The team at SalesLoft knows a thing or two about turning prospects into happy customers. Their platform equips sales organizations worldwide with the reporting, analytics, and insights needed to execute a winning strategy and convert targeted accounts. That's why when they sought to replace their dated live chat solution with something more modern and engaging, they chose Intercom.

With better lead tracking, targeting capabilities, and a rich messenger, Intercom offers a personal live chat experience that drives more leads down the sales funnel faster.

Upgrading the live chat experience

SalesLoft has always seen the potential value live chat could bring to their website. From answering product questions to helping visitors understand pricing, live chat can let the team create personal connections, target prospects in context, and book demo appointments efficiently.

However, the first live chat solution they used didn’t meet expectations, and only accounted for 5% of the demo appointments they booked. The problem was that many visitors never engaged with the messenger. They were either put off by the pre-chat form or were never encouraged to start a conversation. Instead, visitors continued to book appointments through the website contact form, which lacks real-time lead qualification and the opportunity for sales to instantly engage leads.

Needing a live chat product that would remove the barriers to conversation and encourage more visitors to use the messenger, SalesLoft turned to Intercom. “It’s a modern, personal, and convenient live chat experience. It's like someone sitting right next to you helping you answer your questions. Website visitors are happier because they had that human interaction,” says Kevin O'Malley, VP of Marketing at SalesLoft.

SalesLoft already used Intercom for in-app engagement, and had seen how well the platform could tactfully communicate relevant information to customers. SalesLoft wanted to replicate that success with leads on their website. Featuring teammate profiles, greater customization of the messenger, and the removal of pre-chat forms, Intercom’s live chat was an easy choice. Additionally, with the ability to send proactive messages based on the page visited and previous website activity, SalesLoft was confident that Intercom could deliver more relevant, timely messages and increase the percentage of visitors engaging with live chat.

To target both new and returning visitors, SalesLoft triggers visitor auto messages based on page visited, time on page, and geographic location. The messaging is tailored to the goals of the page and invites visitors to start a conversation if they have any questions. “Intercom is a great way for us to immediately engage with people that would otherwise wait for a follow-up from the contact form,” explains Eric Martin, Director of Account-Based Marketing.

Visitor auto messages are measured in real time, providing insight into the volume of conversations as well as the open and reply rates. On the contact and pricing pages, their visitor auto messages have an open rate of 40% and 20% respectively, and reply rates of 15% and 10% respectively. These reply rates are particularly impressive. For context, the benchmark reply rate for visitor auto messages sent through Intercom is 5%.

When the appointment is booked, SalesLoft uses Intercom’s Zapier integration to automatically create a new lead in their Salesforce database.

Time kills deals

It takes one of SalesLoft's sales representatives an average of 15 minutes to reach out and connect with leads that fill out the contact form. But even a five-minute delay can significantly diminish the likelihood of establishing contact with the lead. Intercom’s live chat, which has no pre-chat forms, allows leads to immediately start a conversation with the SalesLoft team so there’s no delay in contact, and no missed opportunity.

The results speak for themselves – switching to Intercom has led to 40% of appointments booked through the live chat channel, an 8X improvement over their previous live chat product. The more immediate, personal communication has increased the value of their live chat acquisition channel by reaching more website visitors and immediately engaging prospects who might otherwise slip away.

Scaling the personal experience

Using Intercom, each inbound sales representative can engage in multiple conversations simultaneously, and leverage saved responses to common questions. This lets them field hundreds of conversations a month, without sacrificing the quality of the interaction. “Intercom doesn't over-automate. It's a personal, humanized experience that makes conversations enjoyable for our sales representatives and leads,” explains Eric Martin, Director of Account Based-Marketing at SalesLoft, "with Intercom, we get a modern live chat experience that yields greater engagement and can grow with our business.”