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A Sales Pro Shares 7 Tips for Better Discovery Calls

For an account executive, discovery calls are the only phase of the sales process that will happen 100% of the time. It’s not guaranteed that you’ll make it to the next step.

So you need to deliver every chance you’ve got.

Your discovery calls have a massive impact on your closing rates, your deal sizes, and how short your sales cycle is. They matter that much.

During the most recent episode of the Closing Show Live, we sat down with Daniel Hebert, Director of Sales at Q4, to learn how he approaches discovery calls and how he trains the reps on his team.

Click here to watch the full interview, or keep reading for Daniel’s best tips.

How to Write a Proposal in 10 Easy Steps [Templates Included]

You’re tasked with writing a proposal, and a lot is at stake.

Now is not the time to guess. What should you write? How can you appeal to the client’s deepest desires? How do you satisfy client expectations for your specific industry?

Now is the time to follow a proven process. We’ve analyzed millions of proposals sent with our software to see which tips and tricks actually have an impact on closing rates.

We’re covering all that and more.

Keep reading for our step-by-step guide that shows you exactly how to write a proposal simply by customizing the sections in one of our proposal templates. The right template will show you exactly what to include while helping you save hours on design and formatting.

What’s in this guide:

• What is a proposal?

• How to write a proposal in 10 easy steps

• Industry-specific proposal writing guidelines

• 3 proposal templates

• Next steps: write your own proposal

Expert Advice to Guide Your Sales Career Path

It’s a common trajectory: do one to two years as an SDR and then become an AE. But what if your career path in sales looks a little different?

In our latest episode of The Closing Show Live, we sat down with Kristen Twining, the SVP of Global Sales for Illusive, an enterprise cybersecurity solution for preventing ransomware and other cyber attacks.

Kristen's had an uncommon career trajectory, transitioning straight out of college into a field sales role, and then going somewhat backward to work as an SDR before becoming an inside sales director and ultimately a senior vice president.

We asked her what makes a great AE, how to get a job as an AE, and how to transition into senior management.

Kristen loves being mentored and mentoring others. Keep reading for her hard-earned advice, or watch the full interview here.

Sales Is Tough: How to Adapt to the Current State of the Market

When we look back at mid to late 2022, will we see the start of a major recession or a small market correction?

No one knows for sure.

What we do know is that because of this uncertainty, selling is hard right now.

So, we sat down with Asad Zaman, CEO of Sales Talent Agency, during our latest installment of the Closing Show Live. We uncovered the current state of the market and what sellers can do about it.

Click here to watch the full interview, or keep reading for Asad’s best tips.

What Is Sales Velocity & How to Measure It With 3 Examples

Sales velocity is hands-down one of the best metrics to keep your eye on if you’re looking to increase revenue.

Without a clear understanding of your sales velocity, you might be analyzing your pipeline, your deal sizes, and your sales cycle without a good way to put all of this data together.

You won’t be able to forecast your revenue accurately or offer a North Star metric to your sales team to keep them on track with achieving goals that really matter to the business.

Luckily, sales velocity offers a lot of insight and inspiration. And it isn’t that hard to measure.

You should already have access to the data you need to calculate sales velocity for yourself as an individual contributor and for your team.

In this guide, show you how to calculate and utilize this metric. Plus, we offer a few examples of different velocities you can measure.

The Pro’s Guide to Handling Objections During the Sales Process

Objection protection—that’s what we want you to have.

We want you to know how to preemptively handle objections and how to get to the root of the customer’s concern.

To get all of this valuable info, we sat down with Morgan J Ingram in a recent episode of the Closing Show Live on LinkedIn.

Morgan is the VP of GTM Talent and Development and a sales consultant who upskills teams of AEs and SDRs.

Check out the full interview with Morgan or keep reading for his best objection-handling techniques.

How To Prepare to Write a Business Proposal

While a successful business proposal can lay the foundation for a prosperous relationship, writing it can be downright daunting. But once you understand what makes a winning proposal, the whole process becomes a lot less scary and a lot more effective.

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.

What’s in this guide:

• Top reasons to seek out a DocuSign alternative

• Types of DocuSign alternatives

• Features to look for in a DocuSign alternative

• The best DocuSign alternatives for every purpose (⭐12 winners)

Personal Branding Tips for Sales Professionals [Online & Offline]

Personal branding can open new doors.

But even if you never go viral, your brand comes into play during client interactions and can really impact your numbers.

Will Aitken has certainly experienced all of the benefits of having an online presence and a unique style. Known for his humorous sales content, he’s transitioned from a sales role to a full-time content creator dedicated to edutaining salespeople. He now holds two titles: Head of Sales Content at Sales Feed and Video Content Creator at Vidyard.

Will is a firm believer that sales professionals need to have a solid understanding of their personal brand—both for client calls and social media content. And he’s showing us how.

Keep reading for his best advice, or catch the full conversation on our recent episode of the Closing Show Live on LinkedIn.

The Seller’s Guide to Moving Upmarket and Closing Bigger Deals

As Proposify continues to go upmarket, it creates a lot of challenges for me as a marketer.

I was curious…what sort of struggles has our sales team gone through? How did they become comfortable and skilled with closing bigger deals?

For our first episode of the Closing Show Live, I sat down with our own Customer Growth Manager, Scott Tower, and Clearbit Account Executive Al MacLeod to get their experience with moving upmarket.