01

Build a proposal checklist

Though your exact proposals might vary in one way or another, here’s a proposal content checklist to ensure you include all the important information:

•  Identify prospect pain points and aspirations
•  Sell your experience, skill, and processes
•  Outline your unique approach
•  Explain the delivery timeline
•  Provide pricing options
•  Put together key personnel profiles
•  Show off your customer references
•  Create a statement of work and get it signed fast
  

Get the full details of how to create outstanding proposals in our blog, The only proposal checklist you’ll ever need.‍

02

Curate a library of approved sales content

Creating a library of approved proposal content, such as your experience, skills, approach, pricing, legal terms, and customer references, means that instead of starting from scratch for every proposal, you’ve already got the information at your fingertips. But the key to this is to centralize this information in a shared place—like Dropbox. That way, you can find, edit, and assemble proposals without endlessly searching for email attachments or switching between applications just to tweak details.

03

Build your proposals in easy-to-share tools

Where you write your proposal matters. Using cloud document platforms like Word, Google Docs, or Dropbox Paper to create your proposal comes with significant advantages. When you’re creating your proposal, these tools mean that all changes, edits, and comments happen in one place, so you don’t have to reconcile several different versions of the same proposal and risk missing parts or introducing errors.    

Additionally, these tools make sharing proposals with your clients simple. Rather than attaching your proposal to an email, you can directly send it to a client and see when they’re been active in the document.

01

Create and deploy reusable templates

Templates are the backbone of any error-reducing process. By dictating what people can and can’t change through custom form fields, you can limit the areas where mistakes might sneak into your documents.

And when it comes to building templates, eSignature solutions offer an easy way to build and save templates that you can use again and again.  Using eSignature templates, you can directly upload PDFs and define what’s editable and what’s not—like name, address, and company. By limiting the number of fields that require input, you reduce the chances of introducing new errors.

02

Automate data input

If you’re serious about reducing errors in your sales agreements, automation takes it to a whole new level. By integrating your sales templates with a CRM (like Salesforce or Keap), you can automatically fill out template fields like prospect name, address, and company.

03

Add a proofreading safety net

There’s no use sending a proposal out fast if it’s full of mistakes—and a totally automated system can’t save you if your original inputs have errors. That’s why it pays to include a final proofreader for proposals—preferably someone removed from the process—who can offer a final check before you hit send.

01

Know your approvers and their order

Outline exactly who needs to review and sign off on every agreement and in what order—the technical team, the CEO, legal, and so forth.

With stakeholders and their signing order mapped out, you can automate much of the approval process. Using the eSignature solutions with signing order features, for instance, you can decide who receives contracts for approval and when. And once the first person has given their approval, it will automatically send it to the next signer.

02

Create a system for changes and edits

By centralizing all internal contract reviews in a shared document storage system like Dropbox or Google Drive, instead of email exchanges, all feedback is in one place so you don’t have to search for it.

What’s more, using centralized documents means you can track changes, so you have a trail of what’s changed and who has changed it. That way, you can easily compare redlines when someone has updated details.‍‍

03

Know who you’re waiting on

People are busy, so it’s inevitable that they miss the odd email. But by sending approvals through an eSignature solution, you can track where approvals are stuck in the internal process and follow up. Many eSignature solutions even let you set up automatic reminders for unsigned documents.

01

Make contracts easy for prospects to sign

Rather than attaching PDFs to emails and expecting your prospects to figure out how to sign, you can give your prospects the tools to sign documents fast. Uploading your paper contracts and PDFs into a document storage system like Dropbox or SharePoint makes them easy to share with prospects. And because these storage tools have in-built eSignature tools, you can add editable fields and send all your documents for signature without ever leaving the interface.

And on your prospects’ end, they’re presented with everything they need to sign your documents right there in their browser—on any device.    

Simple, right? Get the full step-by-step guide to sending agreements digitally.‍

02

Collect every detail the first time

Using an integrated eSignature provider ensures signers never miss a date, or a signature. Using tools with built-in data validation also means you can set specific rules for each input field such as “must be filled,” “numbers only,” or “character length.” This gives you the power to proactively protect against signer typos, ensure details aren’t missed, and increase the accuracy of the information you collect.‍

03

Automate your reminders and follow-ups

Rather than waiting and hoping prospects will sign, many eSignature solutions can automate the reminder process. After you’ve sent a contract to a prospect, you can see whether was opened, when, and if it’s signed. What’s more, sophisticated eSignature tools can send automatic reminders for unsigned contracts, so you don’t have to spend time sending chase emails.

