Sales portals are online platforms that contain sales and marketing content
This tool provides timely and convenient access to a company’s marketing material
Software, content, communication channels, and document management systems are the main elements of a complete sales portal
A good sales portal provides benefits like ease of access, organizability, integration, and real-time data insights
Boost Profits with a Tailored Online Sales Portal
“Great salespeople are relationship builders who provide value and help their customers win.” – Jeffrey Gitomer, American Salesperson.
Don’t you feel this quote sums up the best sales attribute perfectly? If you agree, there is one thing to understand – sales portals are the modern assets for building such sound client relations.
Be it a B2C or B2B sales portal, ‘helping your customers win’ in today’s age is possible with a splendid digital experience.
And how do you achieve such a feat?
The answer is simple – by developing a fool-proof online sales portal.
These fantastic platforms help distribute relevant marketing material, enhance the sales output, and help manage multiple leads effectively. So, how can you create sales portals that positively impact your business output?
Scroll ahead to learn the comprehensive details on portal sales that can help you make the right decisions. The information in this blog can help you build your own sales portal that make closing deals more effortless.
Sales Portals: An Overview
Are you familiar with the idea of digital workspaces?
Well, these are online platforms on which users can perform specific actions. Sales portals are similar digital assets for businesses.
Dedicated sales portal software are platforms that your sales teams use to display relevant marketing content.
A sales portal software can (in most cases) have the following target audiences:
Distributors
Internal sales representatives
In fact, a B2B sales portal serves as a guide for such users to understand your business.
What is a Sales Portal?
Simply put, you can define a sales portal as a digital platform where your team can create, share, store, and transfer marketing content. Consider such a workspace as a central repository for your sales process. The portal supplies all necessary sales materials to the concerned stakeholders.
Why Design Unique Sales Portals?
If this question is still on your mind, read the following points:
Online traditional sales portals provides timely and convenient access to your marketing material
Your end audience can receive relevant product and service knowledge through such portals
The business has complete control over the distribution of information material
Potential to portray your brand voice to the end audience
These four points are adequate to show the importance of sales portals. So, choosing a software development partner to develop an apt platform can be a wise decision.
Main Elements of Sales Portals
What should your online sales portal contain? Well, this section includes all the relevant answers.
A Robust Sales Portal Software
You must be aware of Content Management System (CMS). WordPress, Joomla, and Magnolia are typical examples of CMS software.
Sales portals are similar but more modular. They have various functionalities that suit the demands of end users.
These platforms integrate the following elements:
Sales collateral
Training materials
Product brochures
Leads details
Information sheets
Overall, the software side of a B2B sales portal should be robust to accommodate all the relevant data. This aspect ensures a seamless sales portal development process.
It is simply the content that changes as per the user’s data, behavior, and preferences.
To enhance the sales portal, you should include dynamic content on your platform. To understand the concept, here’s an example:
Consider a distributor that purchases service ‘A’ from your company. However, your portal has multiple services and relevant content. Now, after identifying this user’s interest, the portal will recommend blogs, brochures, offers, and other apt data related to service ‘A.’
Enhanced Communication
Picture this. A new prospect signs into your online sales portal. He gets recommendations on relevant content and details to contact your inside representative.
A message like this: ‘Hi! I am Robert Smith, the Sales Representative at ABC Technologies. I see you’re interested in knowing more about our staff augmentation service. Well, I am the right person to assist you. Connect with me here – .’
This ‘enhanced communication’ is one of the best elements or sales tools of your portal sales.
Focus on:
Prompt response
Engagement
Clarity
For the perfect implementation, contact a web portal development company. Next, discuss this aspect with a Project Manager. You will, most likely, get proper guidance.
Streamlined Document Management System
Case studies, blogs, research papers, videos, you name it. Documentation of any kind is instrumental to great sales portals.
A document management system will enhance the sales portal by:
Enabling version control
Providing document subscriptions
Navigating users to relevant information
Nobody wants to lose a deal in this competitive market. So, the documentation game straight and augment your sales portal software. You can notice a fantastic difference when ticking all the right boxes.
The Top Benefits of Successful Sales Portals
By now, you must be conversant with the significance and elements of an online sales portal. It’s now time to understand ways to create a distinct online platform.
Explore this section to note points for boosting your portal’s success.
1. Easy to Access
Get this – the main target audience for sales portals is representatives. Your sales reps are always on the go and require quick access to relevant material.
So, accessibility is a significant attribute of an excellent online sales portal.
Ensure the following points:
Your portal is mobile-friendly
It is easy to navigate
The portal has a single sign-in facility
The UI is engaging and intuitive
Approach a dedicated developer and discuss these aspects. You will definitely receive the best results and customized guidance on topics like the best sales portal tools for end utility.
2. Suitable for Collaboration
Viewing, editing, and sharing documents on the go is a must-have for good sales portals. Your team should be able to collaborate remotely and leverage useful information.
As a result, software like Google Drive and Microsoft Dynamics 365 are popular in the corporate sector. Ensure the portal has all the right features for your team members to share ideas and convey messages effectively.
3. High Organizability
Sales portals contain abundant information to support the internal team in conducting their operations.
So, such content should have systematic segregation. Organizing the online sales portal data into segments saves time and improves efficiency.
You can add filters or create sub-pages in the portal to ensure your sales reps can find data quickly. In addition, developers can use AI to identify relevant information about different users and recommend it appropriately.
4. Fluent Integration
Another crucial trait of a good online sales portal is the potential to integrate with vital CRM tools. Such a feature enables your team to understand prospect behavior in real-time.
Here are some popular technologies that you can consider for integration:
HubSpot
Salesforce
Zoho CRM
Zendesk
Some sales portals have in-built integration with one such single marketing automation or CRM platform. So, you can follow a similar plan and contact a developer well-versed in implementing such features.
