The Bugs Bunny Method of Video Selling

Have you heard of the Bugs Bunny Method of video selling? If you haven’t, you are in for a treat. The Bugs Bunny Method of video selling is a fantastic way to not only generate more sales, but to build long-term relationships that can last for years (or even decades).

In this blog post, we are going to take a deep dive into the Bugs Bunny Method of video selling. To help us explain the Bugs Bunny Method, I was honored to speak with Jeffrey Gitomer. If you don’t yet know of Jeffrey, he can be considered the king of sales. He is a New York Times bestseller and known to be one of the world’s leading experts in all things sales. As his daughter describes in an extremely effective introduction video, Jeffrey is a writer, sales expert, hall of fame speaker, pioneer of online training and e-learning, and a one-of-a-kind individual. After reading this post and watching the video, you will become a fan of Jeffrey and the wisdom that he provides. 

To view the entire discussion with Jeffrey, go ahead and click on the video link above. That said, I wanted to share some of the key highlights here. Whether you are an experienced sales professional or are in the first few weeks of your first sales job, you can use Jeffrey’s wisdom and advice to reach your own sales goals. 

The Overarching Power of Video

Before getting into the Bugs Bunny Method of selling, however, Jeffrey made some important points about video. Whether or not you follow the Bugs Bunny Method of selling, it is helpful to internalize these points and use them going forward.

As you can immediately tell, Jeffrey loves videos. He said that to him, video is more powerful than a CEO introducing him to a crowd. At Dubb, you know how much we agree with Jeffrey. Video is powerful for so many reasons. From building long-term relationships with every member of your audience to leveraging storytelling in a unique way, video lets you accomplish essentially all of your sales goals. 

Video connects in a way that an email can’t. It provides an intense emotional connection with any type of audience. When you play a video, for instance, you can’t read it in advance. You need to listen to the entire thing. Essentially, video sends a message that must be watched. By recording a video that provides some type of value, you get to wow your audience. Video doesn’t just wow, however. It wins sales. Building that type of emotional connection makes it much more likely that members of your audience will become paying customers. 

With that said, you may be thinking that the sheer power of video means that you “missed the boat” and can’t capitalize on everything that video has to offer. As Jeffrey argues, nothing can be further from the truth. While he has been using video since 1998, he says that there are plenty of sales leaders and sales professionals that don’t take advantage of this opportunity. Moreover, for those that do, he estimates that 97% of salespeople suck at video. By adopting the Bugs Bunny Method of selling and getting your reps in, you can make video a huge competitive advantage for you and your business. 

I encourage you to keep this in mind as you are reading about the Bugs Bunny Method and Jeffrey’s other tips on selling. Sure, you may be able to implement some of these tactics through cold calling or through text-based communication. But by doing that, however, you don’t get to capitalize on everything that video has to offer. 

As Jeffrey argues, video is the number one thing to master right now. It offers countless opportunities for both new salespeople and seasoned salespeople alike. The time to take advantage of these opportunities is right now. 

The Bugs Bunny Method of Selling

Now, let’s talk about the Bugs Bunny Method of selling.

As Jeffrey described in the webinar, Bugs Bunny is the ultimate salesperson. There are several reasons why this is.

For starters, Bugs Bunny greets everyone with a question. His catchphrase of “Ehh, what’s up Doc?” started all of his movies. He then gave himself advice and actually took that advice. In his cartoons, he essentially said that “Of course, I talk to myself. Sometimes, I need expert advice.” Also, Bugs Bunny is funny. Humor is a huge part of the Bugs Bunny Method of selling (and achieving sales success in general). Prospects want to truly connect with sales professionals on a real, human level, and leveraging humor is a great way to do that. As Jeffrey says, if you can make them laugh, you can make them buy. 

That’s not all. Bugs Bunny often reviewed his work. He was always one step ahead of the competition. As Jeffrey says, he could beat Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd at the same time. Every once in a while, Bugs Bunny would lose. That being said, he was often ahead of the competition and used that fact to accomplish his goals. To wrap it up, Bugs Bunny did all of this on video. This was true even 70 years ago. He was extremely ahead of the curve and used this technological advantage to have the biggest possible impact.

