Sales and marketing teams are relying on emerging tools known as digital sales rooms to support their buyers and help close deals. This is part of a larger conversation about the shifting buyer's journey and how B2B deals get done.
So what is a digital sales room? A digital sales room is a single virtual location where everything related to a deal can be managed on both the buyer's and the seller's side. Think of it like a microsite. It functions form virtual "third place" that is shared between your organization and your prospects' organization.
A lot of things happen in digital sales rooms. Think sharing relevant collateral, taking/sharing notes, communication, even project pricing and proposals, and more.
First you can familiarize yourself with digital sales room software below. Then jump into the insights. This post features insights from sales and marketing leaders, founders, and some of the leading companies in this emerging category like GetAccept, SalesReach, and Enable Us.
Hear directly from the head of marketing at one of the leading companies in this space, GetAccept, in this Pipeline Meeting interview with Tara Pawlak.
In our interview, Tara covers a lot of ground.
Topics include:
GetAccept integrates with several CRMs like HubSpot and Close, and more. But our interview goes beyond just talking about their software and covers digital sales rooms in general.
In this demo, you can see a few things that Joshua is showing off.
First, the header menu allows the visitor to navigate to the site itself and learn more about the company. This is a useful feature when your internal champion on the deal is forwarding the page to others.
There's an embedded video that has been tailored to this page in particular.
And a personal letter that shares both their perspective on digital sales rooms and an overview of their platform—supported by testimonials, videos, information about supported software like HubSpot, and more.
Special thanks to Josh for putting this together for us!
Now that you know what digital sales rooms are, how they work, and what they look like, let's jump into ways that you can use them to close more deals.
If you're new to this approach in B2B selling or just looking for an inspiration, we went out and asked leading experts in the market the following question:
How do you recommend marketers or salespeople use digital sales room software to help close B2B deals?
Responses from our panelists of founders and executives run the gamut. Anything from addressing objections early to post-sale communication.
"I recommend that salespeople use digital sales room software to address objections early on in the sales process. By addressing objections early, salespeople can address them before they become deal-breakers. Additionally, by using digital sales room software, salespeople can address objections in a more personalized way.
For example, if a prospect expresses concern about the price of a product, the salesperson can use the software to show the prospect how the product will save them money in the long run. By addressing objections early and in a personalized way, salespeople can increase their chances of closing B2B deals."
- Antreas Koutis, Financer
"Use wireframes to replicate a sandbox environment of your software instead of giving free trials that cost your team time and money for low conversions on high ticket products."
- Gregory Easthouse, Republix
"Include a mutual action plan, which outlines the milestones a sales rep and a prospect must complete in order to close a deal. This immediately sets expectations for both parties. Buyers understand the scope of the deal, and sales reps have a better sense of how the deal is progressing."
- Jinal Jhaveri, Enable Us
"Sellers should get prospects to bring all competitors into their deal room, giving them full visibility into what’s happening in the deal, and an edge over the competition. Pitch it as providing more transparency for the client, demonstrating your partnership and confidence in your business solutions."
- John Moore, Trust Enablement
"Keeping prospects engaged is a solid way to use digital salesroom software to its full potential. One example of this is a rep gauging a prospect’s recorded interest in an asset. If the prospect responds the next day with questions, they can use the data from their browsing to determine their areas of interest. This better engages not only the prospect but shows the sales rep how the entire sales process works too."
- Kevin Callahan, Flatline Van Co.
"Give your customers access to resources that they need but might not have time to look up themselves.
For example, if you're selling an accounting software package, you might include information about tax laws and regulations—if someone asks about them during the conversation then they can immediately send it over without having to spend hours searching through government websites themselves."
- Amer Hasovic, Love & Lavender
"It's been shown that many buyers like the self-serve idea that comes with digital sales room software. Some even make large purchases of over $50,000 on them. One aspect of that is sometimes they just know what they want and don't want to deal with a salesperson.
Digital sales rooms are great for return or regular customers to get through the process quickly and that is the primary way I would use them. It should be as automated as possible for this group so they can buy what they need, make changes, and get on with their day."
- Baruch Labunski, Rank Secure
"We build a digital sales room specifically for events with specific content like videos, business cards, LinkedIn, of course information about our product. Then when we actually go to the event, one of our number one things is to be different and stand out.
One of our main things for us is we wear these crazy suits. They're in all these different colors, so that's also in the digital sales room. When you see the video and you see all of us personally saying hi, so there's a lot of personalization in it.
We also all have QR codes, business cards, as well as on our phones, and they can scan and get directly into the digital sales room that was built for that specific event."
- Tara Pawlak, GetAccept
"Gartner research found only 17% of a buying team’s time is spent talking to sales. The majority of time is spent on online research and internal discussions.
Therefore, sales’ role should be to curate information for your champion. They’re the ones who’re going to make your case internally behind closed doors.
Digital sales rooms are a great way to make this happen. By putting everything in one place for your champion, you make their life easier. With a DSR, they have a single go-to resource to share with internal stakeholders as they advocate on your behalf.”
- Alex Kracov, Dock
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