Sponsored
altaFlow
altaFlow generates custom docs with a click, integrates eSignatures, creates webforms, and more without coding. It’s the ultimate tool to simplify, automate, and elevate your workflows.
Total Products under this Category: 295
Last updated: August 04, 2026
Why You Can Trust G2's Software Rankings:
G2's software rankings are built on verified user reviews, rigorous moderation, and a consistent research methodology maintained by a team of analysts and data experts. Each product is measured using the same transparent criteria, with no paid placement or vendor influence. While reviews reflect real user experiences, which can be subjective, they offer valuable insight into how software performs in the hands of professionals. Together, these inputs power the G2 Score, a standardized way to compare tools within every category.

Highlighted products: PandaDoc, GetAccept, Oracle CPQ, Responsive, formerly RFPIO, Qwilr, Anchor, Ignition, and DealHub AI.
Underlying data: [Grid® JSON](https://www.g2.com/categories/proposal/grids.json?focus%5B%5D=pandadoc&focus%5B%5D=getaccept&focus%5B%5D=oracle-cpq&focus%5B%5D=responsive-formerly-rfpio&focus%5B%5D=qwilr&focus%5B%5D=anchor-anchor&focus%5B%5D=ignition&focus%5B%5D=dealhub-ai)
Sponsored
altaFlow generates custom docs with a click, integrates eSignatures, creates webforms, and more without coding. It’s the ultimate tool to simplify, automate, and elevate your workflows.
PandaDoc is an all-in-one document management platform trusted by 50,000+ sales, legal, and operations teams to create, send, e-sign, and manage documents faster and with less manual work. Teams using PandaDoc close deals 30% faster and cut document turnaround time by up to 50%. Customers like Autodesk, Rakuten, and Sysco use PandaDoc to streamline their entire document process, from proposal to signed contract, and everything in between. PandaDoc helps your team: - Build and send professional proposals, contracts, and agreements using customizable templates and a drag-and-drop editor - Collect legally binding e-signatures from any device, anywhere, with no printing, scanning, or delays - Collaborate in real time with internal stakeholders and external signers simultaneously - Automate repetitive document tasks so reps and ops teams spend less time on admin and more time closing - Track document performance with analytics that show how recipients engage with every page PandaDoc integrates natively with the tools your team already uses, including Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Stripe, and 30+ other CRM and payment platforms — keeping document processes inside your existing stack without adding friction or extra logins. Whether you're in sales, legal, HR, or finance, PandaDoc is especially popular with growing businesses that need enterprise-grade document processes without the added complexity or price tag. From first draft to final approval, PandaDoc centralizes the full document lifecycle with the compliance, security, and audit trail your team needs to operate with confidence. PandaDoc also supports notarization, payment collection, and document analytics in a single platform, reducing the need to manage multiple tools across your document process.
Average Rating: 4.7/5.0
Total Reviews: 3,470
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"Streamlined Document Signing with Minor Template Navigation Issues"
Rating: 4.0/5.0 stars
— Rachel S.
"Streamlined Document Creation and Signing"
Rating: 4.0/5.0 stars
— Jasleen M.
GetAccept is the #1 AI Digital Sales Room, built to help revenue teams run every deal like their best sales rep. It replaces scattered emails and static attachments with an AI-native workspace, bringing content, proposals, e-signing, and buyer communication together so sellers, buyers, and every stakeholder stay aligned on the latest documents, timelines, and next steps across the full sales cycle. GetAccept's AI analyses your meetings, calls, emails, CRM data, internal content, and publicly available data, and is trained to take action, building and updating personalized Digital Sales Rooms in minutes and keeping every rep on track with your sales process and methodology. Real-time tracking shows exactly how buyers engage with each deal, and native CRM integrations keep everything synced in the tools reps already use. GetAccept solves the problem of deals stalling between meetings in scattered email threads, static attachments, and manual admin. By giving sellers and buyers a single, trackable space to collaborate from first touch to signature, it helps revenue teams of every size to work smarter, close faster, and win more. Why revenue teams choose GetAccept ↳ AI-powered enablement: auto-generate and surface the right content for each deal, stage, and stakeholder, grounded in your meetings, CRM, and internal knowledge. ↳ AI-built sales rooms: spin up a personalized, interactive Digital Sales Room in minutes that keeps conversations, materials, and actions aligned. ↳ Deal intelligence: turn buyer engagement signals into clear visibility and AI-guided next steps. ↳ Proposals and e-signing built in: create, send, track, and close documents without leaving the room. ↳ Connected to your stack: #1-rated native integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Slack, plus 100+ more, keep activity synced everywhere automatically. Trusted by 5,000+ revenue teams, including Dealfront, ScaleWise, Samsung, and Chargebee. "This is a way for you to control the narrative, to make sure your reps are sticking to the process and helping your customers experience value instead of just product pitching." Remi Aaagaard Mørken, SVP of Sales, SalesScreen (100% increase in win rate) "Since I started using GetAccept, my sales process and communication with my prospects are way more project- and solution-oriented. They know where to find the content they need, and I can focus on providing solutions." Carolina Bräuninger, Senior Strategic Account Executive, Dealfront (67% decrease in sales cycle time) "If you haven't got something like GetAccept from a contracts perspective, but equally from a Deal Room perspective, then you're behind." Gavin Summer, Co-Founder, ScaleWise (51% increase in proposal-to-close rate) (edited)
Average Rating: 4.6/5.0
Total Reviews: 1,252
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"GetAccept: a daily productivity accelerator"
Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars
— Christelle A.
