What are Deal Rooms and Why Should I Use Them?

You’ve probably heard about deal rooms, also known as sales enablement portals, and now you’re wondering if they’re really worth all the fuss. For your company, maybe they are and maybe they aren’t (I’m betting they are). I’ll lay down the basics so you can assess for yourself.

The Definition: Deal rooms / sales enablement portals are the next step up from Sales Asset Management platforms. They’re a private environment that allows both sales reps and buyers to easily track and manage the buying journey. Back-and-forth communication, content sharing, virtual meetings—all this and more are streamlined through one easily accessible portal.

The Benefits: The advantages of using deal rooms spread across many departments and business strategies, but I’ll focus on a few important top-level ones:

• The buyer experience
  Sales enablement portals are designed to make the sales process easy not only for sales, but for buyers too. You’re giving your buyers centralized access to all the resources and communications needed to make an informed and quick buying decision, something that can clearly differentiate you from your competitors.
• Increased visibility
  Deal rooms have integrated tracking, allowing your sales reps to immediately know when buyers download, view or share content with others. This visibility helps your sales reps jump on opportunities the moment when they’re hottest – when your buyers are already thinking about and devoting time to assessing your solution.
• Actionable analytics
  All of the data and activity within the sales enablement portal is captured and turned into effective strategies and guidance for your sales reps. For instance, it can stream stats on the most effective resources and sales plays for given stages within the buyer journey, giving your sales reps an edge through targeted, relevant sales materials and actions. Additionally, predictive analytics can guide your sales reps in prioritizing deals that are more likely to close, making sure your reps are getting the most out of their time and effort.

The Outcomes: The features sound great, but you need proof that sales enablement portals actually work. Check out these statistics for a start:

• Best-in-class companies leverage deal rooms 32% more than all others (Aberdeen, How the Best in Class Deploy Portals)
• 53% of a purchase decision is buying experience, by far the biggest driver (Corporate Executive Board)
• 60% of best in class organizations have extensive visibility into the sales utilization of content/assets, compared to only 28% of laggards (Aberdeen, Fulfilling the Last Frontier of Marketing-Sales Alignment)
• While 67% of executives say that the ability to draw intelligence from their data is a top priority for their organization, 29% give their organization a ‘D’ or ‘F’ in preparedness for a data deluge (Oracle, From Overload to Impact)
• Leaders are 70% more likely to track content utilization metrics than followers (Aberdeen, Alchemy of Intent: Content Marketing in the Lead-to-Revenue Cycle)
• 45 percent
  [of sales reps] report needing help figuring out which accounts to prioritize (CSO Insight, Sales Performance Optimization Study)
• 35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds to the prospect first (SalesStaff, 100 Sales & Marketing Stats that Will Blow Your Mind)

The Next Steps: Want a more in-depth analysis of sales enablement portals? Download this free Aberdeen research report – Sales Enablement Portals: Opening a Window to Success – or schedule a demo to see for yourself by filling out the form below.