The sales game is always changing. At the same time, it is always the same. People have something and other people want that something, need that something, and/or desire that something. Right now there are 26.5 million businesses operating in the United States. Of those businesses that were operating in 2013, 82.9% of them were still up and running in 2014. For most businesses to succeed, they need to sell whatever it is that they are offering, whether it be goods, services, or even ideas.
A request for proposal, or RFP, is something that happens every day in the world of business. Mostly, they occur in business to business transactions or when a company is bidding on government contracts. In the process of an RFP, two different types of events are interrelated. Vendor selection and negotiation are the events that companies go through in an effort to win the business. Vendor selection is a formalized bidding competition through which companies that are competing are evaluated and then selected by criteria that have been pre-defined. Negotiation is a process by which the winning bidder and the company holding the project settle on terms for an agreement. In order for a company to effectively land a successful bid, it must give a stand out presentation or proposal. Proposal creation software can get your company to that place of holding the competitive edge.
One of the features that proposal management software has is the ability to automate more routine tasks while tracking multiple versions of a proposal. Federal contracting, for example, comes with its own set of criteria that must be met or the proposal will be rejected outright. Users of proposal software can create and manage important sales and marketing materials like business proposals, contracts, prior quotes, and any marketing material. All of this is often available as a web-based cloud service, so all of your work can be done from anywhere in the world.
Proposal creation software and proposal management software are both part of a sales efficiency tool that can maximize every upsell and cross-sell opportunity when delivering a proposal to a company that will see dozens of proposals for a single job. The proposal creation software will be able to keep up with all brand materials, making sure your proposal is compliant with all of the latest versions. In addition, proposal management software can address inefficiencies and lack of visibility in the sales cycle.
Proposal creation software can be viewed as sales enablement efforts which can bridge the gap between a company’s strategies and execution. Using sales enablement tools such as these can enable a business to align its sales goals and develop a strategic plan for how the business should operate as they move forward with their growth expectations.
Of the 5.4 million firms in the United States that have employees, 99.7% of those firms have 500 or fewer employees working for them. Proposal creation software gives them the ability to maximize their efficiency and grow their bottom line.