"GetAccept: A Game-Changer for Centralizing Sales Ops with HubSpot"
Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars
— Franck T.
Responsive is the global leader in strategic response management software, transforming how organizations share and exchange critical information. Our commitment to product innovation and customer success empowers companies to accelerate growth, mitigate risk and improve the employee experience by leveraging intelligent technologies to quickly and accurately manage RFPs, RFIs, security questionnaires (VSQs), due diligence questionnaires (DDQs), risk assessments and all other complex information requests (RFXs). With Responsive, frontline teams deliver superior responses by automating the completion of questionnaires, documents and spreadsheets while collaborating with stakeholders, improving processes with data insights, and quickly accessing approved content across popular business applications.
Average Rating: 4.5/5.0
Total Reviews: 1,300
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"Effortless RFP Management, Clean and Simple Interface"
Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars
— Jack P.
"Powerful AI and Document Management for better responses"
Rating: 4.0/5.0 stars
— Rui D.
Oracle CPQ Cloud (formerly BigMachines) helps businesses sell products, services, and solutions faster. Enable your sales reps and channel partners with the guideance they need to find the best solution for each customer. With the strength of Oracle Cloud infrastructure, you can be assured that this revenue gateway is enterprise-grade, performant, and secure. Oracle CPQ Cloud can be deployed stand-alone or in conjunction with leading CRM, eCommerce, Service, and ERP platforms to provide omni-channel customer experiences, while eliminating quote-to-cash friction.
Average Rating: 4.0/5.0
Total Reviews: 247
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"Oracle CPQ Simplifies Complex Sales with Powerful Guided Selling and Automation"
Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars
— Manisha Reddy K.
"Really Solid Tool to Simplify Quoting Process and Handle Highly Flexible Deal Structures"
Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars
— Jeannie E.
Make your competitors’ proposals look primitive with Qwilr. Send proposals, generate quotes, collect sign-off, and get paid – all in one place. Trusted by 5,000+ organizations including OpenTable, Thomson Reuters, Drata, Yale University and more, Qwilr helps sales teams close deals faster by turning static proposals and quotes into interactive, trackable web pages. With Qwilr, you can… Create impressive, interactive proposals: Engage buyers with dynamic proposals featuring videos, interactive pricing, calendar links and more Get deals closed faster: Get deals signed with legally-compliant e-signatures and collect payments instantly with our integrated payments solution, QwilrPay Track buyer engagement: See what your buyers view and click on, and use this to tailor your follow-ups. Get real-time alerts via Slack or email when buyers take action Keep every page consistently branded: Standardize your proposals, automatically applying your fonts and colors to every page Scale your process with automation: Connect Qwilr to Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive or Zoho and automate proposal creation. Improve team efficiency: Create reusable templates and content blocks, so that reps never start from scratch Thousands of sales teams use Qwilr to modernize their proposal process, impress buyers, and close deals faster. Try Qwilr free for 14 days: https://qwilr.com/
Average Rating: 4.6/5.0
Total Reviews: 900
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"User-Friendly, Time-Saving Quotes with Live Updates in Qwilr"
Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars
— Julie B.
"Flexible Drag-and-Drop Proposals, Great HubSpot Integration, and Stellar Support"
Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars
— Ryan P.
