How Proposal Automation Can Streamline Your Sales Process

How is your sales team creating and sharing proposals right now? Word documents? PDFs? That probably means they're creating every new proposal from scratch, taking up a lot of time they could be spending finding new prospects and closing new deals.

There's an easier way. Proposal automation can streamline the sales process from beginning to end, saving your team time and standardizing the way they create and send proposals. It's the solution you didn't know they needed.

The best tips for winning sales docs, straight from the proposal experts to your inbox.

Best sales tracking software

7 Best Sales Tracking Software

Sales is a bit like fishing. There’s nothing stopping you from going out and casting your line into the open water. If you’re lucky, you might even catch a couple. But after enough time chasing nibbles and pulling up a few boots, you’ll come to realize this approach isn’t so effective because you can't see what's under the surface.

Sales is a lot more hands-on. Between finding leads, nurturing them, pitching, and following up, there are a lot of points of interaction between the initial bite and onboarding.

With each of those interactions comes a data point. These data points range from details like where the lead came from to what stage of the sales cycle they’re in, revealing insights about your sales process.

This information can help you determine when to set up meetings with leads, which sales enablement materials (like sell sheets) to send them, what questions to ask, and more. But in order to harness that data, you need a way to track your sales activities.

What you need is sales tracking software.

Read the Article
B2B Sales Funnel

Build a B2B Sales Funnel to Land More Customers

One of the most challenging parts of leading business to business (B2B) sales team is, of course, winning new customers. Lots of them. You know your products and services are of high quality. You know what you can accomplish for prospects. You and your team just have to get them in the door, so to speak.

And even when you do, the sales process takes time. Much more time than the business to consumer (B2C) process, which is pretty straightforward. Your leads must go through several more stages than a consumer would, and you have to meet them where they are, every step of the way.

The answer?

Build a B2B sales funnel.

Read the Article
Franchise proposal process

Top 5 Bottlenecks in Your B2B Franchisee Proposal Process and How to Overcome Them

Franchisees are on the frontline of your business.

They form the barrier between customers and your brand—and obviously, you want them to represent your tone of voice, values, and pricing the right way. When they do this, you make more money.

But the more franchisees you add to the mix, the more it can feel like herding cats. One franchisee might run full steam ahead in one direction, and another might go rogue down an entirely different road.

To get them back on the same path (and avoid diluting your brand), it’s human nature to try and take back the reins. You can do this by personally reviewing every single proposal or overseeing each step of the proposal process in minute detail… but do you want to spend your time micromanaging the people you’ve trusted to expand your business?

Sure, checking and approving every individual proposal might slap a band-aid over the immediate problem, but it’s not a long-term fix. It might feel like you’re creating some semblance of consistency and control. But, in reality, you’re just adding obstacles that can force the entire proposal process to grind to a halt.

Here are some of the most common bottlenecks we see in the B2B franchisee proposal process and how you can overcome them.

Read the Article

The Future of B2B Franchising: 4 Tech Predictions That Could Change Your Business in 2024

The pace at which both B2B franchises and technology are changing can feel dizzying. But beyond the buzzwords, the franchises that embrace new technology to improve their business models are the ones who will surge ahead of their competition and future-proof their companies. Here’s a look at the ways we see how digital transformation will affect B2B franchises so you can start planning for your successful future.

Read the Article
Brand image

Are Franchisee Proposals Killing Your Brand?

You already know how a compelling and cohesive brand is critical to the success of your B2B franchise and you ensure it’s consistent across all touch points of your business. Or, almost all touch points…what about the proposals your franchisees are sending out to prospective customers?

Often neglected, proposals act as the Chief Closing Officer for your franchise’s services — they represent you, your business, your services, and your reputation. Rogue franchisee proposals are everywhere, potentially damaging your brand right under your nose. Meanwhile, a fragmented or inconsistent sales experience dilutes customer confidence—lowering sales and leaving franchise owners wondering what happened.

When you take control of your franchisees’ proposals and ensure they’re always on brand, you can build up trust, boost closing rates, and keep customers coming back for more.

In this guide, we dive into common proposal mistakes that may be killing your brand. Plus we cover the strategies and software you need to take control once and for all.

Read the Article
Sales Marketing Alignment blog header

Struggling with Sales & Marketing Alignment? Try These Must-Follow Tips

It takes four days for leads to hear back from sales….BDRs aren’t incentivized to engage with inbound leads….Marketing guides collect dust in Dropbox….

☝️All of these are examples of poor sales and marketing alignment. And that lack of alignment is killing your revenue potential.

Luckily, these major issues are completely fixable. In this guide, we take a peek at what true alignment looks like and offer you actionable ways to get your teams working together toward revenue-driving goals.

Read the Article
25 Community Building Tips that Drive Real Business Results blog post

25 Community Building Tips That Drive Real Business Results

Community building has become very popular in the B2B space. Everywhere you look, there’s a new community to join—one that promises worthwhile interactions with business leaders just like you.

Your target audience is similarly inundated with invitations.

So how do you make your community stand out?

How do you ensure that it actually provides value to your target audience?

In this guide, we offer strategic community building tips that serve your target buyer and deliver meaningful business results.

Read the Article
How to add electronic signatures to any document

How to Create an Electronic Signature & E-sign Your Documents

In theory, e-signatures should be quick and easy.

But if you’re the one sending the documents, then you need to do all of the setup work. (And that’s where things get complicated.)

If you need to add an electronic signature to a document, you’re in the right place.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to collect e-signatures on your proposals, PDFs, Google Docs, and Microsoft Word documents.

We cover a variety of e-signing methods so you can choose the right one for your use case and make sure your legal bases are covered.

Read the Article
Proposify's mascot, P, in a blue suit. Coffee is for closers

Ready to make every deal a closed deal?

Get started with a free Proposify 14-day trial. No credit card required. Just more closed deals.