Inviting people to Shared Spaces

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

Inviting people via email

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 about 15 participants for a smoother experience.

1. When you're ready, it's time to start inviting people to your space. After opening the Shared Space, click the Invite button and enter the email address(es) of the invitees. In the field below, write a custom message that will be attached to your invite.
2. If available, you will see the option to log the invitation activity to an opportunity, account, contact or lead in your CRM. If the Shared Space is already logged to an account or opportunity, it will automatically populate. This 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 your CRM, and have the option to view the log inside of it.
3. 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.
4. You will notice your name above the content area on the landing page of the space, in the participant menu. 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. Participant status will also be visible here, which 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.
   If there are more than four participants in the Shared Space, the rest will be bundled to the right, and you can click to open the full list of people.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.
5. 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.
6. Upon visiting the Shared Space for the first time, customers or external participants will be asked to sign in using their email address.
7. Customers or external participants who haven't registered with a Shared Space before will see a Privacy Notice when they first log in that needs to be consented to in order to allow the participant to view the content within. Check the box and click Continue to gain access.
8. Upon their next log in, your participant may choose whether to Set up a password or Request a 1-click login link that verifies their email to their identity and allows access to the Shared Space. 
   
9. If an external person accesses a Shared Space directly without an email invitation, they will be asked to provide their email address. If their email address is not recognized, they will be asked to Request Access. Once you, as the owner, have approved access, they will receive an activation email to access the Shared Space.
10. 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 into 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.

11. Back in the Shared Space, you can click on a participant's name to view all participants' data, if you have added that information already. For external participants, you can click the three-dot menu and select Edit Profile, to edit a participant's profile information at any time. You can also revoke access to the space individually in this window.
12. Another way to see a full list of participants, is to 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 Send Reminder Email.

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.

1. Click Remind participants from the overview page. 
2. A list of each participant with a pending invitation will appear. Click Remind Participant, and choose to Send Reminder Email, or Get Link.
3. 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. 
4. 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. 

1. In your Shared Space, go to the top menu, and click Get Link to generate a link.
   Additionally, a link can be generated when visiting a Shared Space as well, by clicking Get Link.
2. Select Copy to add the link to your clipboard.
3. Paste the link in your messaging application and share it with other decision-makers.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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 revoke their access to it.

1. Click the People icon in the menu area to the right to access the full list of Shared Space participants.
2. Find the participant you want to be removed, and click the three dots to the right of their name. Here you can Edit their Profile & Preferences or Revoke or Grant Access to the Shared Space.