Today we’re introducing you to yet another member of the Drift team.
I know you’ve already met Shannon Donovan, Mary Mitchell, Catherine LaMacchia, Nadine Shaalan, Kahlil Trocmé, Britnee Laughlin, Sam Boyd, Allison Betito, Carolina Caprile, Michelle Ai, Frank Schepps, Tate Knapp, Alexa Nguyen, Zareena Javed, Chrissie Cronin, and Jason Richman.
This time I’d like to introduce you to Stacy Chen. Stacy joined the Drift team in 2018 as an Enterprise Conversational Sales Advisor. In her time at Drift, Stacy has moved from Sales over to our Customer team, working in our newly formed Professional Services division to help Drift’s enterprise customers build and optimize a Conversational Marketing strategy. In her spare time, she is a self-proclaimed foodie, is always keeping tabs on the latest restaurant openings, and is passionate about exploring the effects of food on our society and our understanding of other cultures.
Ready to meet Stacy? Let’s go ⚡
Editor’s note: The following has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Kaitlyn Martins: We’ll start with the basics – can you tell me a little bit about what you do at Drift?
Stacy Chen: As a Professional Services Consultant, I work with some of Drift’s largest customers by collaborating with their world-class marketing and sales leaders to build conversational playbooks that help their buyers buy, retain customers, and ultimately accelerate their revenue cycle.
Kaitlyn: What does your day-to-day typically look like?
Stacy: Outside of recurring syncs with customers, my days vary based upon the prioritization of playbook builds and optimizations that best suit my customer’s business needs at the time. Whether we’re coming out of our first or quarterly playbook strategy call, it’s important for me to understand our customers’ businesses holistically to create a project plan that ensures we’re setting up the strongest foundation for understanding how we start conversations with their potential customers. That includes making sure we’re having the right conversations based upon the site visitors intent at the time, how we accelerate them through the funnel, and serving relevant messaging as they progress through their buying journey. I always make sure we have tracking mechanisms in place for these types of interactions so we can make data-backed optimizations to create stronger business outcomes.
Kaitlyn: Now that we are a Digital First company, how has your routine changed?
Stacy: Being at Drift for a couple of years now, I definitely think about the time we did have in the office fondly. Since we had an open-concept space, I loved overhearing different approaches and strategies discussed on calls my teammates had with customers. Also being able to meet new people in other departments that I wouldn’t typically cross paths with was a huge plus. I’m looking forward to our Conversation Spaces opening up so I can have the option to go in when I want to and see team members or collaborate on projects.
I started my role on the Professional Services team right when our entire company switched to working from home due to COVID-19, so this actually is the “normal” I know for my role. But I’m incredibly lucky to have leadership and a team that cares deeply about customer outcomes, I just have to be more intentional about setting aside time to chat with someone when it comes to cross-sharing learnings.
Kaitlyn: How is your team structured and how do you share roles and responsibilities?
Stacy: The Professional Services team is one part of our greater Customer organization. Along with Onboarding Managers, CSMs, Customer Advocates, and Solution Engineers, we all have dedicated responsibilities contributing to the business outcomes of our customers. New customers with Drift would work more closely with our Onboarding team, Solution Engineers, and someone from the Professional Services team like myself to ensure they’re set up appropriately for launch. Then the handoff will happen from Onboarding Managers to the CSMs, as well as the introduction of our Customer Advocate team.
Kaitlyn: What is your favorite part about your job?
Stacy: I would say it is definitely the problem-solving aspect of it all. Coming from a sales background that had a really close relationship with the marketing team, I believe that it helps me look beyond the features and functionality portion of my role. I make sure I do in-depth business discovery to understand what the business problems our customers are trying to solve, how the marketing and sales team today are currently trying to solve it, and how we could leverage Drift strategically to be an additional component to the equation. That includes their go-to-market (GTM) strategy, understanding the problems they as a company solve for, understanding the needs their various buying personas care about, and so forth.
Kaitlyn: You had a great tweet recently about how you never pictured yourself working in tech because it didn’t feel like your area of expertise. You’ve now been at Drift for three years and have seen tremendous success and career growth. How do you think not coming from a traditional tech background has served you and how has Drift made it easy for someone who might not think they’re “tech-minded” to succeed?
Stacy: Growing up in a small town, I didn’t have any exposure as a young person to what it meant to work in tech. All of my family members have always started and run their own restaurants, so that’s where most of my early learnings came from. From their experiences, I learned what it meant to take extreme ownership on outcomes, how to ask questions from other experts when you don’t know something, how to create scalable processes that you can depend on, and how to be a clear and concise communicator. Little did I know how helpful these lessons would be when I started my career in sales, and now in a customer-facing role.
Kaitlyn: What’s a fun fact that people might not know about you?
Stacy: I love learning about how food culture affects a community. I’m constantly on the lookout for new restaurant openings, reading up on chefs that are trying to change the way people understand their culture, traditions that locals keep fiercely close to their dinner table, and the impact that it has on our understanding of the world.
Kaitlyn: Have you picked up any hobbies or discovered any hidden talents since we went remote?
Stacy: Patience is definitely a big one. I was always someone that defaulted to wanting to cross something off on my mental to-do list ASAP so I could move onto the next thing. This year has taught me to slow down and simmer in the process more. I almost can’t believe how much I tried to do in one day previously!
Kaitlyn: Finally, what advice do you have for prospective Drift candidates?
Stacy: In my time here, I’ve watched roles and responsibilities evolve regularly – so that we as a team make sure we’re creating the best outcomes for our customers. My best advice is to be honest with yourself about the kind of work you enjoy doing, have contributed to, and want to pursue in your career. As a fast-growing company, there’s a lot of opportunities at Drift to really explore your interests and contribute in a big way. Don’t hesitate to ask questions and seek wisdom from anyone on the team.
Want to work with Stacy? We’re hiring. Check out our open roles here.