All of these core elements make up the Bugs Bunny Method of selling. You will want to incorporate some (or all) of these elements in your daily sales work. In the webinar, Jeffrey went into further detail into so many topics related to both the Bugs Bunny Method of selling and video sales and marketing in general. Below are some of the key points that Jeffrey made. As I mentioned above, to get a more comprehensive discussion of these topics, feel free to watch the video attached to this blog post.

The Elements of Compelling Video Messages

Jeffrey’s experience creating video content has led him to discover some fundamental truths. In the webinar, he explained that there are several different elements found in the most compelling video messages. To create a compelling video message, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

• Who am I and what is my message?
• Who am I going to send this video to? In other words, who is going to receive this message, and what are my expectations of them?
• What is my hook? What is the attraction to me? To put it another way, why would someone want to click after my video is done?
• What is my offer?
• What is my call to action? This is an extremely important step after sharing your offer.
• What is my perceived value? This isn’t about a value proposition. Rather, it is about how you are transmitting perceived value to the customer. 
• What is the strategy for this video message? Without a strategy, there will not be a great message.
• What is the situation—for you, the customer, and the marketplace? 
• From there, ask yourself about the opportunity. What is it?
• What do you want the outcome to be? If you know the situation, opportunity, and outcome, you can advance to the main piece of creating compelling video messages.

All of these questions are important to ask, whether you are creating video content for the first time or have been creating sales videos for years. As Jeffrey said earlier in the webinar, all customers are a pain in the ass. They are also cheap bastards and they pay their bills late. Even though this may be your customer, you need to recognize that they represent all of your profit dollars and all of your sales. You need to treat them in a new and different way and ensure that you are creating a competitive advantage versus your competitors. 

To help you get to this point, Jeffrey really encourages you to think about the questions above. Sit down and really think about them, whether you are doing this exercise alone or with members of your sales team. By completing this initial step, you can be on your way to leveraging the Bugs Bunny Method of selling and creating compelling video content of your own. 

Situations Where You Can Use Video

With this discussion in mind, let’s now talk about different types of situations where you can create (and distribute) compelling video messages. While this isn’t a complete list of situations, it is a way for you to brainstorm and get started. 

• As a follow-up to a proposal you just sent. This can be a really brief video (it can be one minute or less). It is a great way to continue building the relationship and follow up on a certain ask or proposal that you already submitted to someone. 

• Provide a helpful idea. 

• Provide information that favors the customer. 

• Requesting a lunch meeting. 

• Offering the customer a referral. Rather than asking for a referral right away, you are leading with value here. 

• Solidifying a shipping date. 

• Closing the sale and offering a “thanks in advance.”

• Thanking the customer for their business. 

• Submitting a cold introduction by adding humor. I’ll be sharing more of Jeffrey’s insights about cold intros and humor below.

• Connecting after a networking event.

• Setting up an appointment. 

• Setting expectations for a meeting.

• Sharing an idea that you may have for a customer or prospect. 

• Sending a proposal to a customer or prospect. 
• Offering thanks for a referral, repeat business, testimonial, or something else. 

• Building relationships. By doing this, you can get emotionally closer to your customer. 

As you can see, there are plenty of situations where you can use video and the Bugs Bunny Method of selling. Like Jeffrey said, these videos don’t need to be extremely long or laborious. In fact, creating a one minute or less video is a great target. Make that video fun, easy, and response-oriented. Even if you are dealing with a sale that could be worth thousands of dollars (or even more), creating videos in this way makes it more likely that you actually convert your viewer. 

Now, as part of this discussion, Jeffrey mentioned a few other important points. For instance, what he likes to do is prioritize the video when reaching out to a customer or prospect. As just one example, let’s say that you recently met someone and think that they would be a perfect fit for your product or service. What you can do is send that person an email. Your one-minute video can be the centerpiece of that email and then attach a proposal to the email. Ultimately, the prospect should be watching the video first and then viewing the attachment, which may include detailed terms about purchasing your product or service. When doing this, however, make sure you are including at least one line of text that recommends the prospect watch the video. Making video your centerpiece is a great way to highlight your video content and leverage the emotional connections that video provides. 

