Editor’s Note: Each month, we’ll feature a conversation just like this with a CDR to learn more about how they use Drift to book meetings. This is the third article in this series. If you missed our first and second editions, you can catch up here and here.
It’s no secret that the B2B tech landscape is saturated. And only growing more competitive by the day, month and year. So how do you stand out? First, start with a best-in-breed product that truly fills a specific need and solves a real pain point. Second, empower your sales and marketing teams with the software they need to start more conversations than the competition.
?That’s exactly what Bynder, a DAM (Digital Asset Management) platform that offers a central cloud based repository for storing and managing digital content, has done.
So to learn more about how the team at Bynder uses Drift to start more conversations and close more deals than the competition, we sat down with Chris Galofaro.
Chris plays the role of the CDR, or Conversation Development Representative. In our conversation, Chris shares best practices on how to qualify the highest-quality leads through Drift, with some pro tips on how to handle the nuances of chatting with your website visitors.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Akhil Dakinedi: How did you start using Drift at Bynder? What were your first impressions of it?
Chris Galofaro: Our marketing team got us using Drift. At first, I wasn’t really familiar with how to use it, but it ended up being a really great asset for my job. I was still new to Bynder when we started using Drift, so every day, it was like I was being quizzed on my own product when I was chatting with website visitors through Drift. People would come to our site with all kinds of questions, so I had to be ready to go right away. This was overwhelming at first, but it gradually made me more knowledgeable about our own product.
Akhil: How does Drift fit in to your day-to-day workflow?
Chris: I almost always have Drift open on my laptop, because leads can come at any moment. If I don’t have my laptop on me, I have Drift notifications enabled on my phone as well as my Apple Watch. So my watch vibrates whenever I get tagged into a conversation and I jump right in. I like to make sure I don’t miss out on anything because these are quality leads and they shouldn’t be kept waiting.
Akhil: How do you start conversations with the people on your site? What kinds of questions do they ask?
Chris: We have our bot setup to ask a few qualifying questions. Once it gets to a certain level in the flow, I get tagged into the conversation. I pop in and say “Hey, trying to get the ball rolling for you. How can I help?” to welcome the prospect. I ask things like what company they’re from, what their brand name is, whether they’re actively working on a project to acquire a DAM tool, and what their timeline is like. I also try to get their email address to follow-up later on.
Most of our users come to our site with pricing questions. My role there is to actually push back a bit because Bynder’s pricing is very tailored to each individual use case depending on team size, storage limits, and types of assets they want to use. I always try to ask follow-up questions to their inquiries to get this information. Once I have the right information, I can connect them directly with a product expert or Account Executive on my team.
Akhil: How do these conversations typically go? Any challenges or unique situations that you’ve had to deal with?
Chris: Most of the people that come to our site are just evaluating us and are curious about the functionality. I’ve learned that it’s best to not be too pushy and just figure out what their needs are. I look at their chat history with the bot for some context and follow-up with “Hey, I saw that you said it’s challenging to find the right media file. How can I help with that?”, which re-affirms their problem and allows me to pick up the conversation directly from a customer’s pain point.
The challenge tends to be around ensuring we give our customers the room they need to explore our product and get their questions answered while also lightly inquiring what the best next steps are for them. Sometimes, they don’t want a meeting just yet and are simply looking for information. A few times, I’ve had to give a ballpark pricing number when customers have made it clear that they wouldn’t want to move on without some sort of estimate. Certain types of customers tend to be a little more difficult when they’re behind a keyboard than when they’re on the phone, but regardless of how I’m interacting with them, it’s always good to keep in mind that they usually want short and sweet answers to their questions.
Akhil: What is your lead qualification process like? How do you hand them off to your Account Executives?
Chris: Once I have all the information I need from the lead, I try to get a sense of the timeline they need to implement a solution. Usually, it’s pretty obvious that they’re a high-intent lead when there’s a very strong call to action or an urgent need. For example, companies that are undergoing rebranding efforts typically want a good DAM solution quickly so that all the departments in their organization can find the new logos, brand assets, and marketing materials without constantly pinging the creative team.
These are the types of leads that I would immediately send to the AE by booking a meeting directly 0n their calendar. If the customer wants a better understanding of the product features before making the purchase decision, I try to schedule a meeting with one of our product experts who can handle that conversation better and hand them off in the same way. We’ve actually made it an internal initiative that any lead that comes in through Drift eventually gets in to the hands of the AEs. These are fresh leads coming to us, so we want to make sure that they get through the sales funnel as quickly as possible. Our platform is very visual and we work with custom pricing plans, so getting them to our AEs is crucial.
Akhil: What features of Drift do you find most useful when qualifying leads?
Chris: I definitely make use of the LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration. A big part of my strategy involves catering my pitch to specific personas. For example, if I see that someone is a Marketing Manager, a Brand Manager, or a Creative Director, I know that they are are high-intent leads that we definitely want to start conversations with. Knowing that they are (or aren’t) one of these personas helps inform whether I should quickly try to book a call with them or not. I also have a good degree of familiarity with the pain points of these specific personas, so I use this knowledge as a way of segueing into a call with a product expert.
While chatting, I like to use the “Insert Saved Reply” feature. I have one Saved Reply setup for when prospects ask for ballpark pricing estimates, so I use that specific response quite a bit. It speeds up the qualification process greatly because I don’t have to re-type the same information over and over again.
I also rely on Drift’s Live View quite a bit. I typically don’t initiate many conversations from here, but instead use it to scope out what types of customers are interested in Bynder. It’s a really great way to build a pipeline of leads.
Akhil: Do you have a monthly quota each month that you need to meet? Has Drift helped with this?
Chris: I do have a quota each month. Drift helps immensely because of how quick the qualification process can be. In a role like mine, I’m doing a lot of cold prospecting, which can be tough. The emails I send are heavily tailored, but leads don’t always respond. Cold calling is also proving to be extremely difficult because a lot of people don’t answer their phones. So having a tool like Drift where people can come to you on their own terms and book meetings with you based on their preference has been invaluable in helping me hit my monthly quota.
Akhil: Do you have any best practices or pro tips on how to get high-intent leads through Drift?
Chris: Be conversational and not too pushy. And our bots need to follow suit. Which is why I work closely with the person at Bynder building the bots. We’re constantly tweaking and adjusting. We’re tinkering with them all the time to mix up what pages they’re showing up on and what they say, which ultimately results in better conversations.
When you start chatting human to human, the best thing you can do is be personable. If you sound like a robot where you’re asking question after question and aren’t really listening to what the customer is saying, it can be a bit of a nightmare for the prospect. Always follow-up with a question once you touch on something to continue the conversation, but make sure that it’s open-ended so they’re allowed to respond as freely as possible.
Know a CDR using Drift on their site to improve the buyer journey? Let us know by tweeting to us @Drift and we might just feature them in this column.