A Great Video Story is a Time Machine for Your Sales Cycle
By The Efficiency Expert · June 21, 2025 Introduction "We don't have time for elaborate storytelling videos. We need leads now." This sentiment is common in every sales-driven organization. The pressure for short-term results leads to a focus on direct-response marketing, and "story" feels like a slow, meandering path when you need to get to your destination quickly. My feeling is that a powerful video story is the ultimate shortcut. It is a time machine that can compress a multi-month sales cycle into a single, resonant viewing experience. The Current State of Things The prevailing wisdom is that the sales cycle is a linear, step-by-step process. A lead comes in, they get a demo, they get a proposal, they negotiate, and they close. Marketing's job is to feed the top of this funnel, and sales' job is to manually move the prospect through each stage. Videos are often created to support a single stage, like a top-of-funnel "explainer" or a bottom...