Tower.

I've seen so many leaders just not be with it. They're just not even aware of the problems that they have but also the tools, the solutions, the other ways to go about it. Like, you've got to be with it and even know things that are not just your own business but what is the market doing? How is it evolving? How are other teams getting other results? What are the other tools that companies are using? Because you have to stay competitive. And so often I see leaders just throwing bodies at the problem, and it's such a mess.

You don't need to just throw a body here and throw a body there and scale up here and scale up there. Take a look at what all of your options are. Can you just enable them with other tools? Is it coaching? Is it really just helping your managers be able to coach rather than just be reactive in the feedback? Can you be proactive? Can you schedule actual coaching sessions with them? There are so many different things.

It's like being aware of one: the tools, what's out there in the market, how others are getting ahead, how to make it easier for yourself and reps, and not throwing bodies at the problem. Then the other piece is making sure that as a manager or as a leader, your job is to make your team better. It's not to drill them with the numbers. It's not to hold them accountable to all the numbers. It's literally your job is to make them better. And so many leaders are just not even coaching. They're not even setting up time to say, "Hey, this is a skill we're going to work on at the beginning of the week, and then during that week I want to see it in your demos. Then show me what that looks like in your demos. Which call did you practice this on? Let's watch it or send it to me. And then we're going to be coaching the next week after."

I don't understand why that's not done so much. Everything is so reactive instead of proactive. That's something that I really want to make sure that I do. I want to make the people that join Senspark just better.

**Speaker 2:** Oh, I love that. Yeah, that's great. I want to go back to the video piece for a second. Because when I saw you do a lot of great videos on Instagram as you were going through the process, going back to that eight-second to ten-second kind of clips where you're providing enough value, would you recommend that people trying to do this video content for LinkedIn, emails, and stuff like that start with something like Instagram and try out reels? I'm curious your perspective and why you went down that path.

**Speaker 1:** Dude, I guarantee you if you ask a rep, "Hey, have you used Snapchat? Hey, have you ever made a reel? Hey, have you ever made a TikTok? Hey, like, have you ever used Marco Polo, which is an app where you send to your friends and they watch videos of each other?"—they're going to say yes. Like, they've already done it. They've been doing it for years. They've already been making videos of themselves, whether it's to show their friends something really funny—"Check this out"—or whatever. Maybe they've been doing it.

Everyone knows they've been in this for so long now. Video has been in the space for like 10 years. We've all been making videos to communicate, but it's been at a social level. Why are we not doing it in B2B? We all know things start at the social level, how people communicate, and then make their way to B2B. It's like we're the last ones to figure it out.

Out, but they're already doing it. So if they want to start talking about things and showing their expertise, then they can go ahead and start making those little recordings. I'm going to be honest, I'm not trying to grow my TikTok. It's not like my major focus. My major focus is LinkedIn because that's where my ICP is. That's what my focus is. But will TikTok be great for me when I want to do more one-to-one clients about teaching them how to do sales? Absolutely. So I'm going to keep adding to that channel, but I'm still being mindful of where I'm putting my time and everything like that.

But reps are already doing it. They've been making videos for a long time. They've just been sending it to their friends. So why not just send it or post it to your network to your buyers? I don't use Snapchat. I don't dance on TikTok, though TikTok user MJ Dances is a handle. I don't know what you're going to find if you search Adam J Dances, but it won't be me. I do use Instagram, not video. I'm honestly embarrassed to say it, Melissa, but I just really started using video within probably the past six months, part of which is based on yourself, part of which is based on a couple of other people who we don't need to mention because this is the Melissa show.

But I think it's so powerful if done right. So my question: other than sales—like, sales is important, right—but other than sales, where should founders be harnessing video? Where should founders be harnessing getting their face on that damn screen and standing out from the noise?

Oh, 100%. So I've been posting videos on LinkedIn for like a year and a half now, and it was always my lowest engagement up until like three months ago where LinkedIn finally was on my side and it's finally promoting LinkedIn Shorts. I was so excited when LinkedIn came out with that new feature, the video feature where you can scroll like TikTok. I was pumped because I'm like, finally my time is here. I knew that making videos was the lowest engagement and likes, but it was also creating a damn good, really great audience that was interacting with me. And it helped people get to know me.

