Next, go in to the Admin Roles and also enable permissions for any roles you want to empower.

Customer Spaces are based on templates that you, as an administrator, first define.  A template is a defined set of assets along with default notes and explanations you create.  Think of this as providing a quick and easy starting point for your sellers.  When you create a template, you will be able to define whether the seller can modify the list of assets you have selected and change the default text.  In this way you can either tightly control how Customer Spaces are used or provide flexibility to your sellers.

To create a Customer Space template in the admin, go to Sales Tools-->Customer Spaces.  Next, click the Create Template button.  You'll be prompted to provide a name for the template and then be brought into the template administration page:

On the Details tab, you have a number of options:

• Primary Image: Upload an image that will represent the Customer Space template.  The check box below it indicates if the seller can change this image you have provided.
• Name: The name of the Customer Space template
• Description: This description will be made available to your sellers, but will not be seen by customers
• Default Sales User Note to Customer: A Customer Space includes a note from the seller.  You can provide some default content here.  You can also indicate if the seller is able to edit this note.
• Allow Sales User to Add and Remove Items: On the next tab you will select which assets should be assigned to this Customer Space template.  This checkbox indicates if the seller can change this list of assets you are defining.
• Labels: Like other sales tools in Brand Wings, you can set Labels that will be associated with this template.

In this tab, you can find Assets on the left, and drag them into the Customer Space box on the right.  Note that you can rearrange the assets in the Customer Space box by clicking and dragging.

Now click the Permissions tab:

Like other Sales Tools in Brand Wings, you can define which sellers will have access to this Customer Space template.  You can select Roles and/or Sales Teams.  Just remember that if both areas have selections, both must be true for the sales user to have access.

Remember to click Save when finished!

Now that you have defined a Customer Space, the next step is to make sure the sales portal is properly configured.  First, you may want to add a navigation menu item that points to a list of all available Customer Space templates.  Click and drag the Customer Space List from the General Items into the appropriate location on your menu:

Two other potential updates to make in the admin are:

• On the Inside Pages tab of the Portal Theme area, be sure to map a layout to the Customer Space type.
• Since customers can be notified about the customer space via email, you can also define a notification template.  Be sure to use the {{Link}} Merge Tag in the template so that a URL to the Customer Space can be added to the email.

Now that we have created a Customer Space template in the admin, let's review the seller experience.  After your seller has logged into the portal, there are a few different ways they see and use the Customer Space templates you have created.  If you added the Customer Spaces List menu item to a navigation menu, the seller can click (or tap) this link to see the templates:

Next, your seller can click on "See Details" for the desired template.  This opens a detail page:

After reviewing the details, the seller can click the "Create New Customer Space" button to get started.  This next screen allows the seller to customize the space (if needed) and share it with contacts:

Depending on the permissions you set in the template, your seller has a number of options:

• Update the Customer Space name
• Update the image
• Update the note to the customer
• Add, remove, or re-order assets.

The seller can also select one or more contacts to send the customer space to (if desired) as well as an expiration date.  When finished, your seller should click the Save button.  Next, your seller is prompted to either send an email to the contacts or generate a link to the Customer Space:

The seller can access this Customer Space through the Activity Stream.  By clicking on the detail icon on the right of the activity stream item opens a detail screen:

Note the tabs on this screen that include additional information:

• Items: List of assets in the Customer Space
• Contacts: The Contacts that have access to the Customer Space
• Activity History: Key events such as when Contacts visit the Customer Space

We hope you find this new feature useful for further enabling your sales teams!

Sales and marketing teams know that high-quality content takes buyers through a journey that ideally results in winning new sales opportunities. 

But where do reps get the high-quality content they need? 

Are your reps getting timely and relevant content from marketing, or are they creating content on their own?

If the reps are developing the content themselves it takes time away from selling and pursuing new opportunities.  Besides, content developed by your reps may not be on brand or consistent with the brand voice.  The content may not be up-to-date, or may not present the right image or value of your product or service.  Worst case the information developed by your reps could be inaccurate. 

If your reps are searching for content, and the content is stored across five or six different content platforms, reps will sometimes waste a lot of time looking for what they need.  There are market studies and surveys that indicate that as much as 1/3 of reps time is spent searching for or creating content. 

The challenge of providing relevant content to sales teams, while minimizing or eliminating the time reps spend creating or finding content is widespread.  In a recent survey, 84% of respondents indicated that content search and utilization was the number one area that could improve sales productivity, yet only 35% of companies are actively working on ways to improve how reps find and utilize content to drive new sales. 

So what is the best way forward?

Ideally, marketing teams work closely with the sales team to create compelling content that drives sales.  Marketing then organizes the content into a sales enablement content library and makes it easy for reps to access the content.  The salesperson accesses the system and searches for relevant assets based on specific criteria such as the buyers current stage in the buying journey. 

What type of assets resonates most with buyers?

That depends on the person who is receiving the content, their role in the organization, and the stage of the buying journey.  In the early stages content that is informational and educational helps prospects to become aware of better ways to get jobs done.  As the buying journey advances, prospects are trying to determine the solution that’s right for them.  At this stage, buyers are looking for details to understand how your product or service solves their problem, and how it compares to alternatives.  In the later stages content that helps justify the investment and case studies validating the outcomes help prospects make decisions to go ahead.

Having a sales enablement content management system offers functionality that can help you determine when it’s time to refresh or replace content.  When a specific piece of content is no longer used, or no longer helping sales professionals move customers forward on their buying journey path, that’s a good sign that the asset has outlived its usefulness.  Replacing or refreshing old content, such as an out-of-date case study, improves sales productivity because sales professionals will be using up-to-date content.  It also gives them a higher level of confidence in the quality of the materials in the system.

Sales teams need actionable content that's centralized and trackable. The Brand Wings content management system provides a single point of access that saves time for reps before and after every sales call and helps improve the productivity of every interaction with prospects.