Anchor is the leading AR automation platform that gets service businesses paid on time, every time effortlessly. With no subscription fees, Anchor combines proposals, agreements, billing, and payments into one seamless workflow. Clients are auto-billed and auto-charged based on dynamic agreements, and everything syncs in real time with your general ledger. Designed for accountants, consultants, agencies, and service providers, Anchor eliminates manual billing tasks, reduces human error, and helps prevent revenue leakage. • Close deals faster with branded online proposals • Send flexible agreements that evolve with scope and terms • Automate billing: recurring, hourly, fixed, or one-time • Accept ACH or credit cards with adjustable fee settings • Collaborate via roles, permissions, and audit trails • Give clients a self-serve portal and automated reminders • Sync with QuickBooks Online, Xero and 5,000+ apps via Zapier Just $5 per payment. No subscriptions. No limits.
Average Rating: 4.9/5.0
Total Reviews: 123
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"Intuitive Proposals with Fast Setup and Built-In Invoicing"
Rating: 4.5/5.0 stars
— Jennifer H.
"All-in-One Proposal and Payment Solution"
Rating: 4.5/5.0 stars
— Emily H.
From lead to cash, Ignition transforms your sales, billing and payments process with seamless automation. Over 8,500 service-based businesses, including accounting, agencies, consulting and financial services, trust Ignition to sell, bill and get paid. ✓ Capture leads and manage your sales pipeline ✓ Fast track revenue with branded online proposals ✓ Get paid on time with automated invoicing and payments ✓ Reduce business risk with templated contracts ✓ Automate data collection with online forms ✓ Centralize and manage client billing in one place ✓ Keep track of projected revenue and cash flow ✓ Seamlessly increase pricing and renew proposals in bulk ✓ Connect apps to automate workflows
Average Rating: 4.7/5.0
Total Reviews: 122
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"Streamlined Proposals & Invoicing with Ease"
Rating: 4.5/5.0 stars
— Kevin L.
"All-in-One System That Simplifies Proposals, Engagement Letters, and Invoicing"
Rating: 4.5/5.0 stars
— Angela K.
DealHub AI is the Agentic Quote-to-Revenue (Q2R) platform designed for the AI era. We empower high-growth SaaS and forward-thinking enterprises to fully consolidate, automate, and accelerate their entire revenue lifecycle, from initial quote generation through final cash collection and revenue recognition. DealHub AI gives enterprises ultimate flexibility, enabling the rapid design, launch, and scale of any modern monetization model, such as Sales-Led Growth (SLG), Product-Led Growth (PLG), Self-Serve, Subscription, Usage-Based, and AI Consumption models. The unified platform replaces fragmented revenue tools, integrating critical capabilities into one orchestrated engine, including AI-Powered CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote), CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management), Subscription Management & Billing, Revenue Recognition, Digital DealRoom, and Composable API-first Headless Quoting. Enterprises choose DealHub AI to drive revenue at AI scale, leveraging real-time revenue visibility and predictability across all revenue streams via live ARR, usage, churn, and forecast dashboards. DealHub AI offers seamless, native integration with all leading CRMs, including Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and HubSpot, ensuring customers achieve faster time-to-value. DealHub AI is trusted by global revenue leaders, including Intuit, HP, Gong, and Braze.
Average Rating: 4.7/5.0
Total Reviews: 845
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"Great Tool Once You Get the Hang of It Helpful Platform for Sales Teams Easy to Use."
Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars
— Akash Y.
Rating: 4.0/5.0 stars
— Thomas C.
Loopio is a response management software designed to assist enterprise businesses in streamlining their response processes for Requests for Proposals (RFPs), Requests for Information (RFIs), Security Questionnaires, Due Diligence Questionnaires (DDQs), and other similar documents. This innovative solution leverages advanced machine learning technology, specifically its proprietary Response Intelligence™, to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the response process. By providing actionable insights and recommendations, Loopio enables users to work smarter, ultimately leading to the creation of more compelling proposals. Loopio caters to a diverse range of industries, including technology, finance, healthcare, and professional services. With Loopio, users can significantly reduce the time and effort spent on crafting responses, allowing them to focus on strategic initiatives and other critical business activities. Key features of Loopio include its intuitive user interface, a comprehensive content library, and robust collaboration tools. The content library allows users to store and organize previously used responses, making it easy to retrieve and adapt them for new proposals. Collaboration tools enable team members to work together seamlessly, ensuring that all stakeholders can contribute their expertise and insights. Additionally, the software's analytics capabilities provide valuable metrics on response performance, helping teams identify areas for improvement and optimize their approach over time. The benefits of using Loopio extend beyond mere time savings. Organizations that implement this software often experience a significant increase in the number of RFP responses completed, with some reporting up to a 51% improvement. Furthermore, users can save up to 42% in time spent on the response process, allowing them to allocate resources more effectively. Most notably, businesses leveraging Loopio have reported an 85% increase in their success rate for winning new business, underscoring the software's impact on overall performance and competitiveness in the market. With over 1,700 companies relying on Loopio to enhance their response capabilities, the software has established itself as a trusted solution in the realm of response management. By combining advanced technology with user-friendly features, Loopio empowers organizations to respond faster, improve the quality of their submissions, and ultimately secure more business opportunities.