Next, don’t focus as much on production quality as the message that you are delivering. It is super easy to obsess over the microphones that you need or cameras that will make your video pop. I’m not saying that these things aren’t important, but it is a much better use of your time to think about the message that you are sending to your audience. As Jeffrey says, he uses a real background when making his videos. He doesn’t need to show a picture of palm trees in the background unless they are real. Also, Jeffrey recommends that you take your laptop and place it at eye level. Don’t put it on a desk where people can look up your nose. Ultimately, the production quality can be super simple. You can even create a “shaky selfie” video—with literally zero production quality—and still be successful. 

Finally, let’s talk about cold video outreach. Cold outreach is a huge topic and subject for an article in and of itself. That being said, there were some important points that Jeffrey made here.  

First, Jeffrey recommends that you focus on video first. Some salespeople wonder whether they should be sending a video to a prospect first or calling that prospect before sending the video. Ultimately, Jeffrey says that you should send the video first. Then, you can call about the video that you just sent to that prospect. In that video, Jeffrey also recommends that you say something like, “I don’t just want to call you. I want to earn the right or respect to talk to you. I have an idea that I’d like to share with you and hope that you’ll take my call.” 

From there, in your cold video outreach, make sure you are avoiding hard pitches right away. Below, I am going to be spending more time sharing Jeffrey’s thoughts on leading with value. At the same time, you want to ensure that your initial message is value-based. You must provide a reason to click and connect. For instance, if you are reaching out to a law firm, you should be talking about topics like client retention, rather than how great your product or service is. Put yourself in their shoes and think about the message that they will want to hear. 

In doing this, you need to relax and be patient. The opposite can be really damaging to both your business and your role as a salesperson. For instance, if you scroll through your LinkedIn inbox, I’m sure you’ll find direct messages from connections that you likely don’t personally know. Those DMs often don’t include anything personal. Instead, they are one to two-sentence DMs that are pure sales pitches. As you can probably guess, those types of DMs don’t often lead to sales or conversions. This lack of impatience leads to wasted time—even if these sales professionals think they are being “productive.” If you are thinking of using LinkedIn as part of your cold outreach effort, for instance, it’s a good idea to send a connection request and then send a customized video. Again, that customized video should lead with value and shouldn’t ask for the sale right away. It isn’t a sales pitch, so keep this in mind. 

Instead of going forward with a hard sales pitch, you will want to dangle a carrot. For instance, you can say that you have a good idea that will provide value to the prospect’s business, but critically, you don’t tell them what that is. You provide them with a cliffhanger ending and ask them to reach back out. As Jeffrey says, most people will.  

Emphasize Value

No matter the type of video that you are creating, you must keep value at the top of your mind. While it sounds really easy in theory, it can be more difficult in practice.

For instance, if you are creating a webinar for a particular audience, you need to understand what it is that they are looking for. They could be searching for news about industry trends, how to better use your product or service, or even more information about new products that your company will be releasing. Whatever the case may be, your job is to keep the webinar rolling with high-value content. Then, at the end, you can include a slide with your contact info and perhaps a QR code. That way, if your viewers want to further contact you and learn more about your product, service, or business, they can easily do so. 

Now, when we talk about providing and emphasizing value, it is really important to know what your audience wants. If you have been a sales leader at your company for some time, this may be intuitive to you. However, even if you are the most experienced sales professional on your team, it is extremely helpful to actually speak with your customers. Understand their pain points and the challenges that they are trying to solve at work. 

Granted, this may take some time. You’ll need to have many conversations to get at the core of what your customer really wants. Once you do that and create your video content, you can then look at the data from your video content and make adjustments from there. As just one example, if you see that many viewers skip over certain types of themes or points you make in your videos, you’ll probably want to avoid those same themes or points in future videos. Conversely, if you notice that there are certain sections or themes of your videos that get significant traction or attention, think about doubling down on those things. 

All of this is a combination of art and science. You can use data to help you find some interesting insights about what your audience wants. At the same time, getting that data doesn’t mean that you should follow it blindly. You may find that one or two members of your audience don’t enjoy a particular piece of content, but that doesn’t mean that others will think the same way. Throughout this process, you will need to use your best judgment, get data, iterate, and repeat the cycle. By putting in the time and work, you will find that emphasizing value and following the data can help you leverage everything that the Bugs Bunny Method of selling is all about. 

