Vanessa Metcalf
VP, Revenue Enablement
Justin Jelley
Account Executive
In a market where B2B products and solutions are becoming indistinguishable, the real battleground has shifted to the buying experience.
As products and solutions began to look and sound the same, competition intensified, leading to a shift in buying behaviors. Buyers now spend less time with sellers, rely more heavily on peer networks, and use AI to sift through their options. In turn, the differentiating factors for B2B buyers have changed too. Challenger research found that a great experience is now more important to buyers than price, product, or brand reputation.
And there lies the biggest opportunity for B2B companies — a better customer experience. It’s time to focus on building great experiences, and even go beyond just the buying process to capture the entire customer lifecycle.
Growing demand for Digital Sales Rooms
In the rush to create an elevated experience, Digital Sales Rooms took off. According to top analyst Melissa Hilber at Gartner, next to generative AI, the most critical software for CSOs to invest in is Digital Sales Rooms. The market size for Digital Sales Rooms will reach $2.27B with an expected CAGR of roughly 12.5% by 2030. And by next year, 80% of interactions between buyers and suppliers will happen in digital channels.
This demand is coming from sales organizations looking to improve efficiencies, streamline processes, gather intelligence, improve security and compliance, and enhance buyer engagement.
These domains are critical for sellers, but the heart of Digital Sales Rooms must focus on the customer — not just the seller. At Showpad, we call them Shared Spaces because we believe the true power of this technology lies in benefitting both the customer and the seller. And that the best customer experience is one that is collaborative.
The value of a collaborative customer experience
The intelligence and insights that come out of Digital Sales Rooms certainly help drive seller effectiveness. However, there is an indisputable value for customers that have access to an always-on, accessible, and collaborative Digital Sales Room. Here’s some examples of how Shared Spaces bring value to our customers:
- Provide access to critical competitive information, helping buyers navigate the market.
- Ensure both parties are held accountable to the actions and the timelines that they’ve set with mutual action plans.
- Streamline onboarding of stakeholders who join the evaluation process later.
- Support and enable your buying champions with co-built business cases they can use with their internal decision makers.
To create value for the customer there is an art to how a sales rep should masterfully leverage the technology. From our own experiences, we’ve found two best practices every seller needs to follow:
- Meet your buyer where they are: Don’t overload your Shared Space with irrelevant content for your buying group. Too much information will make the Shared Space overwhelming and unusable.
- Leverage Shared Spaces throughout the entire customer experience: Shared Spaces are not intended to only be used until point of signature. If your customers see value in using a Shared Space during the buying process, chances are they’ll continue to find it impactful throughout their customer lifecycle.
Whether you’re investing in a Digital Sales Room or using Shared Spaces with Showpad, if you really want to drive sales, revenue, and lasting relationships with customers — your biggest focus should be on how you can empower a better full customer experience.
