Digital Sales Room

What is a Digital Sales Room?

A digital sales room (DSR) is a centralized platform designed to facilitate collaboration and content sharing between sales reps and buyers throughout the deal cycle. It serves as a personalized, interactive microsite sellers use to create a unique and differentiated experience for each buyer.

A DSR enables sellers to:

• Present tailored, deal-specific content
• Communicate in real-time
• Share important documents, like quotes and contracts
• Collaborate with stakeholders throughout the decision-making process
• Track buyer interactions to optimize sales strategies

Since it’s secure and centralized, a digital sales room also gives buyers and sellers a single location they can access to review, share, and discuss deal materials. Easy access to content means reps and members of the buying group can pick up where they left off with discussions, and they don’t have to wait for emails or phone calls.

Synonyms

• Collaborative selling
• DealRoom 
• Sales microsite
• Virtual deal room

B2B sales has evolved…

…and by evolved, we mean it’s gotten more complex.

Today, the average B2B buying group includes six to 10 decision-makers, each with different individual concerns, levels of influence and decision-making capacity, and roles in the deal process.

• Technical buyers want to know how your solution integrates with their existing systems and workflows.
• Execs want to see $$$ in vs. $$$ out.
• Legal wants to hear about data security and industry-related compliance.
• End-users just want something they can use without tons of frustration.

Plus, B2B deals take months to close. The average sales cycle length for B2B companies across all industries is 102 days. And we all know the typical enterprise sale takes much longer (typically 9+ months).

The buyer’s journey is also non-linear — that is, there’s no set pathway you can expect all potential customers to follow.

• The majority of their research happens online. They realistically spend less than 5% of their time interacting with your sales team.
• As they move through the funnel, their concerns and priorities shift from goals and pain points (why they engaged in the first place) to why they’ll actually buy from you — functionality, pricing, support, delivery, and so on.

That isn’t to say your sales conversations don’t need linearity. They do.

To move deals across the finish line, you have to engage buyers (a) at the right place and (b) at the right time. Failure to personalize interactions and continue the conversation in a seamless way can lead to disengaged customers, slow pipeline velocity, and lost deals.

That’s where a digital sales room comes in. By creating a personalized, centralized platform for buyers and sellers, your sales team can ensure they’re always in lockstep with buyers’ needs and priorities, even as those change throughout the deal cycle.

Related Terminology in Digital Sales Rooms

Sales Microsite

A sales microsite is basically a small, focused website designed to promote specific aspects of a business, such as a product line, event, or campaign. It operates independently of your main site (on a separate domain or subdomain) and is dedicated to a single topic or purpose.

Microsites can be used for a variety of marketing strategies:

• Highlighting new product launches
• Showcasing new features or updates
• Promoting events and limited-time offers
• Targeting specific customer segments

They are characterized by their concise nature, targeted content, and, often, a temporary lifespan, although you can use them long-term depending on their purpose​​​​​​.

The difference between a sales microsite and a digital sales room lies in their scope and functionality. While a sales microsite is a standalone website focused on a specific marketing goal or campaign, a DSR is an interactive platform designed to facilitate the entire sales process once buyers are in the funnel.

Virtual Deal Rooms

A virtual deal room is exactly what it sounds like: a virtual space where buyers and sellers can collaborate, share documents, and track interaction throughout the deal process. “Virtual deal room” is synonymous with “digital sales room” — you’ll sometimes hear these terms used interchangeably.

That said, a virtual deal room may refer to a broader range of spaces, like those used for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) or real estate transactions. In these cases, the platform will normally have additional features specific to those types of deals.

Collaborative Selling

Collaborative selling is a team-based approach to sales where more than one rep is involved in the process. The goal of sales collaboration is to improve sales outcomes by working together to strategize, plan, and execute the sale.

It includes:

• Working together to define target markets and ICPs
• Sharing customer insights with one another
• Developing sales presentations and proposals together
• Creating contracts with help from the deal desk
• Analyzing deal outcomes post-closure

HubSpot research shows that nearly half (46%) of all sales teams operate under a hybrid model, while 18% are fully remote. Just one-third of sellers come into the office every day.

To facilitate collaboration, remote sales teams rely heavily on digital tools like video conferencing, project management apps, software integrations….and yes, digital sales rooms.

