eWebinar has allowed us to scale aspects of our business that we didn’t know we could scale.
eWebinar has allowed us to scale aspects of our business that we didn’t know we could scale.Ali Qureshi,
Co-founder, SideDrawer
Financial professionals regularly handle some of their clients’ most sensitive information, from tax statements and estate documents to investment reports and financial plans. But collecting, organizing, and sharing those documents can quickly become complicated, particularly when information is exchanged across email, file-sharing links, text messages, and other channels.
SideDrawer is a secure digital vault and collaboration platform designed to bring that information together in one centralized place. Features such as two-factor authentication, customizable permissions, file and information requests, and integrations with existing systems help firms protect client information while making document management and collaboration easier for everyone involved.
Ali Qureshi, co-founder of SideDrawer, spoke to us about how his company uses eWebinar to educate potential customers, showcase its product, and ultimately drive conversions.
Hi, Ali! Can you start by telling me a little bit about yourself and your company?
Absolutely. My name is Ali Qureshi, and I’m a co-founder of SideDrawer. We’re a platform that provides secure information exchange between financial services firms and their end clients. We’re about seven years old and we have a team of about 55 people right now. We’ve been growing quite a bit! We service Canadian and U.S. Tier 1 banks, as well as independent financial advisors.
What problems did SideDrawer struggle with before adopting eWebinar?
We were trying to book meetings to talk through our product, and it was the same repetitive presentation we were giving over and over again. People were also asking the same questions over and over again.
“eWebinar has had a huge impact on our sales process.”
When I came across eWebinar, what I loved was that you could respond to someone in the chat in real time while they were watching the pre-recorded presentation. I thought that was brilliant. So as we implemented eWebinar, it started to have a huge impact on our sales process.
How does SideDrawer use eWebinar today?
It’s front and center on our demo booking page. We give people the option to book a live demo with us, but we also give them the option to watch the pre-recorded sales webinar. We find that most people end up booking the pre-recorded webinar and watching it at that exact moment. Then if they have follow-up questions, they’ll ask those through the chat or they’ll come to us and book a one-on-one demo.
By the time they come to us for a one-on-one, we’ve already seen the stats on their session with eWebinar, and we can see how much of the pre-recorded demo they watched. We can also see what kind of questions they asked and what they clicked on. So that gives us a good understanding of who we’re going to be dealing with when we have the one-on-one demo with them. We have a very high engagement rate, and most people watch the majority of the 10-minute pre-recorded demo.
“We give people the option to book a live demo with us, and also give them the option to watch the pre-recorded sales webinar. Most people end up booking the pre-recorded…”
I think the world is moving towards self-discovery as much as possible, and people know that if they speak to someone at our company, they’ll be sold to… and no one necessarily likes being sold to! We’re not pushy at all, but I can understand how people would have that impression. So I find that quite often, they’ll do the pre-recorded session first and book a one-on-one later.
What did your company do before eWebinar?
We had the standard Calendly or HubSpot booking pages, and people would book a demo with us and get slotted into our calendar. Before eWebinar it was also pre-Claude and pre-automation, so there was a lot of discovery that we had to do. But now it’s all happening at the same time. When someone books on eWebinar, we get all the automations running and we get an idea of who the person is.
“eWebinar allows us to have more focused and time-bound meetings with prospective customers.”
But it was very manual and time-consuming before. Scheduled meetings would be 15 minutes or 30 minutes, and more often than not they’d go over, so you’d spill into the next time slot. Timing control and engagement control were always issues. But now, thanks to eWebinar, we’re finding that people come to the one-on-one meetings already having a better understanding of what we do and how we can have an impact on their business. So we actually get right to the point, and those meetings are a lot more focused and time-bound.
Did the quality of your calls change after adopting eWebinar?
We have a high close rate with our product anyway, but I would say the majority of our calls prior to eWebinar were spent on understanding what the art of the possible is with our product. There was a lot of time talking through what you can do, how you can use it, where to put it in your process. Now, with eWebinar, when they come to us with a one-on-one call, it’s a very focused call with very pointed questions. Some people also sign up directly on our website after watching the eWebinar, so we don’t have to have one-on-one calls with everyone.
“Some people don’t need full engagement with our staff, and eWebinar helps us serve those customers better.”