5. Real-time Insights
A look into your end-user behavior, team activities, and content performance can prove useful for modifying your digital strategy.
When you receive such timely insights, you can plan the following activities in advance:
Add new relevant content
Modify existing content
Update old or outdated data
Furthermore, real-time insights ensure that you understand the significance of version control. So your team can access up-to-date details and enhance work output considerably. A successful sales portal ensures steady delivery of real-time insights.
Challenges that Sales Portals Solve
Developing portals is vital for businesses. You might be aware of this line. But the main question is – ‘what problems does a B2B sales portal solve?’
For a straightforward answer, refer to this section that contains essential information on facets of a great sales portal.
Delay in Information Transfer Between Manager and Sales Rep
Consider that your representative is meeting with a potential lead. The demo requires quick information from an in-house document.
Your representative contacts the Sales Manager to share data. However, time is lost in the process, leading to a loss of the lead’s interest.
Sales portals can prove to be a game-changer in such scenarios. Your sales rep can simply log into the online sales portal and retrieve the required information. Therefore, zero delays ensure that the demo goes smoothly and uninterrupted.
Difficulty in Handling Multiple Leads Daily
Losing out on customers is the last thing you want. However, you might overlook following up on old customers when your business expands.
Sales portals solve this problem due to the presence of an automated follow-up system. Your sales representatives can access vital information on their smartphones.
As a result, you can plan effective follow-up strategies and develop the right plan to implement cold-reach tactics.
The Challenge to Managing Sales Team Data
A sales portal software makes it simple to manage big data. With the help of an online sales portal, you do not need to manage separate spreadsheets and handle entry errors.
Automation and data analytics enable these platforms to manage vital information systematically. As a result, any sales representative can access the perfect details on a live location.
Inefficiency in Managing Business Partners
As a business expands, it becomes difficult to manage and track the progress of each sale. Consequently, the attention to each corporate partner keeps decreasing. This scenario can lead to disassociation, thereby hampering your business output.
When you enhance your sales portals by availing of appropriate development services, there is an increment in your digital management capacity. Your business partners can fill in the required information in the online sales portal through a secure log-in. Your team can access such information and offer real-time assistance.
Overall, such a digital platform improves efficiency and helps manage multiple partners effectively.
Building a Robust B2B Sales Portal – The Tech Stack to Use
By now, you must be clear on your decision to create an online sales portal. But how to get started?
Well, most companies will explain that developing portals include the following steps:
Ideation
Planning
Development
Testing
Quality Assurance
Deployment
These steps are generic and familiar to most businesses. In addition, they are self-explanatory. However, before approaching a web development company, you should be conversant with the trending technologies.
This knowledge can help you choose a reliable software development partner. Also, you can understand the development process tad better. So, examine the following table:
Table: Tech Stack to Build Great Sales Portals
Sr. No.
Type of Technology
Prominent Options
1
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software
Salesforce
HubSpot
Pipedrive
Zendesk
Freshworks
2
Back-end Framework
Django
Rails
Laravel
Express.js
3
Front-end Framework
Angular
React
jQuery
Vue.js
Semantic UI
4
Sales Enablement
Otter
Gong
5
Email Optimization
Mailchimp
Brevo
YesWare
Moreover, a proper combination of different technologies merges together to enhance the online sales portal. So, how can you ensure the selection of apt technologies?
By choosing an experienced software development partner.
How Much Does a Sales Portal Software Cost?
There is no straightforward cost of developing portals. Why?
Well, the development process has many variables.
Below are the significant factors that you should consider:
The complexity of design
Size of the development team
Business requirements
Features and functions
Integration with third-party apps
In addition, the final budget of your sales portals varies depending on your developer’s location. For instance, if you hire an offshore team set in Asia, the development cost will be low due to the weak currency (compared with USD). Still, you can estimate the price to range between USD 5,000 to USD 60,000.
So, plan your budget wisely and profit from the various advantages of developing portals.
In a Nutshell
Sales portals are integral to your business expansion. They add convenience to your internal team, help provide relevant content to the end user, and enhance your brand’s reliability.
The portal’s main parameters should be the selection of apt sales portal software, preparation of dynamic content, emphasis on communication, and robust DMS.
Next, you should be familiar with the well-known facets of a successful online sales portal. Aspects like accessibility, organization, collaboration, and integration play crucial roles in defining the advancement of a B2B sales portal.
What type of content can I find on high-quality sales portals?
On a top-notch online sales portal, you can find content like case studies, webinar recordings, videos, white papers, eBooks, and FAQs. Ensure that you team up with a dependable vendor to develop portals containing detailed insights.
How can an online sales portal benefit my business?
A digital sales portal can improve the rate of communication and increase the convenience of your sales reps. In addition, your business partners and prospects can easily access vital information using such an intuitive platform.
What are some noteworthy features of a good online sales portal?
Developing portals require a proper selection of features to provide an all-inclusive experience to the target audience. Sales portals should contain elements like lead tracking, invoice creation, order processing, and managing customer data.
How much time it takes to create a sales portal?
The duration of creating a sales portal depends on your requirements. These imply the number of features, animations, elements, and content on your platform. Still, in most cases, you can expect the time span to hover in the three to eight months tenure.
How can online sales portal software help with sales and marketing?
An online sales portal software helps sales teams close deals faster by providing easy access to product details, marketing materials, and lead tracking. This platform streamlines campaign creation for the marketing squad and offers valuable insights to the sales department.
Is a sales portal software secure?
In general, yes. A sales portal software comprises top-notch security measures like data encryption and access controls. Dedicated developers also release regular updates to patch vulnerabilities and keep intruders out. However, the security features depend on your development team’s proficiency in safeguarding a sales portal.
