Business

Step-By-Step Guide to Writing a Grant Proposal

Writing a grant proposal is incredibly time-consuming.

No joke. It's one of the most complicated documents you could write in your entire life.

There are different requirements, expectations, and formats—not to mention all the prep work you need to do, like market research and clarifying your project timeline.

Depending on the type of company or organization you represent and which grants you’re applying for, your grant could run anywhere from a dozen to a hundred pages. It’s a lot of work, and we’re here to help.

In this guide to grant proposals, we offer writing steps and examples, as well as resources and templates to help you start applying for funding right away.

The 9 Best Cold Emails We’ve Seen [Examples & Templates]

'Cold email' is an ugly term. No one wants to send them, no one wants to receive them. But, when used correctly, cold emailing can be a powerful lead generation tool for your business. In this post, I break down the best cold emails I've ever seen, the reasons why they work so well, and my top tips for writing and sending your own effective cold emails.

Guide to a Career Path in Sales [+ 6 Options for Growth]

Your career path in sales can follow a common trajectory…or take you on a wild adventure. It's all up to you.

Will you specialize in selling technical products? Train a team of 50 reps? Or maybe become a Chief Revenue Officer someday?

Starting your career in sales opens up a world of potential for new life experiences and high earnings. (And all of this potential makes the downsides of cold calling and cold emailing people totally worth it.)

But with so many different industries and roles at your fingertips, it can be hard to know which way to turn.

If you want to take your sales career into your own hands, then keep on reading.

We've got a list of common sales positions, the main options for career growth, and tips to help you advance your career at any stage.

What Is Revenue Operations? Benefits, Functions & Ways to Improve

Today’s business leaders favour a holistic, aligned approach to driving revenue—forsaking the old-school siloes where sales, marketing, and support teams work separately and rarely talk to one another.

The act of joining these different customer-facing teams together is known as revenue operations.

It’s a growing field in terms of both internal roles and outside consulting.

Companies want to work more efficiently, win over more customers with a stellar experience, and optimize revenue.

In this guide, we dive into what revenue operations is exactly and how you can audit and improve your own.

7 Customer Research Tips from “The Customer Whisperer”

In 2014, Katelyn Bourgoin founded a peer-to-peer mentoring platform for female entrepreneurs. She was VC-backed and convinced she was going to be the next big thing. In 2017, it all crashed down around her.

Why? Despite doing 300 customer interviews, her approach was all wrong. “We built the wrong thing,” Katelyn admits.

In a fortunate turn of events, one of her VCs asked her to consult on marketing for their portfolio of startups and her obsession with customer research was born. Since then, she’s interviewed thousands of customers as part of her consulting services at Customer Camp and taught startup leaders how to run interviews themselves.

During a recent episode of The Closing Show Live, our VP of Marketing Nadia Milani sat down with Katelyn to get her very best customer research tips.

Watch the full interview or keep reading for her top-notch advice.

The Easy Guide to Online Contracts [+3 Templates]

In today’s business world, online contracts are common. But are they legally binding? And how do you know what to include in your contract so it protects all parties?

In our easy guide to online contracts, we answer your burning questions, offer a step-by-step process for collecting e-signatures, and share our 3 favorite templates.

You’ll get that agreement signed in no time.

Expert Tips to Revamp Your Revenue Operations Strategy

In today's fast-paced world, it's crucial for companies to be as efficient as possible to stay competitive. This is where RevOps comes in. RevOps, short for revenue operations, is a holistic approach to aligning sales, marketing, customer success, and operational functions to drive revenue growth. It's the engine that helps everything run smoothly, from top-of-funnel to revenue through expansion.

Nadia Milani, Proposify’s CMO and the host of The Closing Show Live dove into all things RevOps on a recent episode. She sat down with special guests, Rosalyn Santa Elena, founder of The RevOps Collective, Adam Pelley, marketing operations manager at Proposify, and Colin Tanner, revenue operations manager at League to discuss the value that RevOps brings to the table and how to craft a winning strategy for RevOps implementation.

Watch the full episode here or keep reading for their hottest takes.

How to Align Your B2B Sales and Marketing Teams

With more metrics, more channels, and more trends, B2B marketing and sales alignment isn’t going to get any easier in 2023.

So, we chatted with Jessie Lizak, CMO at BDEX, and Eddy Bahnam, Founder and Sales Consultant at EB3.

This dynamic duo cohosts Whiskey Wednesday, a weekly evening podcast that brings sales and marketing together like never before.

Jessie and Eddy work on improving sales and marketing alignment within their in-house roles. PLUS they collaborate together to grow Whiskey Wednesday (with Jessie bringing the marketing expertise and Eddy bringing the sales swagger), regularly chatting with experts in both fields on their podcast.

Needless to say, they’re really in the trenches.

Keep reading for their hot takes or catch the full episode here:

30 Deal Closing Business Proposal Ideas [With Examples]

Want to increase your closing rate?

We’ve got expert ideas to help you take your business proposals to the next level.

Say goodbye to boring, stale proposals. We’re going to bring your pitch to life so that prospective clients can’t help but say “yes.”

From video embeds to editable pricing tables to high-quality image galleries, you’ll find tons of smart ideas to apply to your unique services.

The 10 Best DocuSign Alternatives for Each Team and Industry

There are dozens of tools for collecting legally binding e-signatures. With so many DocuSign alternatives available, it’s hard to know which one to choose.

Some of these platforms are an exact dupe for DocuSign, while others include e-signatures alongside software intended to streamline workflows for sales reps, HR professionals, and small business owners.

Are you looking for a simple e-signature tool? Or do you want e-signatures covered inside of a more robust operations platform?

In this ultimate guide to DocuSign alternatives, we do the heavy lifting for you.

We’ve hand-selected winners across a variety of categories, from the best free alternative to the best contract lifecycle management software for enterprises.

Keep reading for our list of winners and our tips on how to choose the best option for you.