In generating revenue for the last three companies I have worked with, I am continually seeing challenges around the sales proposal process. From my experience, most proposals are usually borne from a standard .doc and edited to include customized prospect data, their logo, solution information, pricing, dates, next steps, etc. They are then converted to pdfs and emailed out to customers.
Here is a summary of why I don’t like this:
- Collaboration with Word sucks so if others take a look and edit the document before it goes out, the revision control can easily get out of hand.
- They are ugly. If you are importing photos, graphs, charts into word, they often don’t convert to PDF cleanly.
- You cant set the document to expire over time. You can only include expiration copy in the document.
- The tracking history is not easily compiled.
- Web links are discouraged by the fact that you are in a “document” as opposed to a “web experience”.
And most importantly…they don’t automatically link to your CRM, and other ERP systems.
Imagine a SaaS based product focused solely on the proposal experience. An easy to use cloud app that allows for the creation, collaboration, presentation, tracking, expiration, and enterprise integration of sales proposals?
I know that I would use that!
How do you currently handle your proposal process? Are any of you currently using tools like this today?
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I’ve found what may be the solution to my challenge through working with one of our vendors. Check out the intro to EchoSign here.
