The Future of Sales is Digital
We’ve always had lofty goals at Drift. We want to grow fast. We want to be the best at what we do. And we want to make our customers successful. Now we’re entering a new stage of hypergrowth that’s more mature – one that requires us to develop smarter processes to scale.
As a sales organization, our main focus is selling and accelerating revenue, but more than ever we have to be intentional about how we grow. Personally, I’ve always loved being close to the action. And revenue is where the action is.
In sales leadership, you need to be able to read what’s happening, find ways to improve, and then go out and enact that change. At the same time, you need to do this without stifling the personalities and enthusiasm that define your sales organization.
As we grow at Drift, we’re focusing on new mid-market and enterprise targets, which have very different sales cycles. This requires us to make smart investments and be intentional about all of our processes. Growth is an exercise in adaptability and change.
That’s to say nothing of the global transformation going on around us.
Until recently, Drift was an office-first culture. There was a sense of camaraderie that came from working together, especially for our SDRs. For many of them, it’s one of their first jobs out of college. And it’s a hard job, one where you’re told “no” a lot. If someone had a bad call, they could turn to their friend for a joke or some words of comfort. You don’t get that from your cat or dog working at home all day.
Now that we’re a remote-first company, we’ve had to change how we coach and onboard new SDR hires. We’ve developed ways to simulate the in-office learning experience. Like having new SDRs start on Drift Live Chat, with an SDR teammate or customer advocate there “digitally” to help them out. If the SDR needs internal support, they can tag in a teammate – all without the customer knowing.
B2B sales cycles, in general, have also changed. Because buyers’ preferences have changed too. A McKinsey report found that almost two-thirds of today’s B2B buyers now prefer remote human interactions and digital self-service vs. in-person sales meetings.
The good news is, there are now so many ways to connect with buyers, whether it’s text, email, chat, LinkedIn, video, or a phone call. It’s more important than ever to be tight on your message and find a way to stand out. Often that’s less about communicating urgency or being the loudest voice in the room, and more about understanding peoples’ preferred way to communicate.
At Drift, we’re constantly growing and learning as a sales organization. But we’ve built an incredible team of experts over the last few years. Not only are they deeply embedded in our platform every day, but they bring with them expertise from the world’s most-renowned sales teams.
Now, we want to share their knowledge with you.
In this guide, you’ll hear from our sales leadership and the Drift SDRs, account executives, and account managers on the frontlines. Not only will you get to see how we use Drift @ Drift, but walk away with insights and sales secrets from our in-house sales cycle experts.