Average Rating: 4.6/5.0
Total Reviews: 804
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"Reliable RFP platform with strong collaboration, but AI and content management still need work"
Rating: 4.0/5.0 stars
— Verified User in Financial Services
"Loopio has changed the way I respond to tenders"
Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars
— Jack W.
Jotform Sign is a powerful e-signature platform that combines digital signatures with built-in automation to streamline document workflows. Easily create, share, and collect legally binding e-signatures on any device — without writing a single line of code. Upload an existing PDF, choose from 800+ professionally designed templates, or build a custom document from scratch using Jotform’s intuitive drag-and-drop document builder. Designed for maximum flexibility, Jotform Sign is ideal for waivers, consent forms, lease agreements, sales contracts, onboarding documents, and any workflow that requires secure signatures. Customize every part of your document to match your brand by uploading your logo, selecting fonts and colors, and adjusting layout elements. You can also add multiple signers, define a step-by-step automated signing order, set access permissions, and personalize your email notifications. These automation tools help reduce manual tasks, prevent bottlenecks, and accelerate approval cycles. Jotform Sign works seamlessly across devices, so recipients can review and sign documents from their phone, tablet, or laptop with a smooth, user-friendly experience. Each document includes a detailed audit trail, ensuring compliance, transparency, and trustworthy record-keeping. Whether you’re handling waivers, agreements, contracts, consent forms, or internal approvals, Jotform Sign automates repetitive tasks and eliminates the slow, outdated steps of paper-based processes. All signed documents are securely stored and can be easily exported, organized, shared, or integrated with your existing workflows. By combining digital signatures with automation, Jotform Sign helps businesses reduce turnaround times, improve accuracy, and enhance the signing experience for clients, employees, and partners. Say goodbye to scanning, printing, and manual follow-ups — and manage your entire signature workflow online with a fast, modern, and reliable e-signature platform.
Average Rating: 4.7/5.0
Total Reviews: 1,692
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"The best e-signature solution for growing businesses"
Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars
— Christopher P.
"Easy to Use, Cross-Platform, and Reliably Boosts Workflow ROI"
Rating: 4.5/5.0 stars
— Raul R.
How do you 100× your content’s impact? RELAYTO is the AI-powered interactive content experience platform that turns every static PDF, PowerPoint, MP4, or image into a choose-your-own-path experience. Check out our own RELAYTO-powered buying journey that started as a conventional presentation here: https://rla.to/pitch In minutes, no code required, you can drag and drop files into our intuitive builder, layer in video, audio, forms, and CTAs, and publish a responsive microsite that feels more like Netflix than a flipbook. The result is an interactive sales-collateral hub, digital sales room, or secure proposal microsite that buyers binge on any device while they self-educate at their own pace. Behind the scenes, RELAYTO’s AI-driven content-engagement analytics capture 360° digital body language—page-level heatmaps, scroll depth, dwell time, replays, document heat-map insights, and intent scoring—delivering the PDF analytics legacy sales-enablement suites can’t. Real-time alerts surface high-intent viewers so revenue teams, account-based marketers, and customer-success managers can prioritize follow-up, shorten deal cycles, and prove content ROI with data-backed confidence. Security and scale come standard: create unlimited public or private interactive experiences, lock them down with granular permissions, SSO, watermarking, and compliance controls, or open them up with SEO-friendly embedding links across email, LinkedIn, HubSpot, Salesforce, your CMS, and anywhere a single link can travel. From AI-powered flipbook e-books and white papers to interactive pitch decks, proposal microsites, demo portals, and digital sales rooms, RELAYTO is the simplest way to transform boring documents into captivating, measurable experiences that boost engagement, conversion, and revenue. https://relayto.com/showcase
Average Rating: 4.7/5.0
Total Reviews: 455
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"RELAYTO AI Makes Interactive, Polished Presentations Quick and Easy"
Rating: 4.5/5.0 stars
— Cooper L.