Some More Insights on Humor

Now, I want to return to one of the main topics that Jeffrey discussed related to the Bugs Bunny Method of selling. As he argued, Bugs Bunny is such an effective salesperson because he is funny. But how can we leverage humor in our own businesses? And what if our business is in an old-school or stodgy industry?

As a starting point, Jeffrey says that the essence of sales is laughter. If you can make a prospect laugh and think within the first minute of your talk, you win. If you don’t, you are going to spend the rest of your talk trying to recover. Through humor, your job is to make people like you and feel comfortable making a purchase from you. 

One example of applying humor throughout the sales process is using it in response to a price objection. Jeffrey presented an example of a way to use humor as a way to overcome this type of objection. He even called the prospect a “cheap bastard” and later recommended that the prospect meet for a cup of coffee. He said he knew what the prospect needed and was confident that he could serve the prospect’s needs. He concluded by saying that through sitting down, they could come to an agreement that they were both comfortable with. Jeffrey recorded that video without any script and literally closed the sale. Even though he swore at the prospect, that prospect loved the interaction. The bottom line? That prospect’s perception of Jeffrey’s value exceeded the price that he wanted to pay, helping Jeffrey make the sale. A one minute video helped Jeffrey accomplish his goal.

Now, let’s return to that idea of using humor in a stodgy or old-school industry. For instance, let’s say that you work at a law firm and you want to use humor and the Bugs Bunny Method of selling. As Jeffery says, lawyers are naturally funny; he laughs at the bills that he receives from them every month. Putting that aside, Jeffrey argues that lawyers who use humor set themselves apart. Humor is a way to help you stand out in your stodgy industry. Even if it makes you feel uncomfortable, embracing humor, being yourself, and providing consistent value to others is a recipe for success. 

In the end, humor is a key tool in your toolkit. It is a core part of the Bugs Bunny Method of selling. Even if you don’t think you are funny, you certainly can be, so long as you work at it.

Leverage Personalized Videos

Another key point that Jeffrey made during the discussion centered on personalized videos. If you choose to use other mediums or forms of communication, personalized outreach can be extremely difficult. If you are cold calling, for instance, you can only speak with one prospect at a time. You pick up the phone, start dialing, have a brief conversation, hang up, and do it all over again. 

It’s a different story with videos. You can easily create customized videos for your audience and send those videos all at once. Effectively, video is a way to clone yourself and create strong, personal relationships with every single member of your audience. Using Dubb, for instance, you can easily add personalization text to any type of video that you create. That video is then a little more customized for any type of audience—no matter how large or small.

As we say at Dubb, the personal is the professional. By personalizing all of your interactions with your prospects, customers, and audiences, you will find that you’ll get better results. You will build stronger relationships and generate more sales. Pretty cool, right?

Reply with Video

Reply with video is one of our favorite tools at Dubb and a core component of the Bugs Bunny Method of selling. Essentially, reply with video is a call to action that you can include below any (or all) of your Dubb videos. It lets your viewer respond to you by recording and submitting a video of their own.

I’m sure you can imagine the possibilities here. For one thing, recording and sending a video is much more efficient than typing out a lengthy email. Your viewer doesn’t need to spend time thinking of what they want to say and typing it on their laptop or smartphone. Instead, they can just click one button, start speaking to the camera, and immediately send that video to you and your company. It is much more convenient and makes it easier to get valuable feedback.

Perhaps most importantly, the reply with video feature lets you gather video testimonials. These video testimonials are so valuable because they offer social proof for you, your product or service, and your company. This social proof makes it much more likely for a brand new prospect to trust your business and make a purchase. Instead of spending significant amounts of time trying to gather video testimonials from your most satisfied customers, all you need to do is send them a quick video, ask for a video testimonial within the video, include the reply with video call to action button, and have them submit a testimonial video back to you. It is extremely easy and can be a true game-changer for your business. 

Ultimately, you can go to your presets on Dubb to make sure that a video reply option is below all of your Dubb videos. I encourage you to make it a default because it is that powerful. When someone sends you a video reply, you know that they have bought in, whether that is your message, your product or service, your company, or something else. Importantly, this often leads to sales. Video replies lead to both sales and strong connections, so you should absolutely be using them in all of your video content. 

