Managing sales proposal content can be a challenge. Ensuring that each prospect or customer receives a proposal that’s specifically tailored to them and follows your overall brand is an even bigger challenge.
For example, although some companies have some type of a standard sales proposal template that contains approved information, most organizations don’t have a template or even a sales content library. This causes the sales team to have to start each new proposal by using the one they wrote before as the foundation going forward.
Using a cut-and-paste method of responding to RFPs and questionnaires can create a few challenges.
Common Sales Proposal Challenges:
Outdated or Inaccurate Content
The first challenge to sales proposals is that although the proposal manager may update the standard sales proposal template, there’s no guarantee that the sales team is using the most current version. What’s more, if the sales rep starts a new proposal by opening up the last document and pasting blocks of text, there’s a risk that names, numbers and references that belong to another opportunity will be overlooked.
Branding Inconsistencies
The second challenge to sales proposals is that a sales rep using the last document written is a proven way to deliver outdated branding that your organization has invested in differentiating itself from all other proposals. Proposal managers are horrified to see proposals delivered with the old logo, the wrong title page, an old address, or a lack of consistency with bullets and icons. It’s a sloppy reflection on the organization and the proposed solution!
Managing Updates
The third challenge to sales proposals is the time-consuming, manual process of managing updates to proposal templates. Subject matter experts are resistant to give updates because they have their own job to do, and sales reps are too busy to replace their saved version with the updated version.
A Winning Solution: Sales Proposal Software
Fortunately, by using a sales proposal software, you can add efficiency and control to your processes that will appeal to all team members—including the sales professionals!
A winning sales proposal software starts with a sales content library for all company and product information, and template components such as the title pages, cover letter, headers and footers. Next, when you add automation on top of the content library, you can create proposals with a few simple clicks of a button.
After you create your content library, you can apply your branding standards to all content in the database. This is a big time-saver for anyone creating proposals because there’s no need to format the document. It comes out perfectly formatted and in-line with your brand standards.
Managing your content is where the automation comes in. Rather than creating a fire drill at the time a proposal is due, the proposal automation software can proactively send SMEs content for review on a regular schedule, which will help streamline updates to your content.
It’s a Game Changer for Sales Reps!
Sales reps will happily drop their cut-and-paste processes because creating new proposals is fast and easy with Upland Qvidian. With automation of your sales proposal templates, sales reps simply check a few boxes selecting the products or services they would like to propose, fill in a few blanks like the prospect’s name and address and click a button.
In a matter of minutes, sales reps are able to create a document tailored to the prospect’s needs that is perfectly branded and that uses the most current content.
Are you ready for a game-changer? Contact us to learn how Qvidian software can help eliminate your biggest sales proposal challenges.