5 tips to help you sign a proposal online

Digital signature is now a vital part of everyday business for many organizations.

And with 69% of people preferring e-signatures to in-person or ‘wet’ signatures, it’s easy to see why.

Before the rise of e-signature technology, signing a contract or proposal involved the recipient printing, signing, and scanning it before sending it back to the vendor.

Not only is this time-consuming for your new customers, but as a vendor, these steps create unnecessary friction that could jeopardize close rates. 

So, if you’re a part of the group of people that still prefer in-person or wet signatures, this article is for you. Here, we’ll share what it takes to sign a proposal online and how you can get started. 

But first, let’s take a look at how signing proposals online benefits you and your customer.

Why should you sign a proposal online?

Signing a proposal online has many advantages for vendors and their customers compared to traditional paper-based processes. Let’s take a look at the benefits for vendors.

6 benefits of signing proposals online for vendors

1. Speed: Instead of waiting for documents to be printed, reviewed, signed, and scanned, you can collect signatures in real-time, with 44% of proposals signed within 60 minutes.
2. Increase win rate: Signing a proposal online is faster and simpler than ever, and this reduction in friction can lead to a 51% higher win rate for sales teams. 
3. Signing order: Depending on the scale of the proposal, you may require multiple signatories. Signing online makes it easy to manage with signing order functionality. 
4. Tracking: Signing online also means that you can track who has and hasn’t signed the proposal  and send automated reminders to anyone who hasn’t to achieve a 76% win rate.
5. Reduced admin costs: It’s estimated that signing a proposal online vs. traditional paper-based methods could save as much as $20 per document in administrative costs.
6. E-signatures legally binding: Using an online signature for proposals is just as legally binding as a handwritten signature. There are specific laws that govern them, including eIDAS in the EU and ESIGN in the US. 

There are also numerous benefits for your customers, too.

5 benefits of signing proposals online for customers

1. Security: Only authorized signatories can sign off proposals online, with mechanisms like SMS authentication codes and BankID checks built into the best tools. 
2. Simplicity: Because there is no need for printing, signing, scanning, or posting, signing off on your proposal can be done in seconds. This will significantly boost the speed of your sales process. 
3. Paperless: These days, organizations like to be as sustainable as possible and reduce their carbon footprint. Making your proposals paperless supports this for you and your customers.
4. Quick edits: Because proposals are being signed with specialist software, your client can suggest edits in real time and directly in the document.
5. Immediate: Online signatures mean your customer can immediately sign and get access to your products without waiting for printing, posting, or any other traditionally slow process.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a sales proposal, partnership, project, or investment, the same principle applies — getting documents signed can be hard work without e-signatures.

The easiest way to achieve this is to use e-signature technology that is already part of your proposal software or digital sales room solution, to help make the entire process simple to manage.

But even with the right software, how does signing a proposal online actually work, and how can you get started?

5 tips to sign a proposal online

As a prospect, signing a proposal online couldn’t be easier — you click a link, open the document, review it, and add signatures.

However, as a vendor, there are five key steps you need to take to guarantee that your prospects can sign quickly and easily.

1. Preparation

First, you want to set yourself up for success to get your proposal signed online quickly. You can do this by considering the following:

The proposal: Consider how you will write the proposal document, what you’d like to include, and how it should be structured. If you’re not sure, follow our best practice tips. 

Formatting: Once you’ve written your proposal draft, consider how it should look. Will you use your own design or choose a proposal template to get you started?

Try one of our free proposal templates

Review: Get your colleagues to ‘peer review’ your proposals to make sure any typos, errors, or mistakes have been caught before they are sent to your prospect. 

Software: You’ll need to ensure that you choose the right type of proposal software to help you prepare your proposal for online signing. 

Once you’ve done the preparation work, it’s time to upload your proposal document.

2. Upload the document & add signing fields

Now that your proposal document is ready, you’ll need to add your proposal to the sales platform you use to start the online e-signature process.

Some people prefer to create a new document from scratch in their proposal software, while others favor uploading a PDF file they’ve prepared elsewhere. Either way works well.

Once you’ve uploaded the document into your chosen proposal software, you can then start to customize it ready for signature by adding fields for things like:

• Signature
• Initials
• Date
• Name
• Address
• Etc.

Choose the fields that work best for your scenario. But remember, the more fields a prospect must fill out, the more friction it creates, jeopardizing the deal.

You can also add as many signatories as you like to your proposal and configure it as part of a signing order workflow. 

3. Signing order workflow

Larger or more complex deals typically require multiple people to sign off on a proposal. 

To accommodate this, you can include what’s known as a signing order workflow in your proposal. 

Workflows like these allow you to collect signatures from the right people in the right order and help you coordinate everything. 

You can configure these workflows in a variety of ways depending on your needs, but an example of a signing order you might encounter could look like this:

• Signature one: Procurement or legal to agree the deal meets their expectations.
• Signature two: Department head or budget holder to confirm the product is needed.
• Signature three: C-suite executive to sign off the deal on behalf of the company.

4. Review, set up notifications, and send

You’re almost ready to send the proposal to the prospect for signature — but before you do, here are a few more things we recommend you do.

First, you should get another set of eyes on your proposal. You should have already caught all the typos, so think of this as a last-minute sense check.

Your reviewer should look for any obvious design or layout issues, ensure that the signing fields are in the right places and make logical sense, and give it a final ‘once over’.

When that’s done, you can set up video, email, and SMS notifications to ensure your prospects know they need to sign this document.

Smart notifications like these will not only ensure that your proposal gets signed by following up automatically with anyone who hasn’t, but they’ll also help you increase your win rate.

Based on our own data, proposals that use notifications achieve a 76% win rate overall.

Notifications help to alert your prospects that they need to sign your proposal — but how do you know who has looked at your proposal and who has signed it already?

This is where proposal tracking can help you to manage the process more effectively. 

5. Tracking and managing signed documents

Aside from the speed and simplicity of using software to help you capture online signatures, another key advantage is being able to track things like:

• Who has signed the document
• Who has viewed the document
• When they last looked at it
• How far down the document they read
• Comments or queries about the document from your prospect

This helps you, as a vendor, gain visibility into how the signing process is proceeding and instant insights into any issues that may block the final sign-off. 

Once the document has been signed, you can keep a copy in a document store and refer to it at various points throughout the customer lifecycle.

Conclusion

One in three buyers are missing out on the convenience and simplicity of signing a proposal online compared to using paper-based methods. 

Switching your proposal signature process to online e-signatures means you can;

• Boost your win rates by 51% overall
• Get 44% of proposals signed off within an hour
• Enjoy a 76% win rate for proposals that use automated reminders

However, you can’t experience these kinds of benefits without the right tools in place. 

That’s where GetAccept comes in.

Our Digital Sales Room software allows your prospects to sign proposals online. Even better, it’s also the key to automating  your entire sales proposal process, thanks to features like:

• CRM integration: Align proposal status with your sales records on auto-pilot.
• Content library: Instantly add pre-made, pre-approved content to proposals.
• CPQ: Quickly add accurate pricing to proposals - calculated automatically.
• Signing order & roles: Always get the right people viewing or signing contracts.
• Edit after send: Update your proposals in seconds based on prospect feedback.
• Tracking: Quickly discover when a prospect interacts with your proposal.
• Electronic signatures: No more printing and scanning; sign in real-time.
• Contract management: Automatically manage contract versions with ease.

So, if you’re looking for software to transform the way you do proposals, try GetAccept.