Proposals are your sales team’s perfect option to close more sales.
They assist clients in appreciating the value of your product or service, demonstrate why your solutions are the finest and lay out a clear route to a fruitful working relationship.
Presenting professional business proposals personally is no longer sufficient, especially with so much riding on them. There’s no reason not to use proposal software in this modern era.
Should you not know what to look for in a proposal software, keep reading to find out more about what to look for and consider.
What kind of features do you need?
All business proposal programs are not made equal. Functionality and integrated features can differ dramatically from one software platform to the next, but that doesn’t suggest you should have to settle.
The finest proposal software should have all of the tools you require straight away, or via extensions.
Check for a proposal builder that includes a library of content, presentation templates, and an engagement feed if factors like continuous updates, speedier proposals, and transparency over your transactions are vital to you.
Should you want to include animations, dynamic pricing charts, online signatures, or other components that could help you produce a successful business proposal, wait till you find an alternative like Prospero that has it all.
Even if you do not know how to write a business proposal, these tools can assist you.
1. Dashboard
The dashboard provides a high-level summary of all of your proposals as well as customer activity such as reading, accepting, and reporting on proposals. You have the option of displaying all information or just proposals that pertain to yourself or one of your coworkers.
By glancing at the graphs, you may get a fast picture of how the sales system operates. Quantities, values, and proposals can all be displayed in charts.
Keep a record of who has seen your proposals, when they were viewed, and for how long, as well as the most recent statements from your prospective customers or clients.
You can access any of your offers or customers from any screen in some apps using the search box at the top of the web page or screen.
2. Customizable and Easy to Use User-Interface
A confusing user interface can pose many problems to your sales staff and could end up doing more bad than good.
When looking for proposal software, you want to pick one with a simple and easy-to-understand UI.
Some software platforms even allow you to customize the interface for your personal needs. This becomes extremely useful as you can make it easier to complete the tasks that you need.
Being able to properly use an interface is one of the most important considerations to make when selecting a proposal software. Ensure that you can efficiently use any software that you use.
3. Pre-Made Proposal Templates
Whether your team works with Microsoft Word documents or a web-based proposal creator, there’s a high chance they’re beginning with a blank canvas for each proposal.
That’s okay if you had unlimited time. However, the majority of teams do not. Representatives can obtain proposal templates using proposal software solutions, giving them a leg up on the competition when creating proposals.
Rather than beginning with a blank screen, they have the structure, key parts, and other key details right in front of them the first moment they create a proposal.
4. End-to-End Proposal Management
Have trouble keeping track of transaction progress once proposals have been sent?
Proposal software can assist you. It provides a bird’s eye perspective of your pipelines, allowing you to observe where transactions are there, who’s engaged, what has to be completed subsequently, and when to intervene to move the deal along.
The software also allows salespeople and customers to monitor the status and development of projects to make sure they’re on course for targets, releases, and other deadlines.
5. Easy Signature Process
Are you aware that eSignatures can boost contract close rates by up to 465 percent while also speeding up the process by approximately 66 percent? We didn’t know either until we looked into the information underlying them.
Electronic signatures, to no one’s surprise, eliminate sales resistance by making it easy for your prospective customer to formally close the deal.
The best thing is that you don’t have to leave your proposal app to use them. Top proposal software solutions include eSignature capabilities built right in, allowing your salespeople to seal deals as easily as they make proposals.
6. Proposal Automation
If your sales staff aren’t already customizing each prospective client’s sales presentation, they should.
Collecting contact information from previous papers and emails, price information from the project manager, and appointment availability from their schedules into a fresh proposal, on the other hand, is time-consuming and error-prone.
Proposal automation can save your team time by automatically extracting data from other parts of your company and inserting it directly into proposals.
What Do You Expect to Achieve with the Proposal Software?
Individual perceptions and demands can determine which software is ideal for proposals. Consider where you have the most trouble in your proposal procedure prior to looking for proposal software or solutions.
Perhaps you have to produce highly complicated proposals and waste valuable time doing so, and that approach needs to be improved. Or perhaps it’s the other way around, and rather than making proposals, you’d like to improve your proposal content management and optimization.
Fortunately, most of the top proposal software can assist you and your business with two aspects being, proposal creation and proposal management.
Proposal Creation
Which technology or resources do you use now to make proposals?
Proposal software that enables you to generate proposals online can be used to substitute these resources. You may gather critical assets, specify the scope of the project, and develop timeframes with virtual proposal tools to impress your clients.
Proposal Management
Once you’ve completed the difficult task of proposal writing, it’s time to deliver the proposal to your client and, ideally, close the transaction.
The top proposal software can assist you with a variety of components at this stage of the sales process, all with the aim of optimization and efficiency.
What Kind of Software Are You Currently Using That Can be Integrated into Your Proposal Software?
It’s time to start analyzing your choices now that you understand what to search for.
Because there are a wide variety of proposal software options available, each with its own set of features, advantages, benefits, and downsides, it’s critical to make an informed decision.
Here are some of the greatest proposal software solutions available to find the most relevant option for you.
Payment software
You may choose to include an invoicing option in your proposals to make it easier for your clients to complete payment for your solutions. The total amount due is calculated automatically.
Invoicing software
Through an integration like QuickBooks Online, you can effortlessly transfer all of your clients to your proposal software using a single mouse click.
You may export proposals from your preferred software to QuickBooks Online as invoices. If necessary, customers can be registered automatically in QuickBooks.
Automation software
Proposal software allows you to transfer new customers from other apps.
You can create an automation software function like Zapier and Make (formerly Integromat) that responds to several outcomes such as: accepted, denied, seen, or a produced proposal. It can also make new proposals in the software of your choice, and create an automated sales funnel.
Check how you can create a seamless sales funnel with Make (Integromat).
Ability to Upload Third Party Codes
The ability to upload third-party codes to your proposal software is pretty crucial to its success.
Integrations allow you to add additional features to the software with the intent of adding extra features and streamlining the entire proposal process.
Although some software includes a variety of features there are still some areas in which they are found to be lacking. Adding additional integrations that allow you to transfer customers and keep track of accounting information can make the entire proposal process much easier.
Once again, you must consider which third-party integrations are best for your organization.
You should assess what you struggle with when dealing with proposals and ask yourself how specific integrations can assist in simplifying the process.
Summing it up!
Proposal software is an effective tool for improving your sales procedure and closing more agreements.
Make sure you choose carefully because the option you choose could mean the difference between winning and losing. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, the ideal proposal software is the option that satisfies all of your requirements and integrates with your current tools and processes.
If you’re looking for a proposal software that has almost all the necessary features to succeed in getting clients, check if Prospero is perfect for you. We recommend this solution because it fits all the criteria of an effective proposal software.