In our experience, there are three main factors companies consider when looking for Showpad alternatives:
- Can the software support thousands of users and pieces of content without long load times or frequent technical failures?
- Does the software offer an advanced search feature that lets anyone find content in minutes without strict metadata or filing requirements?
- Does the software offer an AI-powered coaching feature that makes it quick and easy to evaluate things like filler words, tone of voice, rate of speech, and whether or not certain compliance-sensitive phrases were used or avoided?
With these questions in mind, we’ll discuss 6 Showpad alternatives starting with our solution, Bigtincan.
6 Showpad alternatives
- Bigtincan
- Easily scale to meet your company’s needs
- Find the right content in one search without switching repositories
- Use AI-powered analysis for faster and more effective coaching
- Create and manage any sales training and onboarding assignment
- Engage buyers in real-time or asynchronously
- View unified analytics across content, engagement, and learning
Book a demo today to see how Bigtincan can be customized to fit your needs.
Bigtincan
Bigtincan is a fully customizable sales enablement and sales training platform that has been supporting enterprise companies — like AstraZeneca, American Express, and Anheuser-Busch — for over 10 years.
Below, we’ll cover how we answer each question mentioned above. Then, we’ll cover several other benefits that are key for successful sales enablement and training in large companies.
Easily scale to meet your company’s needs
Because Bigtincan was built to support enterprise-level sales teams, you can manage countless pieces of content and thousands of users without experiencing tons of glitches or long, frustrating delays. If you do experience any inconvenience with the software, we have customer support teams in the USA, Europe, and Asia so you can reach us anywhere, at any time.
In this case study, you can read about how Merck — a global healthcare company — uses Bigtincan to manage content for 70,000 employees across 40 different countries. One of their main struggles before Bigtincan was finding a solution that could support the demands of their entire sales force. With limited time in front of clients, they needed a sales enablement software that could immediately produce the content the rep was looking for so they could answer client questions on the spot. With Bigtincan, they’ve been able to easily support all 70,000 employees and manage 55 gigabytes of content (with plans for expansion in the near future).
Find the right content in one search without switching repositories
Showpad, notably, organizes content with a simple folder-in-folder method. While that’s fine for individuals, using a folder-in-folder structure to manage content in large companies can be impractical for two reasons:
- Trying to make everyone follow strict metadata and organization rules is an ongoing struggle that takes time and energy — and is nearly impossible.
- It can take hours to find the right content because content inevitably gets labeled or filed incorrectly which means reps have to search through hundreds of files before they find what they need.
Because of these issues, reps often end up storing content in private folders or on their own devices. This means multiple versions of any document likely exist, making it very difficult to keep content up-to-date and compliant.
Instead of using folders, Bigtincan lets you keep content wherever you want, however you want (i.e. with or without metadata), while still being able to find it within one search bar.
Our advanced search bar searches through all the text (even within a PDF, footnotes, etc.) of all your repositories to find a match — even if you own thousands of pieces of content.
Then, you’ll also be given suggested content based on:
- Related topics
- Your viewing history
- Your role or position in the company, region, qualifications, etc.
- What your peers have viewed recently
- And more
You’ll even be alerted if there is a newer version available of the content you’re searching for.
For example, if you search for ‘employee handbook 2021’, then ‘employee handbook 2022’ will appear as suggested content as soon as it’s been released.
Finally, Bigtincan offers complete version history and version control for all documents. These features help you maintain control of the document for compliancy reasons while still promoting collaboration.
All content and search features are available offline and on mobile devices (including Android and iOS devices).
Use AI-powered analysis for faster and more effective coaching
In addition to sales content management, Showpad also offers a coaching feature. However, most coaching software only allows reps to keep one version of a recording (each new recording overwrites the old recording). This often causes reps to record fewer videos (meaning they get less practice) because they’re not confident the new video will be better than the last video.
Then, after a sales rep has uploaded a video of themselves giving a pitch, most sales coaching tools only let managers give a simple score based on stars or a percent grade and write out comments in a text box. This type of feedback can give reps a general idea about how well they met expectations. But, managers often don’t have the time to understand or write out long explanations about what exactly needs to be improved and how to get there.
For example, a manager could mention that at the beginning of the pitch the rep was speaking too fast, but later towards the end of the pitch they were speaking too slow. This type of feedback is vague and open to interpretation. It would be more helpful if the manager could say ‘between 0:26-1:32 your rate of speech was 160 words per minute, and later, between 1:45-2:15, your rate of speech was 100 words per minute. Try to keep it at 130 words per minute’. This is a much more helpful and direct type of feedback. But, it would take a lot of time and effort to determine that information manually.