Embrace the Power of Authenticity

Throughout the entire Bugs Bunny Method of selling, we come across several universal themes. One of the most important of these themes is authenticity. To really get the most out of this strategy, you need to be yourself. 

Dale Carnegie is one of the most profound voices on building relationships and generating personal and professional success. As Jeffrey says, if you go back and read How to Win Friends and Influence People and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, you will discover a common thread. The two-word secret of success is “be yourself.” So when you are following the Bugs Bunny Method and making video content, add some emotion and passion. When you do so, your message becomes transferable, believable, and responded to. 

So if you end up using Dubb to follow the Bugs Bunny Method of selling, go ahead and pull out your phone, open the Dubb mobile app, and start recording. Generally speaking, it is better to speak off the cuff or off a series of bullet points than follow a script. It will make you seem more authentic and will help you build a better connection with your audience. However, if you still want to use a script, feel free to rely on Dubb’s teleprompter mode when recording your videos. 

As Jeffrey says, just relax. It’s video. You are going to have a great time because you are making your own movie. You are the star of your own movie and can give yourself all kinds of credit. Just go do it. 

It All Comes Down to Practice

Finally, I think that one of the largest points that Jeffrey made in this conversation relates to practice. Deciding to implement the Bugs Bunny Method of selling is a great start. That being said, just choosing to opt for this strategy doesn’t mean that you will automatically get the benefits of the strategy. You need to put in the reps every single day.

As Jeffrey said, one of his major learning rules comes down to the distinction of “I know that” versus “How good am I at that.” In other words, there is a significant difference between knowing and doing. What you need to do is internalize these principles of the Bugs Bunny Method of selling and then apply them in your day-to-day work. 

For some people, this can be difficult. It is always inspiring to learn a new sales tactic or strategy. It can be thrilling to think about how that tactic or strategy will help you hit your sales goals or grow your business. That being said, it is all too easy to stop there. The shiny object syndrome activates, making it much easier to move on and learn about another awesome sales strategy.

So how can you avoid this trap? It really comes down to taking any step—no matter how small it is. Jeffrey recommends that you practice these tactics for one hour each day. At the end of six months, you will be an expert. And if you do this for one year? You will be world-class. The more you practice, the more effective you will become. 

Considering this, you may be wondering what this type of practice actually looks like. The best way to do this is to simply take out your cell phone and start recording. In the beginning, the quality doesn’t really matter. In all likelihood, you won’t be sharing these videos with your prospects or other audiences. The point here is to get some reps in and to get more comfortable talking on camera. 

When you are ready to record videos for a prospect or specific audience, feel free to shoot your video until you like it. There are no called strikes. If you aren’t satisfied with the video, recognize that the video will be what your customer sees unless you fix it. So go ahead and make any necessary changes before sending it off. As for your audience, Jeffrey says that you can go ahead and start by sending a video to 10 of your LinkedIn connections. In all likelihood, you don’t know them anyway. This is a low-risk way of implementing these principles and getting better at recording video content. 

Then, after you have sent your video to your audience, review the video. It’s important to coach yourself. Using your intuition, data, and feedback that you receive from your viewers, you can craft even better video content. Sure, you will make mistakes in the beginning, but those mistakes will help you become an expert even more quickly. While the main principles of the Bugs Bunny Method of selling aren’t complicated, it takes practice to see the most satisfying results. 

Going Forward with the Bugs Bunny Method of Selling

As Jeffrey said, you must sell from your belief, transfer your message, and speak from your heart. Prospects’ heads are attached to price and their hearts are attached to wallets. The Bugs Bunny Method of selling can appeal to both the head and the heart. Whether you are looking for a way to build stronger relationships with your prospects or simply to hit your monthly or annual sales goals, the Bugs Bunny Method can help you reach those goals.

At Dubb, we enjoy discussing things like the Bugs Bunny Method of selling. If you have any questions about what was discussed here, I encourage you to contact us. Also, if you have any interest in trying Dubb, go ahead and click here for a free 14-day trial of our premium plans. All of us at Dubb look forward to hearing from you!