A DSR ca​n help reps and team members:

• Strategize together by providing easy access to sales content, buyer insights, and deal history
• Work through objections with real-time chat or comment threads
• Keep track of revisions in shared documents
• Schedule meetings and follow-up tasks within the platform
• Track each deal’s progress and next steps in a centralized location

DealRoom

DealRoom is the digital sales room offering from DealHub CPQ. It’s a solid example of a DSR that offers everything we discussed so far:

• An interactive platform for buyer-seller engagement
• Document sharing and tracking capabilities
• Real-time chat
• Virtual meeting scheduling
• Performance analytics

What sets DealRoom apart is its modular microservice architecture — CPQ, e-signature, contract management, and billing tools create a truly end-to-end sales process. Plus, with its intuitive user interface and automation capabilities (like custom workflow templates), reps can deliver buyers a streamlined and personalized experience without worrying about any clerical work.

Key Features and Functionality

Document Management

Within a digital sales room, you or someone from your sales team can easily upload, share, and track documents throughout the deal process. As far as organization and access go, DSRs work on a few key principles:

• Hierarchical structure. Similar to folders on a computer, DSRs categorize documents by type, deal stage, or client, making it easier to pull up the required documents quickly​​.
• Tagging and metadata. Tags can include information like document type (e.g., contract, proposal, product datasheet), deal name, or client name. This makes it easy to search and filter documents, even within a large repository​​.
• Version control. Users always access the latest document version, but others are saved to prevent confusion during revision, negotiation, and redlining.
• Access controls. Sales admins set permissions on viewing, editing, and sharing documents to ensure confidentiality and authorized access.
• CLM integration. Either via microservices, natively, or through an API, your digital sales room will integrate with your contract management software to store every version of your sales documents.

Members of the buying group can also share documents. But they can’t access your sensitive internal documents outside their specific deal room, And they can’t see how other deals are progressing.

Secure Data Storage

Digital sales rooms are cloud-based software with secure data storage. Vendors may have their own proprietary platforms, but they’re all accessible through any web browser or mobile device with an internet connection.

Secure data storage is critical to buyer-seller collaboration for:

• Security. Buyers need to be confident that their private information and documents are safe from hackers or other malicious agents.
• Protection of sensitive information. A deal’s terms and pricing are confidential between the sales rep working the deal and the decision-makers negotiating it.
• Easy access. Authorized sellers need a central repository for storing sensitive sales data in one place, accessible at any time and from any location.
• Activity tracking. Digital sales rooms eliminate email chains and document sharin​g in Google Drive or Dropbox. Instead, all interactions occur within the platform, and activity is tracked automatically.
• Compliance. Sales teams need to keep a record of all sales correspondence throughout the deal process.

DSRs enable admins to assign roles and permissions to each user at the individual level. That way, nobody from your team (or outside of it) can access a document unless they created the deal, were added to it, or are an admin themselves.

Communication Tools

Several communication tools within the digital sales room work together to create an efficient and effective collaboration platform.

Although they’ll differ by product, here’s the rundown each tool typically offers the following built-in features:

• Chat and messaging
• Video conferencing
• Screen sharing
• Document sharing and collaboration
• Interactive tools (polls, surveys, quizzes)
• Approval workflows
• Task and activity tracking

Many DSRs integrate with email platforms and other external communication tools as well. That allows users to receive notifications if they’re mentioned in a chat message, assigned a task, or need to participate in an upcoming meeting.

Analytics and Reporting

Digital sales rooms have advanced analytics and reporting capabilities that give your sales team deep insights into buyer behavior, engagement, and sales effectiveness.

That includes:

• Engagement tracking
• Behavioral insights
• Conversion metrics
• Sales cycle metrics

DSRs send out real-time alerts whenever certain triggers, like a prospect viewing a document, take place. Buyer engagement and viewing data can also help you gauge a customer’s interest or how you should approach them. For overarching analysis, it’ll display metrics like quote-to-cash cycle time and conversion rate by product, sales rep, and other data points.

Integration Capabilities

As briefly mentioned earlier, digital sales rooms can integrate with other software in three main ways: microservices, native integrations, or via a third-party API connector.

• Microservices expand software functionality without modifying its core code. They’re small, independent programs from the same software vendor (like DealHub CPQ and CLM vs. DealRoom) that communicate and work together seamlessly.
• Native integrations are popular for users of vendors within the same ecosystem. When two platforms integrate natively, they use API code written in the software itself. In other words, they’re built to work together.
• Third-party API connectors are how digital sales rooms integrate with software vendors outside their own ecosystem. They use custom API code to allow two systems to talk to each other.

