How to Automate the Sales Document Tracking and Signing Process in Pipedrive

Statistics show that it takes about 5 days to obtain a document signature the traditional way - mailing the document to the recipient, signing it, and sending it back. However, it would only take an average of 37 minutes to get the same signature with digital document signing.

Closing a new deal in a conventional way can be complicated. There are so many little details to be agreed on, and it takes time to get documents signed off. If you're like most businesses, your sales department may have a lot of red tape when approving and signing documents. Something as simple as an employment contract can become bogged down in bureaucracy.

This article will help you understand how Pipedrive can automate signing various contracts, proposals, and Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) to enjoy quicker turnaround times.

How Long Does it Take Your Sales Department to Sign Documents?

Salespeople spend roughly half an hour on administrative work and 7.6% of their time on paperwork. Of course, this will depend on the business's nature, the team's size, and any other agreements and conditions. Here's a brief glimpse of how much time different documents take to process in the sales department:

Approving and Signing a Sales Contract

A sales contract marks an agreement between a buyer and seller and must be signed to put it into legal effect. There are many departments and stakeholders involved in the negotiation process. As a result, getting the contract signed by all the stakeholders can take 4-6 weeks to get it ready for execution.

Approving and Signing a Proposal

The negotiations and proposal process can take weeks, if not months (or even years in some cases) before a client signs a proposal. If you're in sales, you must invest much time in the proposal process. You need to understand your client's needs, and you need to understand what role your company's product or service offerings will play in their needs.

Signing NDAs

NDAs protect trade secrets and confidential property. If you have a big company or are in a highly competitive field, you almost definitely have NDAs on the books with your clients. These documents can take 30 days, weeks, months, or even years to sign.

Most sales contracts and proposals take weeks or months to get approved and signed off on. This is especially true if your sales department uses a template for each document type. Smart salespeople know that the longer you wait, the bigger the opportunity for the competitor to strike and the higher the chances of losing the deal. And that's where automated sales document tracking and signing come in.

Why Automate the Sales Document Tracking and Signing Process in Pipedrive?

Sales teams are always under pressure to drive more leads, close deals faster, and get results as soon as possible. As a sales management system focused on streamlining sales processes from lead generation to managing sales pipelines, Pipedrive gives its users plenty of tools for automating their workflows.

Automating the tracking and signing of sales documents in Pipedrive can help you streamline the sales process by reducing manual steps, eliminating redundant information input, and increasing transparency.

Streamline Your Sales Process

Automating your sales document tracking and signing process can help you streamline and make it more efficient - giving your sales reps the time and space they need to close more deals. In turn, increased efficiency in the sales process enables you to close more deals in less time and scale your sales volume to meet your company's growth goals.

Reduce Manual Steps for Faster Lead Generation

Manually tracking which leads have signed a contract or other crucial documents is time-consuming and often prone to human error. Automating sales document tracking can help you reduce manual steps and make lead generation quicker, less error-prone, and more efficient.

Eliminate Redundant Information Input

Sales teams often spend more time inputting redundant information than closing deals - and sales documents are often the culprit. If your sales reps manually track sales documents, they may need to manually record contract/agreement terms, pricing details, service level agreements, etc.

Automating your sales document tracking and signing process can help you eliminate redundant information input - and save your sales reps valuable time they can use to close more deals.

Increase Transparency and Visibility of Lead Status Changes

Transparency is an important part of any sales process. By automating your sales document tracking and signing process, you can increase the transparency of your sales process - helping your sales leads understand how the process works and where they're at in the sales cycle.

Automating your sales document tracking and signing process will also help you increase efficiency by flagging any issues that might be slowing the sales process - and determining when to make adjustments.

"By 2022 over 70% of B2B marketers are going to be using intent data as part of their marketing strategy." - Gartner Digital Markets, May 2020

Document Tracking Software Integrations for Pipedrive

When tracking important documents, most sales CRM tools fall short. Some lack advanced reporting and analytics, while others have a steep learning curve for beginners. That's why so many sales teams use basic document management tools like PDF readers. You're in luck if you're using Pipedrive as your primary sales CRM software.

Several excellent integration options are available to help you track electronic documents in your Pipedrive account:

• Formstack Documents
• PandaDoc
• Revv
• Monday.com
• Google Drive
• Process Street

When choosing the right integrations for your business, pay attention to these key factors:

• Ease of use - You can avoid potential productivity issues and training hassles if your employees can use the system without much training. Because document tracking software can handle a wide range of tasks within the business, you want to make sure you choose a system that is easy to navigate, intuitive, and user-friendly.

• Storage and synchronisation capabilities - If your business grows, you will likely need to store more data in your document tracking software. If you are working in multiple locations and need to share data across all your sales and marketing departments, you will want a document-tracking system that offers synchronisation capabilities across multiple locations and devices.

• Audit and reporting functions - You will likely want a system that includes audit capabilities to track changes made to documents and ensure that authorised users are accessing the documents. Look for a document solution that offers in-depth reporting capabilities, so you can view trends and export your data to generate graphs and charts.

• Cloud storage - Ensure that the system you choose is compatible with cloud storage as most businesses are moving towards cloud-based storage solutions. This will help you avoid issues with space limitations and allow you to easily share data with remote teams.

Lastly, does the digital document signing software have the features you need? Before choosing a document tracking integration, consider:

• The types of documents that you will store in the system (both paper and digital)
• Integration with other business applications and software solutions
• How secure the data is in the document tracking systems you choose

How Can Automaly Help?

Automaly is a team of automation and AI experts passionate about using their skills to help other companies do more with Pipedrive and do it better. We specialise in improving your sales team's efficiency and performance by implementing the right sales automation workflows for your company.

Automaly reviews your current workflows, provides advice on the best document automation and tracking software, and takes you step-by-step through CRM implementation.

Conclusion

Sales documents, contracts, and proposals are essential to a company's sales process and help sales reps, managers, and executives monitor progress and track performance. However, if you have manual processes or document tracking that are not integrated into your sales software, you will likely have to spend time on daily routine tasks - which is the last thing you want if you aim for higher efficiency and better performance from your sales team.

Automating the document tracking and signing process in Pipedrive saves time, reduces errors, and lets your team focus on what they do best - closing deals. Get in touch to learn how Automaly can help streamline your document workflows.