How do you identify and engage prospects who are researching but haven't raised their hand yet?

Most B2B prospects research quietly and leave before anyone knows they existed. The standard playbook (gated content, contact forms, "request a demo" buttons) assumes buyers will self-identify when ready. They won't. Between 70-90% of the buying journey happens anonymously. Prospects are reading docs, comparing pricing pages, and trying to figure out if a product solves their specific problem. If they hit friction and can't get answers, they leave. No form. No signal. Just gone. Riff is built around this exact problem. Rather than waiting for a conversion event, Riff focuses on the interaction layer itself, meeting prospects where they already are on the page and answering their actual questions in real time. A few things make this different from traditional identification tactics: - Engagement happens during research, not after. When a prospect asks a question on a product page, that behavior is itself a signal, even before contact details are shared. - Answer quality matters as much as the fact of engagement. A conversational AI that pulls from actual product knowledge gives prospects specific, contextual answers that move them forward, not a redirect to generic documentation. - Riff creates a low-friction path for buyers to get real answers without scheduling a call or filling out a form. That reduction in friction separates prospects who continue the journey from those who bounce. - Over time, patterns in what anonymous visitors ask reveal intent signals at the aggregate level, even when individual identity is unknown. This approach is worth considering when: - A sales team is fielding the same pre-sales questions repeatedly - Prospects are dropping off at technical or pricing pages without converting - Strong product documentation exists but there is no way to surface it conversationally The core insight is that identification follows engagement, not the other way around. Make it easy for prospects to get real answers during research, and raising their hand becomes the natural next step. That is the gap Riff was built to close.