Drift Brings a Frictionless Experience to the B2B World

Q: What indicators does Drift use to tailor its frictionless solutions to its clients?

A: We focus on the B2B space, which is a different world from B2C. In the latter, a client can easily use a mobile phone to have a product delivered to their home. In the B2B world, clients want a frictionless experience but there are too many vendors to choose from and onboarding is a time consuming, long-term commitment. The simple process of contacting the right salesperson at a company, getting their attention and a response is really difficult. In the B2B world, it is difficult to get in touch with a human during the buying process because companies do not have access to conversations with customers. We capture conversations at scale, connect with buyers and analyze what they are saying so the company can do a better job at removing friction. We provide buyers with tools to ensure a better experience.

Q: By how much has Drift boosted revenue for its platform users?

A: Irrespective of a businesses' industry sector, Drift has helped its clients bolster their growth revenue by helping them create and grow their pipeline portfolio. In other words, there is not a uniform added-value aggregate given that the individual growth of a company will depend on their maturity and independent capabilities.

Q: In September 2021, Drift achieved unicorn status. To what does the company owe this success?

A: We owe our success to our customers and our team. Achieving high growth rates is harder the older a company is and the larger its revenue. The secret is building the right culture that allows us to grow in a consistent manner. By focusing on our customer base, retaining them and expanding them, we can consistently build a stronger business and widen revenues.

Q: Which internal areas is Drift improving on and how?

A: Being an entrepreneur is a journey of efficiency; in which it is necessary to pinpoint areas to focus on and optimize. For example, the larger companies get, the more difficult it is to communicate and drive consistent messaging. We focus on operational excellence and one of our principles is staying scrappy to do more with less.

Q: With the experience of two international rollouts under its belt, how has Drift managed its expansion into Mexico?

A: While other expansions were go-to-market focused, our entry to Mexico was the first led by the product. The product team is interviewing, choosing the location and defining the culture and organizational structure, among many other tasks. It is a learning experience for all of us and we are analyzing how to expand our team to operate as we did in the US. Talent is transitioning to a digital-first world, so we immediately pivoted to allow remote work. For example, in Guadalajara, offices allow employees to meet and connect but these spaces are not necessarily where employees work every day.

Q: How does “conversational marketing” harness the digital experience of B2B sales? How do chatbots supplement this process?

A: We have to leverage the power of machines to guide buyers through their journey and transfer that information into the organization. Sales managers and leaders want to know how we are able to respond to buyers so quickly. It is not possible for everyone in the company to read every conversation but AI can summarize and identify key players in the process and share that information with the rest of the team. It is essential to always be available to the customer because every client is different. Chatbots allow for this constant communication because the seller will not always be available. Through chatbots, it is possible to deliver a VIP experience every time. Bots can support many experiences and we want to use them to improve the buyer’s journey.

Q: How does the company measure its success?

A: We measure our success through our growth rate, customers and team. Our customers request numerous new tools and to build them we require talent. One of our measures of success is the establishment of a sixth office in Guadalajara. We will be successful if we are able to build this team and work together to successfully transfer the culture of the company.