2021 is the year of sales transformation and a critical factor in determining how businesses would grow in the coming years. B2B buyers and sellers have gone digital due to the massive digital transformation. What we thought of as a crisis response has become the current norm in the last two years. One thing is sure that the gigantic digital shift is here to stay and will continue to drive businesses in a safer, speedier & structured way.
B2B sales can adapt to any challenging environment and have not let us down in this tough situation. Crucial research from Mckinsey says that buyers & sellers prefer digital self-serve and remote human engagements over face-to-face interactions. It has made it easier for buyers to place orders, get information, arrange service and enjoy the speed and convenience of services.
If you observe the market situation, all manual processes & business activities have shifted digitally. We are keeping a complete ban on field visits, client meetings and lively discussions.
So, how do the sales team sign contracts and agreements with new businesses in 2021?
Introducing electronic signatures – one of the most gifted digital era technologies empowering your sales team to safely, securely, and speedily sign confidential documents.
Electronic signatures and digital signatures are increasingly replacing traditional methods of signing and authenticating documents.
What makes them safer for businesses is that for more than a decade, electronic signature laws have legalized and broadened the scope of eSignatures to facilitate more straightforward agreements, collaborations and business transactions of national & International importance.
Here is how using electronic signatures helps your sales team:
1) Boost Key Result Areas (KRAs) of your Sales team
Are you worried about your sales team’s performance? The pandemic is driving every sales team crazy as they are constantly worried about meeting their allocated sales targets.
There are endless questions to ponder upon by a sales guy:
- How do we persuade the clients to sign up for the documents?
- How to achieve sales targets in challenging situations like lockdown?
- How to increase the market share of the company’s products & services?
- How to build superb trust, rapport & credibility with sales prospects?
- How to close every sale confidently?
Think no more! Electronic signatures are a win-win solution for any company’s sales team designed to perform in any challenging situation.
Sales teams can effectively use eSignatures to sign business contracts or agreements speedily. As a result, they do not have to depend on physical visits to the clients for follow-ups regarding contract/agreement closure.
The contractual agreement converts into electronic format, and its online copy is instantly available to the client for eSignature in a single click. Additionally, live notifications on the eSignature app ensure that you stay updated about the esigned status of the documents.
Sales team utilizing eSignature applications can score 100% in their KRAs and close sales more confidently by
- Emerging as the undisputed sales champion of their sales territory as the client would sign contracts with your company only due to the excellent Customer Experience (CX) in the form of eSignature solutions
- The sales team can close more contracts on the spot due to the ultimate benefit of multiple deals getting signed within a few seconds.
- Building an excellent relationship with the clients with this latest technological marvel helps them sign contracts without travelling and that too at blazing fast speed.
- Electronic signatures help gain market share by signing more contracts speedily than the competition’s sales team.
2) Electronically sign multiple Sales documents
Electronic signatures sign every possible sales document embedded in the business process. Here are the examples of documents that are signed electronically:
- Non-disclosure agreements
- Financial agreements
- Sales quotes
- Proposal and bids
- Sales orders
- Customer agreements
- Sales receipts
- Delivery orders
- Invoices
3) Lightning-Fast invoicing
The processing speed of an invoice depends on the information synchronization between the sales and finance team.
Let’s talk about a situation where the sales team has billed the ‘X’ amount in the invoice, but the finance end shows some difference in the quoted figures.
The error may have happened due to manual mistakes at the sales end or the finance team going ahead with incorrect information. The tussle between the teams can cause an unprecedented delay in the processing of an invoice. Unfortunately, the only way to solve this issue is to do a data reconciliation, which can be highly time-consuming.
eSignature applications help in e-invoicing by making the electronically signed contracts available directly to the finance team. In addition, it eliminates any manual errors as the finance team has all the relevant available information to invoice your clients.
As sales commissions and bonuses ride on accurate reporting, electronic signatures ensure that both the sales and finance team have all the correct data to process invoices at the right time without further delays.
4) Improved productivity of the Sales team
Vital research states that Salespeople spend one-third of their day talking to prospects. In addition, they spend 21% of the day emailing, 17% on entering information, 17% on further researching and prospecting, and 12% on internal meetings and 12% on scheduling calls.
The traditional document signing process that helps close the final deal can take uncountable hours of calls, meetings, follow-ups, writing proposals, revising proposals, emails, filing documents, convincing the clients, etc.
It can lead to colossal burnout and a drastic reduction in employee productivity. So, you need to ensure that you empower your sales team with the tool to cut down the hours spent on mundane tasks.
Using an electronic signature online significantly reduces any manual efforts.
Salespeople using electronic signatures have a lot of free productive time for finding new opportunities, nurturing leads, building customer relationships, and generating new leads.
5) Close deals on the spot
Signing contractual documents with a pen is a thing of the past as it is an extremely lengthy process. Nowadays, clients want to close deals speedily and laser focus on their business in 2021.
Suppose you are still using handwritten signatures for closing the agreements. In that case, the decision-making teams from both the parties need to be present at a common destination, and every detail of the deal would need advanced planning like:
- Agreement venue
- Travel arrangements
- Identification proofs
- Stamp of both the parties
You don’t have such a constraint with digital signatures!
The contractual document is prepared online and available for counter-signature on the eSignature application. Therefore, there is a negligible waiting period for electronically signing the contracts, which needs only a few seconds.
eSignatures are easy to use, completely legal & backed by electronic laws worldwide. They are available for users from any remote location on any digital device. It empowers the sales team to shorten the lengthy agreement cycle and close deals with the qualified leads right on the spot.
6) Reduce Turnaround Time (TAT)
There are multiple reasons for insufficient turnaround time in business
- Presence of too many manual processes
- Lack of business planning & execution
- A great deal of human intervention
- Lack of clear communication
These pointers are responsible for delays in completing the contract/agreement in time. Your business clients expect to start the deal quickly. If you take too long to respond, you are less likely to earn their respect as well as the repeat business, forget about making word-of-mouth recommendations or business references, that are highly recommended in increasing your market reach and boosting the sale figures.
All documents can be signed online using electronic signatures, reducing the turnaround time by more than 80%.
It means the moment your client signs a document with your company. Then, you can send it to the next party for their eSignature. That too without any waiting time for printing, scanning and mailing the signed document. As a result, the company can quickly start giving services to the concerned client for which the deal was signed and build a positive brand image in the market.
Conclusion
Are you still using pen and paper for signing your sales contracts? Think again! You can also transform your sales process today and integrate electronic signatures to boost your revenue, even if you have a small sales team. Start eSigning your documents today!