Typically in any sales journey, there is more than one decision-maker. In longer and more complex sales cycles, there is often more than one person involved in the selling side as well.
With Shared Spaces it's easy to invite multiple stakeholders and colleagues to one space where everyone can collaborate over the content. Likewise, those stakeholders can invite other participants if you allow it to ensure a smooth and faster sales process.
See how it works
Key features
- Invite internal and external participants to Shared Spaces
- Generate a link to your Shared Space for easy sharing
- Revoke or allow permissions
- Edit participants profiles
- Users must be invited or approved to view a Shared Space
You need this to succeed
- An existing Shared Space
- A Showpad account or participant invite
- Showpad Plus or Ultimate package
Note: CRM activity logging for Shared Spaces is only available to customers on the Ultimate pricing package.
The quick way to awesomeness
- Invite people via email
- Generate a link to share on other messaging platforms
- Revoke Access to a participant
Do this step by step
When internal participants are invited to a Shared Space, they have the same permissions as the owner of the shared space. This means they can edit the Shared Space title and description, invite people, view and edit external participant profiles, etc.
External participants invited to the Shared Space can edit their own profile, view all content, comment on files, view other participant's profiles, and invite other people, if enabled.
Note: While there is no limit on the number of people that can be added to a Shared Space, we recommend inviting up to 15 participants for a smooth experience.
- When you're ready, it's time to start inviting people to your space. Click the Invite button and enter the email address(es) of the invitees. You can include a custom message with your invitation.
- If available, you will see the option to log the invitation activity to a contact in Salesforce. If the Shared Space is already logged to an account or opportunity, it will automatically populate. The contact field will be automatically populated from the email addresses you input in the recipient invite field. After clicking Send Invite, you'll be alerted that it successfully logged to Salesforce, and have the option to view the log in Salesforce.
- After you have invited someone, you will get the option to fill out the profile details of that invitee by clicking Edit profile next to the recipient. The recipient will also have the opportunity to fill out their own details at the time they create a password.
- You will notice your name above the content area on the landing page of the space. As you invite others to your space, you will see their names as well. If you have an avatar, it will populate. External participants will not have avatars. The left-hand side will show internal members of your organization who joined and the right-hand side will show any external participants you invited to the Shared Space. Their status will also be visible here. This indicates whether their invitation is pending, they have current access, or their access has been revoked. It will also list the date of their last activity within the Shared Space.
There are three statuses available for the prospects you invited:
- Pending invitation: The invitation email was sent, but the prospect didn't sign in.
- Access revoked: The prospect can't access the Shared Space anymore. If they try to log into the Shared Space, they will see an error that the Shared Space link is not valid. Other participants will no longer see a revoked user.
- Last active date: The last date the prospect signed into the Shared Space.
- When you invite a customer, they will receive an email with your personalized note and a request to activate their account. Once they accept your invitation, you will be notified via email.
- Customers or external participants who haven't registered with a Shared Space before will see three options when they click Visit the Shared Space link. They will be asked to either create a password, continue without password, or register with their LinkedIn account. Depending on their location and your organization's privacy settings, they may be asked to consent to the privacy policy before viewing the shared space.
- By selecting Set up password, they will enter and confirm a password, and then use that moving forward to log in to the Shared Space.
- Using the ‘continue without password’ option, the participant will be able to simply enter the Shared Space. However, next time that they log in, they will have to create a password or request a one-click login link. This link will only work one time and it needs to be opened in the same browser as the one in which you initially requested the link.
- To use the LinkedIn log in option, the email address used to invite the participant must match the email they used to register on LinkedIn.
- Customers who have already registered with a different Shared Space will see the option to use the one-click login link. In this case, the participant will receive an email with a link that allows them to log in without entering a password. This link will only work one time.
- If an external person accesses a Shared Space directly, they will be asked to provide their email address. If they have already been added as a participant, they will be instructed to access the activation link for their profile. Otherwise, it will inform them to request access. Once you as the owner have approved access, they will receive an activation email to access the Shared Space.
- If you are inviting an internal Showpad user to your Shared Space, their email will auto-populate as you begin to type. The invitation they receive will look different than what a customer sees. They will be prompted to use their Showpad credentials to login in to the shared space. Colleagues with a Showpad license do not need to accept the invite or create an account, they are immediately added.
Note: If Log to Salesforce is disabled in your account, you can search through your Showpad contacts and find internal users. If Log to Salesforce is enabled, you will only find Salesforce contacts when searching for recipients. Internal users cannot be found while the toggle is on.
- Back in the shared space, you can hover over a participant's name to see their company and job title, if you have added that information already. Click the pencil icon to edit their profile information at any time. You are also able to revoke access to the space individually in the edit profile window.
- If you'd like to see a full list of participants, click People in the menu area to the right. Click the three dots to the right of their name to edit their profile information, or revoke or grant access from this view. In the event they did not receive their invitation to join the space, you can trigger a new invitation here by selecting Resend Invitation.
Pending Invites
On the Shared Spaces overview page, you will see how many pending notifications there are for each Shared Space. Additionally, when there are invitations that have been pending for seven days or more, you will be prompted to take action.
- Click Remind participants from the overview page.
- A list of each participant with a pending invitation will appear. Click Remind Participant, and choose to Send Reminder Email, or Get Link.
- An email reminder will be automatically sent, or if you choose Get Link, it will be copied to your clipboard so you can share it with the participant.
- From within a Shared Space, if there are pending invites, you will see a View Pending Invites button in the participants bar. If invites have been pending for seven days or more, you will be prompted to take action in the same way as on the overview page.
Click the View Pending Invites button and select Send Reminder Email or Get Link for each pending participant.
Generating a link to your Shared Space
You can also provide colleagues and decision-makers a link to your Shared Space. This link can be copied to your preferred messaging platform. Links are not invitations to a Shared Space, however. If a person who has not been invited to the Share Space receives a link, they will still have to request access, and you will have to grant it before they can join the space.
- In your Shared Space, go to the top menu, click Get Link to generate a link.
Additionally, a link can be generated when visiting a Shared Space as well, by clicking Get Link.
- Select Copy to add the link to your clipboard.
- Paste the link in your messaging application and share it with other decision-makers.
- Whoever clicks on the link to the Shared Space will still have to be granted access to the space. To do so, they will first enter their email address. If the email address wasn't recognized as an invited participant, the option to Request Access will be available.
- The link recipient will then enter their email address and click Request Access. An email will be sent to the person who owns the Shared Space. As the owner of the Shared Space, click the option to Review this Request button within the email, which will redirect you to the People list within the space. From there, click the three dot menu for the user who has requested access, then select Grant Access.
- After being granted access, the recipient will get an email asking them to activate their account by logging in and filling in their details. They can then participate in the Shared Space.
Revoke Access to a participant
If a participant no longer wants or needs to be part of the Shared Space you can do so by revoking access to that participant.
- Hover over a participant's name in the Shared Space and click the pencil icon to edit their profile information. Click Revoke Access in the edit profile window.
- Alternatively, you can revoke access to a participant by clicking People in the menu area to the right. Click the three dots to the right of their name to edit their profile information, revoke or grant access from this view.
