As we've learned this season, videos, emails, virtual events, and personalized demos all help to continue conversations with both prospects and buyers, but what about meeting prospects and buyers on the channel where they already spend a lot of their day (for better or for worse)?That channel is social media, and if used correctly, it can be the secret to cutting through sales noise.Julie Atherton, the founder of Small Wonder, a social media transformation advisory and marketing consultancy, has spent the past 15 years researching social media's role in a buying cycle. Today, she joins Sammi for the Season 3 finale to share her best practices for starting, and continuing, conversations with both prospects and buyers through social media.You can connect with Sammi and Julie on Twitter @sammireinstein, @DriftPodcasts, and @JulieAthertonSW. Read up on Drift's Really Good Sales Plays: https://drift.ly/sales-playsGet Julie's newest book, B2B Social Selling Strategy for 20% with the code AMK20: koganpage.com/B2BSocialSellingLearn more from Julie: https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/authors/julie-atherton

As much as we want every sales cycle to be smooth from the first touch to renewal, we know that there can be bumps along the way. What do we do when a prospect stops responding to our follow-up emails?We get creative.Joining us on the show today is founder of The Bot Lab and long-time Drift partner, Eliav Cohen. Eliav loves getting creative in his outreach, on this episode, he shares the three key tactics he's found most successful in preventing the dreaded "ghost." Over the course of 30 minutes, you'll learn about Drift Video, website personalization, and the power of conversational content. Like this episode? We'd love it if you could leave us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review! And make sure to subscribe, so you never miss an opportunity to learn more about starting conversations in the Revenue Era.You can connect with Sammi on Twitter @sammireinstein, @DriftPodcasts, and Eliav on LinkedIn.Read up on Drift's Really Good Sales Plays: https://drift.ly/sales-plays

On this show, we've covered how email, chat, video, and content can start, and continue, conversations. But despite all these strategies, there's still one area of marketing that hasn't been uncovered: events. Whether digital or in-person, events are great talking points to bring up with customers and prospects.No one knows this better than Kelly Cheng, the Head of Marketing and Growth at Goldcast. On this week's episode, Kelly shares her secrets for enabling sales to invite their prospects to events, communicating the ROI of events to the broader go-to-market organization, and creating events that people will actually want to talk about.Like this episode? We'd love it if you could leave us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review! And make sure to subscribe, so you never miss an opportunity to learn more about starting conversations in the Revenue Era.You can connect with Sammi and Kelly on Twitter @sammireinstein, @kellyhcheng, and @DriftPodcasts.Read up on Drift's Really Good Sales Plays: https://drift.ly/sales-plays

Ah the holidays. A time of stringed lights, sweet treats, and trying to manage your business and personal life more than any other time of year.With so many distractions, it can be tricky to stay focused on work conversations, and even trickier to get important conversations on your prospects' calendars.That's why for this week's episode we sat down with Kristin Moore, the Head of Sales Development at Motive - a platform that combines hardware with AI-powered applications to connect and automate physical operations - to see how her team does it.With 7+ years in the business development world, Kristin shares what she's found to be successful when it comes to outbound messaging that converts, how to maintain close alignment between AEs and SDRs, and how to keep her team motivated through the end of the quarter.You can connect with Sammi on Twitter @sammireinstein and @DriftPodcasts, and Kristin on LinkedIn.Read up on Drift's Really Good Sales Plays: https://drift.ly/sales-plays

Drinking our own champagne, eating our own dog food…whatever you want to call it, Drift’s sales team uses Conversational Sales every single day to prioritize work, cut through the noise, and win more deals.But, as we all know, sharing is caring — and we’re ready to showcase a specially curated collection of our top sales plays to help you and your teams engage your buyers at the right time, in the right place, with the right conversation.In this recording from Drift's first-ever LIVE podcast recording and webinar, Sammi Reinstein and Sara Miller Blanc (Drift's enterprise account executive) chat through their favorite sales plays for outbounding, inbounding, and managing deals.You can connect with Sammi on Twitter @sammireinstein and @DriftPodcasts, and Sara on LinkedIn.Read up on Drift's Really Good Sales Plays: https://drift.ly/sales-plays

Have you ever asked someone for more information on a product, just to have them go down a rabbit hole of features that are really not related to the problem you're looking to solve?Us too.This frustration caused us to reach out to Drift's Solutions Consultant, Christine Glick.Christine has figured out the art of crafting a demo that answers the questions her prospects actually have, so in this episode, she tells Sammi what her process looks like, how she works alongside account executives, and why she steers clear from any and all acronyms.You can connect with Sammi on Twitter @sammireinstein and @DriftPodcasts, and Christine on LinkedIn.Read up on Drift's Really Good Sales Plays: https://drift.ly/sales-plays

It's no secret that today's buying cycles are complicated. 7-10 stakeholders...countless reviews...it can be hard to keep track of it all. That's why we set aside time this season to learn more about how the Drift for Sales product helps keep the buying cycle moving as seamlessly as possible.Holly Xiao, Group Product Marketing Lead at Drift, joins Sammi on the show to explain how the Drift for Sales product can be used for inbounding, outbounding, and managing a deal. In this episode, you'll hear Holly's opinions on the need for a balance between the art and science of selling, how specific insights can help inform deal cycles, and why personalization should be a priority.You can connect with Sammi on Twitter @sammireinstein and @DriftPodcasts, and Holly on LinkedIn.Read up on Drift's Really Good Sales Plays: https://drift.ly/sales-plays

Selling is a team sport - we've all heard the phrase. But what does that actually look like in practice? No one knows better than the CMO of ROI DNA, Heidi Darling. ROI DNA is a full-service digital marketing agency focused on helping its clients deliver account-based experiences that accelerate revenue for their businesses.On this episode of Conversation Starters, Heidi explains how ROI DNA's sales and marketing teams work together to create effective messaging, what tools she thinks a modern marketing tech stack can't live without, and how the conversation amongst go-to-market teams doesn't stop after the initial sale.Like this episode? We'd love it if you could leave us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review! And make sure to subscribe, so you never miss an opportunity to learn more about starting conversations in the Revenue Era.You can connect with Sammi on Twitter @sammireinstein, @DriftPodcasts, and Heidi on LinkedIn.Read up on Drift's Really Good Sales Plays: https://drift.ly/sales-plays

In Season 1 of Conversation Starters, we focused on how to attract your potential buyer's attention, so they eventually book a meeting.In Season 2, we focused on how to make that first meeting an effective one.In Season 3, we're focusing on what it takes to make sure that first conversation wasn't your last. Through interviews with sales and marketing professionals, host Sammi Reinstein explores how things like events, videos, and social media keep those business conversations flowing.The new season airs October 20.Attend the first episode live: drift.ly/RGSP

We're kicking off Season 3 of Conversation Starters by going LIVE!Join Sammi and Drift's Enterprise Account Executive, Sara Miller Blanc, Thursday, 10/20 at 1 PM EST for a live podcast recording. They'll be discussing their favorite sales plays for inbounding, outbounding, and managing deals. Plus, they'll hold a Q&A, so you can get your questions answered in real-time.Register here: drift.ly/RGSPCan't make it live, but have questions? Tweet them to @DriftPodcasts