Benefits of Digital Sales Rooms

Of course, the main benefit of digital sales rooms is they eliminate the need for back-and-forth communication in email threads, which are incredibly easy to lose track of and have zero traceability as far as administrative control. And if someone sends a sensitive document to the wrong prospect, well, you’re in big trouble.

A secure, centralized platform for sales engagement opens up so many doors for sales reps and their buyers.

They:

• Eliminate security risks associated with clerical errors like emailing the wrong recipient and misplacing documents
• Enable sellers to share branded sales collateral
• Keep a record of all sales correspondence for compliance purposes
• Improve buyer engagement through content personalization and fast response times
• Shorten the sales cycle by eliminating manual tasks and streamlining communication
• Facilitate remote and hybrid sales teams

Plus, they give your entire sales team a way to track and assess how effective their sales tactics are. And they can attribute certain communication strategies to the type of customer, deal wins and losses, and higher or lower sales velocity.

Implementation Best Practices

Choose the right platform.

When choosing a digital sales room for your organization, there are plenty of considerations for each member of the buying group. Briefly, here are the most important factors to consider:

• Integration capabilities. Your ability to offer a seamless experience depends entirely on whether the system works with the rest of your tech stack. CRM, CPQ, and CLM integrations are a must. And it’s in your best interest to look for a platform that handles CPQ and CLM within the same UI.
• Usability. Ultimately, your sales reps and current customers will need a say in the software you choose. If it isn’t something they’re happy with using, you’ll have low adoption rates and minimal ROI.
• Security and compliance. If you work in a highly regulated industry, your software needs to comply with its regulations and standards. That means asking about encryption, permissions settings, backup processes, and audit trails.
• Pricing model and scalability. Some platforms charge per user, while others charge based on features used or the size of your customer base. Consider your current needs, whether you’ll need more in the future, and how the pricing model will affect you at higher or lower levels of usage.

Train your team.

You can have the best software in the world, but it’s essentially useless without proper training and onboarding. Make sure your team knows how to use the platform to its full potential and understands its capabilities for their specific roles.

A few strategies:

• Schedule regular training sessions and provide on-demand resources for team members to reference later.
• Encourage Q&A sessions and feedback from users.
• Create a designated point person or team of experts who can troubleshoot issues and help with onboarding new hires.

Customize and personalize your platform.

Most digital sales rooms have extensibility built into their platform, allowing for customization and personalization. Take advantage of this by building out your sales processes, templates, and workflows to fit your organization’s unique needs.

This may include:

• Setting up automated approval workflows and notification triggers
• Creating personalized templates for different products, industries, or buyers
• Establishing clear roles and permissions settings to ensure approval processes are followed
• Customizing dashboards and analytics to track metrics that matter most to your team’s sales strategy

Also add your own branding. That’s how you reinforce your company’s brand identity and make yourself more memorable (and professional) to prospects.

Optimize your internal processes.

A digital sales room is really a small part of the bigger picture. Sales is a human process, and the software is only there to facilitate it. That means your team needs to have a clear understanding of their roles, responsibilities, and the sales process as a whole.

• Your sales methodology
• Product-market fit
• Sales and marketing alignment
• Your sales/marketing collateral

Having a strong foundation in these areas will make it easier to implement and execute your digital sales room effectively.

Continuously evaluate your DSR.

You’ll want to look at metrics like sales rep engagement, customer engagement, win rate, and sales velocity over time to see whether your digital sales room is making any meaningful difference.

To start, take a baseline measurement before implementing your DSR. Then, check in at regular intervals (monthly or quarterly) and make adjustments as needed to improve performance.

Key Takeaways on Digital Sales Rooms

As B2B buyers demand increasing levels of personalization and faster responses while navigating a more intricate sales environment, digital sales rooms present the perfect solution. They’re secure, centralized, and streamline communication, content sharing, and tracking.

Implemented effectively, they eliminate security risks, improve seller and buyer engagement, shorten the sales cycle, and give teams insights into their performance. But, to do that, you need to choose the right platform, give your team proper training and support, customize it to your needs, optimize internal processes, and regularly evaluate its performance. 

To invest in a platform that will stick with you as you grow your sales team and change your sales workflow, prioritize extensibility, a modular architecture, and an extensive library of native integrations when selecting a platform.

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Andrew Parker

Andrew is a professional copywriter with expertise in creating content focused on business-to-business (B2B) software. He conducts research and produces articles that provide valuable insights and information to his readers.