We actually ended up introducing a couple of extra slides on our eWebinar presentation, which were “What are the top 10 questions that people ask us after watching this presentation?” So now people click that and it takes them to another video, and that’s helped a lot. We obviously love talking to our clients, but some people don't actually need that full engagement. So we’re always looking at how we can serve those customers better.
What are the business benefits you’ve seen since adopting eWebinar?
Definitely scheduling efficiency between myself and our team! We’ve also seen better knowledge and understanding of the things that actually matter most. From a product, positioning, and marketing perspective, we’ve been able to improve based on the eWebinar stats that we get.
“eWebinar has allowed us to scale aspects of our business that we didn’t know we could scale.”
We’ve also been looking at how we can add eWebinar presentations for non-sales-oriented engagements with clients, like with servicing and support. eWebinar has had a big impact on our agility to scale aspects of our business that we didn’t know we could scale until we came across this tool. We’re also launching a new product and eWebinar is definitely going to be a component of that.
How have you helped your team by implementing eWebinar?
We’ve helped them by giving them more time to focus on the things that will actually engage and close deals, and help more complex deals.
“eWebinar has allowed our team to focus on the things that will close deals.”
When the team’s days were packed with initial discovery calls, that was really holding them back from being able to do the higher-value sales things that were needed. So eWebinar has definitely helped streamline that capability set for us.
How do your customers feel about eWebinar’s hybrid format?
The feedback has been very positive. People really engage with eWebinar. Whenever we’ve asked someone what their experience was like, they say it was great.
“eWebinar meets our audience where they want to be.”
A lot of people also have attention issues, so they enjoy the fact that they can watch the presentation and also scroll through the side banner. That keeps them engaged. I love eWebinar and I think it meets the audience where they want to be.
What would you say to someone who is worried that the experience will feel impersonal for the customer if they automate their presentations?
There might be 1% of your audience that might feel like it’s not personal, but the reality is that everyone is busy. The fact that I can offer the opportunity to watch a webinar on demand on their own schedule is a huge plus.
“eWebinar allows potential customers to choose from white-glove service or DIY.”
We always want to give our clients white-glove service, but as a customer myself of varying products at various price points, I don't always want white-glove service. I want DIY sometimes. Being able to offer that is a huge value-add.
That’s why we have both options on our page – you can watch the pre-recorded demo or book the one-on-one demo. The split is high in favor of watching the pre-recorded eWebinar first, and then coming to us later for the one-on-one demo.
What do you love most about eWebinar?
I love that it helps give us insight into who’s going to be coming through the door next. I also love that clients can feel that there’s real-time engagement through the chat capability. I love the capability to be able to engage, and for us to be able to offer additional insights and material while they’re watching the demo. The scrolling side banner is also very helpful.
“eWebinar helps people understand what our product is, in a way that’s not intrusive.”
I think it helps people understand what our product is, in a way that’s not intrusive. The human mind can only absorb so much at any given point. So when we have a one-on-one demo, we can't throw 15 things at them at once; we have to follow their thought process while we’re doing it. But with eWebinar, I've found that I can throw a bunch of spaghetti at the wall and see what works, and tweak and iterate. It works for us and for our client base, and we’ll continue to evolve it, but we do see that people are very engaged when they watch our eWebinars – and they are very engaged on those side reels!
What are the most important questions that you ask your prospects so that you understand who they are before they buy the product?
The size of the company is very important. I find that some small practitioners can get away with other competing tools, and we might not be the best fit for them. Compliance-oriented questions are also very relevant, like how important it is to have governance, compliance, and auditability in their practice. There are some small practitioners where that's extremely important, so those are great prospects for us, and then as you get into larger firms, those naturally become a core part of their platform. So being able to understand the size of the firm can immediately direct us into that audience base. And it’s also helped us with our pricing tactics.
Who would you recommend eWebinar to?
I’d recommend eWebinar to anyone who has to do a demo for a client who needs to go through a discovery process.
“I don’t know who eWebinar wouldn’t work for!”
Understanding in a founder’s voice or a sales team’s voice what the product is and how it can help the customer’s business is a crucial component of the sales process. Whether you do it through a pre-recorded webinar or a live demo, it just needs to happen. I would recommend it to anyone who is selling something that’s even a little bit complex. I don’t know who it wouldn’t work for!