Additionally, managers’ feedback is often affected by how they perceive the individual and what kind of day they’re having. Because of this, it can be difficult to objectively assess the tone of voice and overall impression the rep is portraying.
Bigtincan coaching (which includes Brainshark) solves these issues with AI-powered analysis — what we call Advanced Feedback.
Every video assignment is automatically passed through this machine learning which covers filler words, rate of speech, whether certain words were used or avoided, and much more. Each video also gets evaluated by AI to determine how the tone of voice, body language, and overall presentation would be perceived by the general public.
All of this is used to determine an overall AI-powered score before the evaluator even sees the video. Then, the manager can use this score to focus their evaluation on areas where the rep actually needs improvement. It also frees up evaluators to focus on bigger picture feedback (like what the rep is saying) rather than doing the tedious work of tracking delivery speed and other details that our AI-powered software can do for them.
Additionally, each rep can record as many videos as they would like (or you can choose to limit the number by changing the settings) and submit the best one. This allows reps to practice the pitch as many times as they need without fear of losing their best pitch. Then, before officially submitting any recorded assignment, they can send the recording to any number of peers for feedback. This allows reps to also learn from each other instead of only a single manager.
Create and manage any sales training or onboarding assignment
A lot of companies (especially large enterprises) find they need to manage a wide variety of assignment types. Most sales training software, however, are usually limited to typical slide or video trainings and quizzes. While video trainings and quizzes are essential to most training programs, they don’t cover tasks such as shadowing a more experienced rep for a day or setting up healthcare.
Without a way to manage these miscellaneous onboarding and training tasks, most teams end up relying on spreadsheets and documents shared through email. It can be difficult to keep track of ‘to-do’ lists over email which means things often get missed and more time has to be spent communicating back and forth.
That’s why Bigtincan offers the option to manage training checklists and live training sessions in addition to traditional virtual sales training material.
Checklists provide a way to manage any onboarding or ongoing ‘to-do’ assignments such as filling out tax forms or completing yearly performance reviews. Next to the list, you can add instructions for how to complete the checklist and link any attachments that may be necessary to complete each item.
Live training sessions provide a way to manage enrollment and attendance. Then, any session a rep attended will show up in the rep’s history, along with other completed courses.
Like we mentioned earlier, traditional slide and video trainings are still an important part of any sales training suite. Bigtincan is great for letting anyone create professional, engaging training videos or presentations. You can even add interactive elements such as quizzes, surveys, website links, and more, without any technical skills.
All training is accessible offline and on mobile devices.
Engage buyers in real-time or asynchronously
Once you’ve delivered the right training and ensured reps can apply that training in real scenarios, you’ll need to make sure reps have the right tools for buyer engagement. When handling virtual sales calls with most sales presentation software, it can be difficult to know if your prospective client is staying engaged or if they’re getting distracted by another screen (e.g., checking their email or IM). Without their full attention, it can be difficult to maintain control of the conversation and close deals.
Bigtincan offers video conferencing that lets you track when someone in the meeting is getting distracted by another web page. This gives you the opportunity to ask a question in order to re-engage their attention and make the most out of your meeting. If the client asks an unexpected question, you can also open a separate page and find the necessary content to answer the question — without the attendees seeing the new screen.
Another major piece of virtual selling is sharing content with the prospect or client. Oftentimes, reps will send product or pricing pages via email. But, this limits the size of document you will be able to send and you won’t have any insight into when the document is viewed, what pages the client spent the most time on, etc.
Bigtincan digital sales rooms let you share any size document, any number of documents, and any type of content. You simply link the content to the microsite and share a unique URL with the client. Then, the client can access the content whenever and wherever they want. Not only is this a better content experience for the customer, but you also maintain full control over the document.
Whenever the original document gets updated, the change will be reflected in every microsite that contains that document. The microsite automatically gathers analytics on what content gets viewed, how often it gets viewed, for how long, and by whom (more on this in the following section).
Finally, Bigtincan digital sales room lets you create 3D models of your product that can be placed in a virtual representation of any room, as shown below.
View unified analytics across content, engagement, and learning
Bigtincan analytics lets you gather data and create customized reports to answer questions such as:
- What content is being used the most internally and how is it being used?
