Introduction
In the final stages of a B2B sales cycle, momentum is everything. Yet, this is often where deals stall and revenue is put at risk. Sales reps get bogged down creating proposals from scratch, critical pricing approvals get lost in chaotic email chains, and reps waste hours on duplicate data entry between their quote tool and the CRM. These internal delays can kill a deal. To shorten the closing stage, you need a process that is fast, smart, and connected.
Key Takeaways
- seProposals by salesElement helps you speed up proposal creation from hours to minutes using a centralized library of on-brand templates and content.
- You can streamline complex approvals with the platform’s automated, rule-based workflows that eliminate bottlenecks and ensure compliance. These approvals can enhance or replace your CRM’s built in approval processes.
- It delivers deep, line-item CRM integration, automatically syncing quote data to your opportunities, eliminating manual entry and errors. This approach is applicable to both service-based and product-based businesses.
A 3-Step Guide to a Shorter Sales Cycle
Step 1: Speed Up Proposal Creation with Templates
The first and most important step to a faster process is to stop building proposals manually. According to a guide from FlippingBook, the biggest benefit of proposal software is the ability to use “templates tailored to different goals, industries, and content types, so you don’t have to start from scratch every time.”
By creating a central library of on-brand, pre-approved templates, you give your sales reps a massive head start. They can select the right template for the job and focus their time on personalizing the message for the customer, not on fighting with formatting or searching for the right logo.
The seProposals by salesElement platform provides a centralized content and template library, flexible enough for teams in all industries. Your team can generate professional, on-brand proposals in minutes, ensuring both speed and consistency.
Step 2: Streamline Approvals with Automated Workflows
Complex pricing or discount approvals are a common bottleneck that stalls deals and frustrates your team. As experts at DealHub point out, a manual process quickly becomes a “chaotic process of emails, Slack messages, and spreadsheets.”
The solution is to build an automated workflow with “pre-defined rules within a centralized system.” For example, you can create a rule that automatically sends any proposal with a discount of over 15% to a sales manager. The manager is instantly notified and can approve it with a single click. This replaces a slow, manual chase with a fast, compliant, and fully trackable process.
seProposals by salesElement helps you build custom, rule-based approval workflows directly into the system, eliminating manual follow-ups and approval delays.
Step 3: Eliminate Delays with Deep CRM Integration
After a proposal is created, where does that data go? In many sales teams, the rep has to manually copy and paste the line items from Excel into their CRM. This “swivel chair” work is not just slow; it’s a major source of errors that ruins your pipeline data.
seProposals creates a “single source of truth.” As the experts at Salesforce explain, integrating your CPQ and CRM “eliminates the need for manual data entry, which saves time and reduces errors.” This integration means the moment a proposal is created or updated, the opportunity in your CRM is updated automatically. Your sales leaders see the real pipeline value, and your reps save time.
seProposals by salesElement provides deep, line-item integration with all major CRMs, turning two separate systems into one seamless workflow.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How is this different from a simple e-signature tool? An e-signature tool is great for the final step: getting the signature. However, a full proposal platform like seProposals by salesElement handles the entire process before the signature. This includes creating the document from a template, pulling in CRM data, managing content, and getting internal approvals.
- What is the biggest benefit of deep CRM integration? The biggest benefit is creating a “single source of truth.” It ensures that your sales leadership is evaluating the actual value of deals in the pipeline, not just a rep’s guess. It also saves your sales team valuable time by eliminating redundant data entry, letting them focus on selling instead of admin work.
- Won’t an approval workflow slow down my sales reps? A manual approval process that relies on email can definitely cause delays. However, an automated workflow is designed for speed. The system instantly notifies the right manager, who can often approve or deny the request with a single click from their phone or email. This is much faster than a chaotic, untrackable email chain and ensures no proposal gets stuck.