Video Moves From Home To Office

Four companies solve problems and impress customers with video equipment.

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Video equipment is helping more and more managers of small companies save both time and money. They're using it to increase sales, attract clients, and even prevent lawsuits.

Greg Scherer had a sales problem that video equipment helped him solve. As treasurer of Choice Inc., a real estate agency with $10 million in sales in rural Manitowoc, Wis., he knew that the sales staff spent most of the time driving clients from house to house.

The process was tiring for both sales force and customers. Sellers, who had people trekking through their living rooms, found it inconvenient. A salesperson could show only four houses a day, and Choice had no way to reach potential clients outside its area.

Choice turned to video for more efficient and economical sales techniques. Working with a video studio, Choice records on videotape all the houses it lists. The production studio makes five-minute tapes of each house, and catalogues them by price on 12 cassettes. Each taping session costs Choice $25; when a house is sold, the studio receives another $25. On the average, the company tapes 10 houses a week.

Customers can view more houses in half an hour at the offices of Choice than they could in a weekend of driving from place to place. The firm also sends its videotapes to out-of-town buyers so they can view the company's listings before coming to town. The process helps screen out people who like to look at houses but have no real plans to buy. "We screen people in the office," Scherer says.

Choice began its video program more than two years ago. Scherer says it is still too early to evaluate video's contribution, but he is certain it has been significant. "We can see that the cost savings will be substantial down the road," he says.

Selling real estate by video also enables brokers to find clients, says Sandy Scaglione, who, with her husband, owns Omni Realty Corp. in Tampa, Fla. "When we go to the owner and tell him videotaping will cut down on people running through his house, it helps to get the listing," she says.

Manufacturers are also using video as a sales tool. Hanson Pattern & Mold Corp., a Ludlow, Mass., manufacturer that does approximately $3 million in sales, designs and builds molds for plastic production. It must convince its customers of its technical expertise.

"Customers want to see the machinery and the people who work with it," says Bill Jackson, the firm's advertising coordinator. "But a lot of times it isn't possible to bring a client to our shop and show it to him."

Jackson, a former television news photographer, produced an eight-minute videotape that shows off the company and its specialities. Because the quality of this kind of tape needs to be high, Jackson says, it cost $2,000 to make. If the tape had been produced at a professional video studio, the cost could have been four times as much (see box).

Hanson also spent $2,000 on a portable video cassette recorder, a five-inch color TV to show the tape, and a carrying case. "The salesman can take this equipment on the road and bring our shop to the customer," Jackson says.

Jerry Schlatter, a partner in Cummings Schlatter Assoc., an architectural firm in Kirkland, Wash., used video to help a client who faced litigation. Water carrying silt drained into a stream from a $13-million project CSA had designed, causing pollution for salmon fishers downstream. CSA's client faced a six-figure lawsuit.

Schlatter decided to strengthen the client's case by videotaping further work on the project. Quality checks are always a problem for architects because the work done to their specifications is covered up during construction. Video provided Schlatter with a record of the contractor's work. He could document whether schedules were met, work was done properly, and appropriate materials were used.

Schlatter says that one day of videotaping each month at about $600 a day was well worth the expense. The evidence that quality control procedures were being followed carefully will be used in court.

Videotape is also an effective sales training tool, says Claude Rollick, the southeastern sales representative for Thomas Industries Inc. Rollick sells the firm's lighting fixtures and supplies to electrical distributors. As part of his services, he videotapes his customers' sales staffs as they go about their work. Often he uses a hidden camera, which catches salespeople ignoring customers or showing little interest in a sale. When they see themselves on tape, says Rollick, "They say 'Is that me? I can't believe it." The videotape's evidence of poor sales technique has an impact on the salesperson that the boss could never duplicate by nagging.

Rollick uses his own portable recorder, camera, and television set. His only additional expenses are blank tape, which costs $15 to $25, and the signs and credits he adds to the tape, which cost another $25. "You can do it for next to nothing," he claims. "It's perfect for small businesses."

For Dr. Richard Shinn, a veterinarian who runs the Gulf Animal Hospital in South Pasadena, Fla., video is a timesaver. On a busy day he may see 25 pet owners, he says, and many of them have the same questions: What diet should they feed their new puppies? What's the best remedy for worms? Shinn, a video enthusiast, uses his hobby to answer such questions. He records on videotape short lectures on common pet health problems. Then he packages the talks into individual cassettes and plays them in his reception room while his clients wait.

The tapes save Shinn the time he would otherwise spend answering the same questions over and over. He says they also give the pet owner something more than he usually gets from a routine visit to the vet. "The point is education," the veterinarian says. "Instead of just sitting in a room, people learn something."

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