- Did the prospect (or client) view the content and which sections?
- What training did successful reps complete and what was their score?
- Are reps ready for real-world selling situations?
- What is the ROI of our sales training program?
All of this information can be viewed in a user-friendly dashboard that helps you make quick, informed decisions about what’s working and what’s not.
Content Analytics
Knowing what content is being used and how it’s being used by your reps internally can give you insight into what content closes deals, what content is outdated or difficult to use, what content may need to be updated, and what content needs to be archived. It can also tell you who’s still using outdated content and what product each rep is focused on selling the most.
All of this data can be displayed in graphs, charts, or any visual you prefer. We offer a library of fully customizable pre-made reports, or you can design one from scratch.
Engagement Analytics
As mentioned above, microsites automatically gather analytics on how content is being used externally by clients. These reports can be viewed in the same way as the content analytics — from an easy-to-use dashboard in any visual format.
With these reports, you have clear insight into the best time to follow up with a client and what that follow up should include. For example, if the client just spent 20 minutes going back and forth between two different product pricing pages, it may be a good time to follow up with a discount or a customer story about one of the products.
Learning Analytics
The learning analytics dashboard (which includes training and coaching data) provides visibility into what a rep still needs in order to succeed and the ROI of the training program.
To compare individuals or teams, many managers have to switch between various screens instead of being able to see all of the information in one report. Not only can this be quite tedious, it also makes it difficult to draw any concrete conclusions on what training a rep needs to succeed.
With our training and coaching analytics feature, you can track and compare individual reps’ and teams’ completion rates, scores, and overall training progress in one place.
Then, you can also link these reports to Salesforce or your CRM and view training performance next to key performance indicators like pipeline created or deals closed.
This gives you clear insight into what trainings are impacting real-world performance and it can tell you what struggling reps need to improve.
Ensure brand consistency with our white-label interface
The entire Bigtincan interface — from the search bar to all training material — is fully customizable to fit your exact needs. You can choose from a variety of pre-made templates or work with our specialized team to make our software look like it was built in-house by your team. Every pixel can be customized to reflect your visual brand.
Not only is it fully customizable, but we help you along the way, making it a breeze to create your perfect training and sales enablement solution. Here are the results of a recent survey of real customers:
Ready to see how Bigtincan can fit your needs? Book a demo today.
5 Other Showpad Competitors
1. Highspot
Similar to a folder-in-folder structure, Highspot puts content in collections they call Spots.
Content can live in multiple Spots and each Spot is centered around one topic (e.g., Product A for the South-East Region). They also offer lists and filters to help agents find content.
Highspot offers customizable sales training videos, reinforcement exercises, and quizzes. All training and sales enablement content can be managed from the same interface. Finally, they offer analytic features to help you tie training completion rates to performance.
2. Seismic
Seismic offers contextual recommendations and hyper-targeted suggestions to help salespeople find content quicker. They also offer content analytics so you can see what’s being used and by whom.
Seismic’s coaching feature lets managers provide a percentage score and write out a message with feedback. They also provide options for creating and managing your own training content.
3. Paperflite
Paperflite is a content management software geared towards sales and content marketing teams. They let you track your emails, attachments, and gather analytics. Paperflite also lets you gather analytics on how content is being used internally by your team.
To find content, they provide an AI-powered search engine that sorts through the folders for you. They also integrate with various other content repositories.
4. Mediafly
Mediafly’s sales content management solution lets you access and share content files of all types. You can gather analytics on how this content is being used and view it in different reporting formats. They also provide a data entry automation functionality to help speed up tedious paperwork.
They advertise ‘simple practice options for sales pitches and customer emails’ on their coaching page. They also offer the ability to view coaching feedback and quiz results side-by-side.
5. Outreach
Outreach is a sales enablement tool that focuses on efficient workflows throughout the entire sales process. They integrate with common social media and software solutions like Gmail, Microsoft, and Linkedin. Outreach also provides AI-driven reports to help reps make decisions through the customer interaction and sales process. Finally, they offer a sales forecasting feature based on previous sales engagement performance.
Scale up sales coaching and content management with Bigtincan
Bigtincan is an all-in-one content management and revenue enablement platform. It was built to support large, enterprise companies or mid-sized companies as they grow. The Bigtincan interface and features are customizable on every level to meet the highest demands.
Book a demo today to see how Bigtincan can be customized to fit your needs.