01

Manage negotiations before they start to get deals over the line fast

The key to a fast and smooth negotiation is to enter into discussions with a plan. When getting ready for a negotiation of any size, your pre-negotiation preparation should:

• Research the people you’re negotiating with: Being familiar with your prospects’ backgrounds, interests, and preferences can give you insights into what they value and how you can better appeal to their unique outlook.‍
• Identify issues to be addressed: Entering into a negotiation with an understanding of where your prospects see gaps or issues in your proposal, and preparing to navigate those discussions, lets you preempt concessions or counter with “value-add” extras.
• ‍Set your walk-away price before the deal: Knowing when to walk away from negotiations means you’ll never agree to terms that’ll lose money.
• ‍Communicate a negotiation deadline: Adding a deadline to negotiations can add urgency and make the process run a whole lot easier. To keep things moving, with eSignature tools you can see where documents are stuck in the approval process—and some tools will even send automatic reminders so you don’t have to.
  

02

Aggregate contract changes and edits in one real-time location

Using file storage tools like Dropbox allows anyone with permission to directly edit and comment on documents right from the interface. That means everyone is working from one single source of truth that has the most up-to-date information.

03

Automate internal approvals

Knowing who has to sign off changes to terms, timelines, or price internally and having a system that gets it in front of them can make negotiations go much faster.

With eSignatures, you can even automate much of the approval process. Setting up a custom signing order means you can dictate the signing order of internal approvals, and once the first person has given approval, the eSignature tool will automatically send it to the next signer.

04

Keep a trail of negotiated terms for future renewals

Even once the negotiations are over, keeping a record of details like who compromised on what in initial negotiations can lead to smoother upsell, cross-sell, and renewal discussions with customers in the future.

01.

Give everyone visibility over what is and isn’t in scope

Have your statement of work or contract on hand and readily available so both you and your customers know what is and isn’t agreed upon.‍‍

02

Include a process for changing the scope

Projects often change due to unforeseen circumstances. But by ensuring you include the right information in any change request, you can minimize your exposure to further creep.

It’s why any good change request should include:

•  A description of the change
•  The approach to change
•  The schedule/timeline impact
•  The risks
•  Cost of the change
•  Signatures

03

Get change requests signed fast

• Build a system that outlines who is responsible for reviewing, managing, and approving change requests, deadline extensions, and costs associated with extra work. Once you know who needs to sign off on changes, using an eSignature tool means you can send digital contracts out to internal stakeholders and customers, which they can sign digitally on any device. And that means you can get moving again, rather than waiting around for documents to be signed.

01

Start with secure tools

The security of your contracts should be your number one priority. That starts by ensuring you’re using secure tools to create, share, and send contracts. For instance, Dropbox Sign eSignatures use encryption and store every document in a SOC 1 Type II, SOC 2 Type I, and ISO 27001-certified data center.

02

Practice secure behavior

Practice secure behavior, like making sure you have a process in place to do a quarterly sweep of the permissions on your contracts so that the right staff have access to the information they need, while keeping confidential data secure. Here’s a security checklist to help ensure you’re protecting your customers’ information with secure practices:

Your security checklist:

•  Convert paper documents to digital
•  Provide training for staff
•  Regularly review access permissions
•  Educate your team on secure passwords
•  Take advantage of encrypted storage
•  Prevent fraud with audit trails
  

Learn how to implement each of these steps in our blog, How to keep your documents and agreements secure.

03

Create a single source of truth

Start by creating a single source of truth where everyone in the sales process can access the necessary documents. That way, every time you or a customer needs to review a contract or find a specific piece of information, you don’t have to go hunting through old email attachments or outdated document versions.

04

Integrate, integrate, integrate

Integrating your contract storage with other sales apps can multiply your productivity. For example, integration between Dropbox and Dropbox Sign means every time you send a document out for signature, it’s automatically synced and stored in your Dropbox folders.

01

Set up contract review and renewal reminders

This can be as simple as adding reminders to your calendar. But if you’re using a CRM, chances are it has a built-in reminder system that will prompt you when contracts are up for renewal.

02

Use eSignatures for renewals, too

Don’t make the signing process harder than it needs to be on your customers by insisting on paper contracts or emailed PDFs. Using digital eSignature solutions, customers can sign contracts in their browsers fast—and on any device.