Most owners assume the answer is them.
Sometimes it is. Often it is not, and the difference costs more than people realize.
What buyers actually respond to
An owner talking about how much his team cares is a claim. A twenty year machinist saying why he has never left is evidence.
Same information, completely different weight. One is the company describing itself. The other is somebody with nothing to gain by saying it.
That is the whole principle. The further somebody sits from the sale, the more credible they are about it.
Who to consider
The person who does the work. A machinist, a foreman, a crew lead, an operator. They explain the process in the language they actually use, which is usually clearer than the language leadership uses.
The person who has been there longest. Longevity is the easiest thing to claim and the hardest to prove. Somebody at fifteen years answering why he stayed proves it in a sentence.
The person who fixed something. Every company has a story about a problem that got solved. The person who solved it tells it better than the person who heard about it.
A customer. The strongest one available and the one most companies skip. A client saying what changed carries more than anything you can say about yourself, which is the whole idea behind a testimonial worth watching.
The owner, when the story is his. Founder stories are real. If the company exists because of something that happened to him, he is the right person and nobody else can do it.
Who to be careful with
Anybody who has done media training. Polished answers are the enemy of this format. Somebody who has learned to stay on message will stay on message, and it will sound like it. Same reason we do not use scripts.
Anybody who does not want to. A reluctant person on camera reads as reluctant. There is always somebody else.
The person with the biggest title, by default. Titles do not carry weight with a buyer the way people assume. A VP who cannot explain the work is worse than a foreman who can.
How many
Three to five for most projects.
Fewer than three and the video rests on one person's delivery. More than eight and nobody registers as a person, they become a series of talking heads.
How to pick without hurting feelings
This is a real problem and worth handling directly rather than avoiding.
The framing that works: this video is aimed at a specific person with a specific question, and we are choosing based on who answers that question best. It is not a ranking of who matters at the company.
It also helps that the footage gets used broadly. Somebody not in the main video usually appears in the shorter cuts, so nobody is left out entirely.
The test
Before deciding, ask one question about each person.
If a buyer heard this from them, would they believe it more or less than hearing it from you?
If the answer is more, they should be on camera.
Short version
An owner's claim is a claim. An employee's or a customer's is evidence.
The further somebody sits from the sale, the more credible they are.
Three to five people for most projects.
Skip anybody media trained and anybody reluctant.
The test: would a buyer believe this more coming from them than from you?
We make documentary style video for manufacturing and construction companies across Greensboro and the Triad. Happy to come to you.
Dylan Smith is the owner of With A Twist Media in Greensboro, NC. He has been making documentary style video for manufacturing and construction companies across the Triad since 2019.