For most, the days of sales presentations delivered with a handshake at in-person meetings are long gone. We find ourselves in a far more virtual era.
There’s no denying the last several years have seen a drastic change in the way people make purchases. Buyers now expect digital experiences that are personalized to their specific needs and challenges. In fact, according to the Harvard Business Review, in today’s market, we're no longer competing with our competitors. We’re competing with experiences.
So what can you do to ensure your buyers are engaged in this digitally experiential age? Digital Sales Rooms (DSRs) offer an excellent solution. DSRs allow sellers to collaborate with prospects and customers in a virtual space, producing a host of benefits for buyers and sellers alike. Simply follow these 4 tips for providing your prospects with the tailored and personalized buying experiences they expect (and deserve).
#1 | Aggregate Relevant Resources
It’s no secret that prospects’ attention spans are limited—making it more important than ever to grab a buyer’s attention with captivating, relevant content.
Digital research plays a significant role in how today’s buyers buy. They want to conduct their own research, often without interference from a sales person. According to Gartner, this translates to sales reps only having about 5% of a customer’s time during their B2B buying journey. Therefore, it almost mandates that your marketing team arms sales with timely, pertinent, engaging content that immediately builds trust.
This trust begins with providing transparent, helpful resources. With a DSR, sales reps can aggregate a variety of resources that buyers actually need to make their purchasing decisions. Each microsite can be easily customized to a buyer’s particular business situation or challenge, helping to establish your seller as the expert.
#2 | Empower Your Buyer
More and more buyers prefer to learn independently, with 90% making their way through the buyer’s journey before ever talking to sales. This can be tricky. While a sales rep may want to interact with a buyer, a scheduled call is likely not the buyer’s first choice. Modern buyers want the power to explore resources on their own, without pressure.
Marketing and sales teams need to ensure buyers have everything they need to conduct thorough product and/or service research, while staying mindful about cutting unnecessary content. Giving buyers the resources they need to feel confident in their decision is key to building a lasting, trusted relationship.
#3 | Keep Your Content Fresh
In a world that’s constantly changing, it’s essential to make sure the collections and categories in your content platform are up-to-date with the latest data, specs, videos, research and more. After all, sales reps need access to the freshest information available to attract buyers.
Content platforms are a living entity that require the ability to upload the latest and most accurate resources and related materials at the drop of a hat. Outdated content can damage your credibility and leave you falling behind the competition—and nobody wants that!
When content is engaging and fresh, your sales reps can select a few pieces of key information to leverage in a DSR. This helps to provide the most relevant information without overwhelming your prospects.
# 4 | Use Your Data
Marketers depend on data analytics to provide information about what content is most used and most effective, as well as what's outdated and unused. If you’re not using data to keep up with your buyers’ and sellers’ needs, challenges, or interests, you can lose opportunities in the blink of an eye.
DSRs collect data on seller and buyer actions, as well as engagement, to provide insight into the content they’re viewing and sharing. This information allows sales reps to:
- Gather strategic insights into buyer behavior.
- Identify pain points.
- Discover ways to improve the buyer journey.
- Gather hard data to adjust and improve sales interactions.
- Deliver information to marketing about what content is most effective for moving deals along, and what needs reworking.
The result? More sales conversions, stronger relationships, and content that actually gets used.
Embrace Virtual Selling. Use a Digital Sales Room.
A DSR may be what sellers use to meet with prospects and customers, but it’s so much more than that. As a sales enablement tool, it allows you to collaborate with buyers more visually, interactively, engagingly, immersively and effectively.
Ready to learn how a digital sales room can help drive buyer engagement in your business? Schedule a demo with us now.
![Why and How to Customize Your Sales Presentations [Infographic]](images/black-and-white-tools.jpg)
