Why the B2B buying experience needs to change
Think about the last time you made a big purchase in your personal life.
Did you buy because the salesperson went all in on selling harder—following you around the store, talking non-stop about product features, and pushing you to make a decision?
Probably not.
You bought because you had the right information, at the right time, in a way that made sense for you.
💡 Not a spoiler: B2B buyers want the same experience
Yet, most sales teams still operate as if the harder they push, the more they’ll sell. Instead of helping buyers buy, they overwhelm them with cold outreach, endless follow-ups, and feature-heavy presentations that don’t actually address what buyers care about.
Sales representatives that don't recognize the shift in buyer behavior and refuse adapt by sending out generic content and ignoring buyer signals will end up getting the proverbial door in the face.
The problem with traditional B2B sales content
If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of B2B sales content, you already know the problem.
- Sales reps send generic PDFs that don’t answer the real questions buyers have. Instead, having diverse sales collateral—like case studies, presentations, and testimonials—available within a shared space can enhance the customer experience.
- Decks are filled with product features instead of how the solution actually solves a problem.
- Buyers have to sift through emails, attachments, and links just to find the information they need.
Instead of helping buyers make decisions, traditional sales content creates more work for them.
💡 The problem isn’t a lack of information available to our buyers—it’s a lack of relevance.
But if traditional sales content doesn’t work, what does? A better buyer experience.
What are digital sales rooms and how do they improve the buyer experience?
Sales teams have spent years optimizing their internal processes—CRM automation, pipeline tracking, and sales enablement tools—but they’ve done little to improve the experience for buyers.
Instead, buyers are stuck navigating a disconnected, frustrating process where they have to dig through email threads, open multiple links, and search for the information they need.
The results:
- More confusion
- More back-and-forth
- A longer sales cycle
A digital sales room tool solves this by giving buyers a single, interactive space where they can access everything they need—on their own terms.
For example, to help your teams and buyers, emlen offers personalization, real-time communication, and content analytics features to improve buyer engagement throughout the deal cycle.
But for digital sales rooms to improve the buyer experience, they need to do more than just store content.
How digital sales rooms transform the B2B buyer journey
Sometimes, all that's missing is a central hub to support the buyer's journey.
The key is putting content where the right people find it when they need it. The icing on the cake is a tool that can give you deep data to understand what's working or not. Your sellers and buyers now have information they need to move forward, collaborate internally, and make data-driven decisions.
Centralizing content to make buying decisions easier
Most B2B deals don’t have a single decision-maker, they have a buying center. This involves multiple stakeholders—end-users, managers, executives—all with different priorities, questions, and concerns.
When sales teams send a mix of scattered emails, PDFs, one-off links, and various sales materials, buyers are left piecing together information themselves.
That’s a problem.
"In B2B, decisions don’t come from one person. You need to align users, managers, and executives. A sales room with videos and interactive content creates a shared experience that PDFs never will.”
Buyers need everything in one place, in a format that makes sense for them. That’s where digital sales rooms help—they centralize sales content into a single, interactive hub, so everyone involved in the decision can access the right information, at the right time, without the usual back-and-forth.
Instead of forcing buyers to hunt for answers, a digital sales room makes decision-making easier by:
- Providing structured access to key documents, case studies, and pricing information.
- Keeping everything organized and accessible so buyers don’t have to rely on forwarded emails.
- Offering interactive content—like video messages, product walkthroughs, and tailored resources—to engage stakeholders more effectively.
Sales teams often assume that sending more content means buyers will feel informed. But more content isn’t the answer—better access to the right content is.
"If you give buyers a centralized experience, like a sales room, they can explore the content, watch videos, and share everything internally. It’s obvious how effective this is, but no one is doing it.”
The end goal isn't better content organization, you're not a librarian. It’s about making the buying experience intuitive and frictionless. When buyers don’t have to waste time searching for information, deals move forward faster. Everyone wins.
But now you have all this content and you want to keep the ball rolling, and you might be tempted to commit random acts of content again. Don't. When you use a tool like emlen, you have a world of data at your fingertips waiting to be analyzed. Here's how you can mine for insights...
Driving data-driven decision-making in sales
Sales teams often send content without knowing if buyers actually engage with it. A data-driven sales approach powered by a DSR like emlen provides real-time insights into buyer activity.
"We don’t know whether what we've sent is used, what page is the most important, how long they read it, or if it leads to any action. And we should know, right?”
By using essential digital sales room metrics, sales teams can identify patterns and trends within datasets to draw meaningful insights.
This doesn't just help your team understand buyer behavior but also improves the decision-making processes. Your business can use data analytics to optimize your strategies. Think: How Amazon uses it to drive sales and improve product recommendations.
Using video sales to improve engagement
Buyers don’t want to read through endless decks—they want quick, engaging content. A digital sales room solution makes it easy to incorporate video sales content, helping build trust and speed up decision-making.
"When we did videos in a more informal, casual setting—the lighting was off, no script, and we just said, ‘Hey, we talked about ABC, it was such a blast to talk to you’—it worked way better than the polished version.”
The future of digital sales: How data-driven sales teams stay ahead
Real-time buyer signals for smarter follow-ups
Imagine knowing exactly when a buyer opens your proposal or replays your video sales content. A digital sales room tracks these data-driven decisions, giving sales teams the insights they need to follow up at the right time.
"A sales room can give you a spark, an impulse, on when to make that follow-up call based on knowing they’ve consumed the content. It enables sellers to make decisions based on data rather than guesswork.”
Over to you: Pivot to create a better B2B buying experience in 2025
You’ve made it to the end—there was a lot to cover. But now, the real question is: what’s actually stopping you from making B2B buying easier?
Is it:
- Scattered sales content that forces buyers to piece together the information they need?
- A lack of visibility into which content resonates, leaving follow-ups to guesswork?
- Too many touchpoints that slow down decision-making instead of accelerating it?
Your buyers are looking to buy a solution for their pain points. Isn't it time to make it easier for them to choose you?
Ready to get started?
🔎 Explore our product tour – See how emlen makes sales enablement seamless.
📆 Book a demo – Let’s discuss how emlen can help your team drive revenue faster
📬 Contact us - Have a question that didn't get answered in this post? We'd love to help!