There are so many people, so many leaders that just make the text posts or even post a picture. You really don't get to know them through that. But when you make a video, people get to know you. They hear your voice. They see your little isms. They get to see if you're quirky or those little things about you that make you human. They now get to see that from you.

So, founders, this is your time to beat the algorithm, get people to love you and get to know you and connect with you. And then they're going to check out your profile and see what you're selling, and they're going to go, "Wow, that guy is so cool. I want to know more about his product." Or "Wow, he has that dog too. I feel connected to him." Or "He also loves golf. I'm a golf nerd." Or "Patagonia is my favorite clothing store too." They start to connect with you with these little things that you have when you're showing them in video, and you start building that deeper connection with your buyers or your end users or people just hype you up because they're excited that somebody is sharing something and they're learning from them.

Love that. So as we go forward, we're going to fire off a little bit of rapid fire and see what you would do outside of some tech stuff and just what some of your favorite things are. You up for it?

Yeah, let's do it.

Awesome. So if you weren't in tech, what other industry or process would you be in? Like, where would you be if you weren't in tech? What else would you do?

I just would have my own business. I don't know what I'd be selling—coffee, who knows—but I would definitely probably be a small business owner. Maybe you just did the wedding, maybe event planning. You know what? Even though I do it for corporate, I don't want to give up my weekends like that. It would be something that's turnkey so that way I just keep building out more. Truthfully, I love it.

Early bird or night owl?

Melissa, early bird. I go to bed at 9 p.m.

I'm with you. What's the first app you check when you wake up in the morning?

You know, it's always LinkedIn. Always LinkedIn.

What is one word to describe your startup journey so far?

Surprising.

I like that. Let's double click on it a little. Why surprising?

I mean, who knew? Everything is so surprising. Also, when I challenge myself, I do enjoy surprising myself. Like, "Huh, that worked out better than I thought it would." But exactly, it was very surprising to have so many people come to the event. It was very surprising to see the community get hype. It was very surprising to get some of the top brands to fund it. It was very surprising to get a job out of it, you know? Like, there was no shortage of surprises there.

Yeah, there's surprises at every turn for sure.

Okay, last one. Let's wrap it up. What's your favorite destination? A place you'd want to go?

I haven't been there yet, but I just would really like to go to Greece because I just love Mediterranean food.

That's awesome. We get a lot of Greece. There are a lot of people. We do get a lot of Greece. Dale doesn't know this yet, but I'm going to Greece in October. He's going to be thrilled. Dale loves it when I take vacation. It's one of his favorites.

Oh, him in an ivory tower, man, right? Not allowed to not take vacation. That's crazy.

Yeah. Melissa, as you look at your career, what's the long-term vision? That's where I'd like to end. So you're head of sales at SendSpark now. Obviously, you want to grow it, you want to see it excel. But where's Melissa going to be in ten years?

It's really, I'm not sure exactly where it's going to be because I definitely wouldn't have predicted this. I also never thought I'd be in sales. I'll say this because even my CEO knows this too: I really want to be a founder-founder. I love it, and I've said it before. We'll see what happens with it. I try not to put too much pressure on it in a sense, but if it doesn't go that route, then I'll be my regular founder of coaching and helping and things like that. So it's almost like these two paths, but they both end with the title CEO. It just depends on what that's going to look like.

I love it. That's awesome. I'm so glad we got to hang out and geek out and talk all things video. Where can people learn more and where can people go sign up for SendSpark?

Yes, because that's what y'all should be doing. You should be signing up for SendSpark, and I'm saying that without even a damn affiliate code, to be clear.

Yeah. If you didn't know SendSpark, shameless plug here: instead of sending one video at a time, which sucks—oh, brutal, brutal—it's why people don't use video. You can make one video, we're going to clone your voice, change your prospect's name, and send it to thousands. That way, you don't have to stop your sequence and record things. Anyway, you can find out about it. You can either go to SendSpark.com or check out my LinkedIn, and I'll show you some tips on how to use it best. But videos are the future, whether it's to book meetings or progress deals. Y'all, I just sent out 120 videos yesterday, and I've already had four people reply. So let's be real, and I did not record 120 videos.

Melissa, thanks for joining. We appreciate it.

Thank you. Melissa, bye.