There can be no conversations without people. We certainly would know.
Because, behind all of the conversations that go through Drift’s platform, there are countless hardworking marketing, sales, and customer service pros constantly brainstorming new and creative ways to engage with their buyers and customers. And those people deserve all the recognition in the world.
That’s why this year, we introduced the Driftie Awards. The Drifties celebrate our best and brightest customers — their wins, their creativity, and their wealth of experience using Drift.
After receiving over 100 incredible nominations, our panel of in-house Drift experts combed through each application and hand-picked six winners (both companies and individuals) who completely blew us away with their use of Drift.
Ready to find out who took the crown at the inaugural Drifties? Without further ado, here are our company winners ⚡
Dream Team: SAP Concur
We know teamwork makes the dream work, which is why our Dream Team award celebrates the company with the best cross-functional use of Drift.
It takes a village to build a conversational experience that spans your entire customer journey — let alone into nine different markets. But SAP Concur rose to that challenge. Collaborating across their digital marketing, sales, and marketing ops teams, SAP Concur created an engagement strategy that spanned over 44 playbooks and 60 development reps in only 18 months. That’s what makes SAP Concur the ultimate, cross-functional dream team.
Want to read more about SAP Concur’s story with Drift? Check out their case study here.
Most Valuable Playbook: PluralSight
Our customers are always coming up with more interesting, unusual, and highly effective Drift playbooks — and our Most Valuable Playbook award spotlights the best of the best.
A playbook that excels at meeting buyers where they are in the buying journey stands out…and drives more conversations. Because of the many products that they offer, the digital team at PluralSight knew they needed to build a Drift playbook that could help them better understand their visitors’ goals, challenges, and learning styles. The result was their Get Started playbook, which equipped them to meet each individual visitor’s needs and offer the right next steps for them — a true MVP.
ABM All-Star: Algolia
The title of ABM All-Star is awarded to the company that has shown the most mastery in their use of Drift for their account-based marketing strategy.
With ABM, timing is key. Leveraging the Drift x Demandbase integration, Algolia’s team of digital marketers developed a stellar ABM strategy that capitalizes on intent signals like search keywords to roll out the red carpet for their ABM accounts. By delivering messaging that aligns with each individual account’s intent, tech stack, and opportunity status, Algolia is now seeing higher engagement from their dream accounts.
Congratulations to SAP Concur, PluralSight, and Algolia for winning the company categories! Now, on to our individual category awards 👇
Quota Crusher: Sheigh Knightly
With Drift, conversations drive sales — and the Quota Crusher award honors the user who has been the most efficient in using Drift chat to soar above their goals.
Hitting sales quotas is never an easy feat, but efficient and effective sellers like Toast’s Sheigh Knightly thrive on the challenge. In May, Sheigh answered more chats than any other Drift user at the company, going well above her quota. Not to mention that, with all of these conversations, Sheigh also achieved a 100% conversion rate from chat to opportunity, leading the team in both efficiency and effectiveness. There’s no doubt that Sheigh is worthy of the Quota Crusher title.
Engagement Aficionado: Joseph Custer
The Engagement Aficionado award celebrates a modern, B2B Shakespeare who is a leader in capturing their website visitors’ attention through captivating and creative chat conversations.
It takes talent to come up with the perfect opening line that gets your buyers and customers to interact with your chatbot. Described as a “playbook ninja,” Monster’s Joseph Custer is in charge of building, monitoring, and improving playbooks. With a keen understanding of the company’s goals and some thinking outside of the box, Joseph has increased Monster’s site coverage by 10% and boosted engagement rates — earning him the title of Engagement Aficionado.
Admin of the Year: Kayla Benstein
Among all admins, the Admin of the Year is a superuser who has proven that they are a true Drift expert — ensuring playbooks are running, seats are allocated, and reporting is fresh.
If we were to describe this Drift admin in one word, it would be “pioneer.” From the beginning of BlackRock’s journey with Drift, Kayla Benstein has shown that she truly cares about the client experience. By partnering with sales to create a first-of-its-kind live chat experience and assisting with legal, compliance, and enablement of the platform, Kayla has quickly made Drift a critical part of BlackRock’s business strategy. It is this dedication and effort that makes Kayla our Admin of the Year.
Congratulations to all of the winners of the first annual Drifties! And thank you to everyone who sent in a nomination — we can’t wait to see what you all do next!
