Former LinkedIn and Google Exec Joins Vidyard to Change the Face of B2B Sales

January 11, 2023

Tania Blake

Vidyard welcomes Jonathan Lister as COO, launches new products and learning hub to empower digital-first sales professionals

KITCHENER,Ontario – January 11, 2023 – Vidyard, the leading provider of video solutions for sales and marketing professionals, welcomes Jonathan Lister as Chief Operating Officer (COO) to lead its global go-to-market teams. His leadership will be valuable as Vidyard continues to innovate on the leading video solution for sales and pursue its commitment to helping go-to-market professionals engage and delight their customers in a digital-first business world.

Prior to joining Vidyard, Jonathan spent over a decade at LinkedIn where he most recently led their Sales Solutions team as VP, Global Sales Solutions. The team’s mission was to build trusted and valuable buyer-seller relationships by empowering sales professionals to put their buyers first. Prior to LinkedIn, Jonathan worked as Country Manager at Google Canada and held various executive positions at AOL.

“We’re incredibly excited to welcome Jonathan to the Vidyard team,” said Michael Litt, co-founder and CEO of Vidyard. “His unique experience as a global leader at LinkedIn will be a tremendous asset as we build on our mission to empower every go-to-market professional with the tools and knowledge they need to be successful in the new world of digital customer communication.”

Lister joins Vidyard after a banner year that saw video become a new growth engine for thousands of sales teams. According to Demand Metric’s 2022 State of Video Report, 82% of go-to-market teams report that video is becoming more important to how they connect with buyers, while 70% of sales reps report that video converts better than any other form of content.

“There are few SalesTech companies that are truly focused on empowering the individual sales professional,” said Jonathan Lister, COO at Vidyard. “That’s really what drew me to Vidyard. I believe the company isuniquely positioned in that its products can be used by any go-to-market professional in the world to impact every stage of the customer journey. I’m looking forward to building on Vidyard’s strong momentum and reputation as a world-class provider of sales technology and community education.”

To help more sales professionals unlock the power of video and adopt new digital selling skills, Vidyard has also launched new innovations in its flagship product as well as its online media network, Sales Feed.

New Product Offerings Help More Sellers Send Professional Videos with Ease

The newest release of Vidyard’s video messaging product makes it easy for any sales rep to plan, record, and customize professional videos that utilize industry best practices. Vidyard users can now take advantage of these new capabilities:

• Video Templates: Video messaging is a new way to connect, and many sellers don’t yet know how to best utilize it. Vidyard’s new Video Templates guide sellers on how to use videos in specific sales scenarios – whether they’re trying to get in front of a new prospect, recording a custom demo, or closing out a deal. Video Templates include sample scripts, example videos, recording tips, and related best practices.

• Community-Contributed Templates: In addition to Vidyard’s own library, users can now access Video Templates from expert members of the B2B sales community. Initial contributors include bestselling author Shari Levitin, the sales acceleration company Sales Gravy, video selling coach Katherine Caldwell, international sales trainer Todd Caponi, and the top-rated sales engagement platform Salesloft.

• Enhanced Editing: Polishing up videos is a breeze with Vidyard’s enhanced trimming and cutting feature. Easily edit out slip-ups or dead air anywhere in a video, directly from within Vidyard’s web-based video library – no desktop app required.

• Video Chapters: Easily add chapters within your videos to mark specific topics and make your content easier to navigate. Chapters help viewers find the content they care about within longer videos like product demos, proposal presentations, and recorded video calls.

• Salesloft Insights Integration: Users of Salesloft’s sales engagement platform can now discover which prospects are watching their videos, natively within Salesloft. Vidyard video views are now surfaced within the Salesloft activity feed to empower sellers with timely customer insights.

• Sales Feed Learning Hub: To provide more opportunities for sales reps to develop their own sales skills, Vidyard has launched a new learning hub, accessible within the Vidyard app, powered by its Sales Feed media network. See below for more details.

Sales Feed Helps Sellers Develop New Skills and Hone Their Craft 

Since launching one year ago, Sales Feed, Vidyard’s new media network, has developed a following of more than 100,000 sales professionals and has produced a wide range of original shows, educational videos, tips, templates, and entertainment for the sales community.

With growing demand for self-serve learning, Vidyard has made the best content from across the Sales Feed network available to its users via the Sales Feed learning hub, accessible from right within the Vidyard product. Vidyard users can now access some of the most helpful and engaging sales learning content covering a wide range of topics including cold calling, prospecting, discovery and qualification, negotiation and proposals, and selling with video. 

“Our singular focus with Sales Feed is to help B2B sales professionals learn, laugh, and live a better life in sales,” said Tyler Lessard, VP Marketing at Vidyard and Head of Sales Feed. “The response we’ve received from our community has been nothing short of incredible, and we’re thrilled to put our top-rated content into the hands of every Vidyard user. At the end of the day, if we can help one more sales rep close one more deal – and feel good about how they did it – we feel like we’ve done our jobs.”

More Information:

• Learn more about Jonathan Lister.
• Learn more about Vidyard’s new product offerings.
• Browse Vidyard’s Video Templates by logging into your Vidyard account and selecting the ‘Templates’ icon in the navigation bar. If you don’t have access to a Vidyard account, browse a subset of our Video Templates online.
• Browse the new Sales Feed learning hub by logging into your Vidyard account and selecting the ‘Sales Feed’ icon in the navigation bar. If you don’t have access to a Vidyard account, browse the Sales Feed hub.
• Access our Vidyard Press Kit.

About Vidyard

Vidyard is the leading video platform for businesses. More than 250,000 companies use its video messaging and video hosting tools to engage their customers and prospects more effectively. Vidyard enables enterprises across high tech, SaaS, financial services, professional services, and other industries to use asynchronous video to transform their approach to remote sales, marketing, and customer service. Business professionals can use Vidyard everywhere they work, on any digital platform, to create and share custom videos to deliver their message in a more personal and impactful way through its free and pro tools. Sign up for Vidyard for free: /free.

Media Contact:

Tania Blake, Public Relations & Communications, Vidyard – press@vidyard.com