"Transforming Static Content into Engaging Experiences"
Rating: 4.5/5.0 stars
— Connor D.
Dropbox DocSend helps business professionals like you to securely share and control the content that drives your business forward. Dropbox DocSend's powerful link-based system makes it easy to set security preferences for each stakeholder, receive notifications each time someone views your file, analyze content performance on a page-by-page basis, and create modern virtual deal rooms. With DocSend, business can offload administrative burdens and securely share the most impactful proprietary information faster. DocSend’s Virtual Data Rooms manage sensitive documents securely and gets team real-time deal insights, simplying the entire deal process from initial pitch to final signature. Join over 34,000 companies that rely on Dropbox DocSend to share and manage sensitive information.
Average Rating: 4.6/5.0
Total Reviews: 561
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"I didn't expect document analytics to be this useful"
Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars
— Yaroslav B.
"Docsend Makes Secure Document Sharing Simple with Helpful Viewing Insights"
Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars
— Muzammil M.
Flexible. Scalable. Embedded. Conga Composer transforms how businesses generate documents Disconnected systems and manual workflows make document generation slow, error-prone, and costly. Conga Composer streamlines this by embedding automated document creation into your existing tools. It supports multiple formats, merges data from any source, and scales effortlessly, empowering teams to deliver accurate, beautifully branded documents faster, with less effort and greater control. Conga Composer excels in document generation with key advantages: Launch Anywhere – Trigger document generation from buttons, flows, Apex, or external systems- no custom code needed. Multi-Format Support – Create Word, PDF, Excel, PowerPoint, and HTML email templates. Dynamic Content – Use conditional logic, charts, dashboards, rich text, and global currencies. High-Volume Ready – Supports large templates (25MB), merged outputs (250MB), and batch processing. Enterprise Scalability – Reusable templates and behaviors across departments and use cases. eSignature Integration – Seamless pairing with Conga Sign for end-to-end agreement workflows. Revenue Lifecycle Alignment – Only vendor that integrates doc gen into CLM, CPQ, and full revenue processes. Admin-Friendly Setup – Built for Salesforce admins and business users—no developer dependency. Proven Performance – Trusted by 8,000+ businesses; millions of documents generated monthly. Future-Ready – Monitoring AI trends to invest when enterprise-grade reliability is guaranteed. With these strengths, Conga Composer delivers a scalable, flexible, and automated solution for efficient document generation.
Average Rating: 4.4/5.0
Total Reviews: 847
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"Seamless Salesforce Integration with Outstanding Support"
Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars
— Verified User in Online Media
"Efficient Salesforce Document Generation with Consistent, High-ROI Reporting"
Rating: 4.5/5.0 stars
— Harshit S.
Proposify is the online proposal software that gives you control and visibility into the most important stage of your sales process. The close. From deal design to sign-off, get the confidence and flexibility to dominate deals. Create impressive sales documents that stay consistent and error-free. Receive the insights to scale your process, make timely engagements, and accurately forecast. Deliver a seamless sign-off experience for your customers and prospects. Features include a flexible and user-friendly design editor, electronic signatures, CRM integrations, data-driven insights, interactive pricing, content management, approvals, and so much more. If you're ready to give your sales team the competitive edge, visit our website or book a demo at https://www.proposify.com.
Average Rating: 4.6/5.0
Total Reviews: 1,116
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"Fewer duplicate documents and tighter control over what we actually promise clients"
Rating: 4.5/5.0 stars
— Miguel F.
"Easy Proposal System Creation Once Templates Are Set Up"
Rating: 4.5/5.0 stars
— Kevin T.
