How Fern Grew Revenue 200% with Proposify

Challenges

Before implementing Proposify in 2015, Fern's proposal process was, in Jim's words, "disjointed at best." The company had grown through a series of acquisitions, and each location operated with its own approach to proposals. It was a patchwork of Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations that lacked consistency and brand unity.

"It was very dependent on which location was preparing the proposal. It wasn't unified at all. It wasn't consistent with our brand. And it was not a good representation of where we wanted to be going as an organization."

This fragmented approach created more than just brand inconsistency, it posed serious business risks. The breaking point came when Fern experienced what Jim calls "the million-dollar mistake."

"We had a situation where a proposal was submitted with an old version of our terms and conditions, and there were some issues that occurred around that event. It literally cost us over a million dollars in lost revenue and court fees."

This painful experience served as the catalyst for change. As Jim reflects, "That's when we said, okay, this is absolutely no longer acceptable from a business perspective that we're allowing locations to do individual proposals."

Benefits

When evaluating proposal software solutions, Fern prioritized several key factors that set Proposify apart from the competition:

Specialized Focus: Unlike other platforms that tried to be everything—proposal software, CRM, and accounting system rolled into one—Proposify's singular focus on proposals resonated with Fern's philosophy of specialization.

"We really liked the fact that there was a singular focus of preparing content. As a company, we've been very focused on the services we provide. So the fact that there was a level of specialization and expertise that wasn't just one thing the company did was very encouraging."

Flexibility and Scalability: Fern needed a solution that could handle their diverse range of events, from $50,000 projects to $2 million productions. Proposify's template system provided the flexibility to scale quickly across different project sizes and service offerings.

"We could be doing one event that is $50,000 and another one is $2 million. They required different scope of work, different services. Right now we have seven standard templates that we use. That flexibility really allows us to replicate and scale quickly as we’re growing."

Collaboration and Visibility: With teams spread across 30+ locations, Fern needed a platform that enabled collaboration and oversight. The ability for multiple stakeholders to review proposals before sending was crucial for preventing costly mistakes.

"The visibility was really critical. We have so many locations and different people have different responsibilities, so whether it's leadership or someone else being able to view a proposal—because you never want to approve your own work—to be able to share that and say, 'here's where we are right now, let's review this.'"

Content Control and Risk Management: Given their painful experience with outdated terms and conditions, Fern needed the ability to control who could edit critical proposal sections.

"There are certain parts of the proposal, such as the terms and conditions, which are now locked down—there's only three people that can edit them within the organization. So you don't have that risk of somebody doing something that they think is harmless, but legally could create a huge snafu."