HoneyBook is a clientflow management platform designed for independent service businesses, such as photographers, venues, virtual assistants, wedding planners, and creative freelancers. The platform consolidates every stage of the client lifecycle into one place, from initial inquiry to final payment, allowing users to manage their operations without switching between multiple tools. Unlike generic CRM tools, HoneyBook offers a tailored experience that integrates lead capture, contracts, invoicing, scheduling, and client communication into a single platform. It includes AI-powered automation and customization features designed specifically for the workflows of service-based businesses. The target audience for HoneyBook includes service-oriented professionals who need a system to handle lead generation, client management, and payment processing. The platform is particularly relevant for those who operate in creative industries such as photography, event venues, graphic design, consulting, and virtual assistance, where client interactions and project management are central to running the business. Key features include: Branded lead forms and questionnaires that embed on any website, along with online scheduling, appointment booking, and automated follow-up sequences to convert inquiries into booked clients Online invoices with integrated payment processing, legally binding contracts with e-signatures, and customizable proposals that combine services, pricing, contracts, and payment in one document A visual project pipeline to track every client and job status, CRM and contact management to store client details and history, a branded client portal where clients can view documents and make payments, and automated workflows and task reminders to reduce manual follow-up HoneyBook integrates with over 40 third-party tools including Squarespace, Google Ads, Mailchimp, Zoom, and QuickBooks, allowing businesses to connect their existing tech stack. The platform is available on web and mobile. A 30-day free trial is available. No credit card required.
Average Rating: 4.5/5.0
Total Reviews: 240
AI-generated summary from verified user reviews
"Honeybook Feels Like a Virtual Assistant for My Business"
Rating: 4.5/5.0 stars
— Nikki M.
"Easy to Use, Affordable All-in-One Tool with Great AI Automations"
Rating: 5.0/5.0 stars
— Graeme R.
Proposal software provides features that streamline the process of writing, managing, and sending business proposals. In terms of helping with proposal writing, proposal software offers simple document builder interfaces that make proposals visually appealing as well as easy to read and follow. Some businesses spend countless hours manually building proposals whereas proposal software cuts that time down by providing proposal templates as well as drag and drop features to add visually appealing pictures and content. Proposal software also comes with e-signature integrations which allow customers to promptly scan the document and find the areas where they need to sign.
In terms of helping manage proposals, proposal software generally provides analytics and notification features that can help users track how clients interact with a proposal. This allows users to see how many times a client opened, viewed, or commented on a proposal. Additionally, both the customer and the business that sends the proposal can comment in the proposal if there are any questions the client has. This allows for easy conversation to happen rather than back and forth emails.
Cloud-based proposal software
Cloud products often operate under a SaaS model and are run over the internet (in the cloud). These are generally sold as a subscription and require a recurring payment, most often as monthly or yearly payments. Cloud-based proposal software offers the major advantage of real-time collaboration with the client. This way a company can share their proposal via the internet, then the client can comment in real time and the business can respond with answers. The alternative is downloading the proposal and that can require many back and forth conversations over email or a phone call
On-premise proposal software
An on-premise proposal software is often a one-time payment for a perpetual license. This type of solution is becoming less common across most software vendors as subscription models are taking over. However, for some businesses, an on-premises solution may make sense. For example, on-premises solutions give companies confidence that their servers are locked down and they don’t need to trust another company with their private data. This can make proposals more secure if the data is only being shared between the business sending and receiving the proposal.
The following are some core features within proposal software that can help users in various ways:
Document builder interface: Proposal software allows users to easily search and add features to a proposal with a document builder interface. This includes customizing the proposal with different templates, branding, and even media. This can be a huge factor in displaying a company’s value. For example, for a landscape or interior design firm, it will be extremely useful to provide videos and pictures displaying how effective their work is. This makes the proposal look clearer and more professional for other businesses.
Collaboration: Oftentimes, a proposal will need members across a variety of teams to jump in and provide expertise where it’s needed. Proposal software allows multiple users to work on the same document, which provides more visibility and support for each proposal. Users can also easily create, edit, and collaborate on supplemental documents, as well as track changes right within the proposal software.
Assembly and approval workflows: A huge benefit of proposal software is task and team management. This allows companies to automate workflows by routing documents to the correct individuals for adding content and approval.
Analytics: Proposal software provides companies with a variety of analytics tools. With engagement tracking features, teams can track who is looking at their proposal, how often, or for how long. Businesses can also use proposal effectiveness reporting. This allows users to see which pieces of content are performing the best and grants the user with custom reports and dashboards on proposal volume and acceptance. These analytics tools will help users craft more effective proposals in the future.
Other Features of Proposal Software: API Integrations, CPQ Integrations, Engagement Tracking Capabilities, Proposal Effectiveness Reporting Capabilities
Speeds up proposal time: Proposals are often a long, drawn-out process that can take months for businesses to complete. Proposal software reduces the time it takes to complete a proposal by automating plenty of repetitive tasks within the overall proposal process. This includes canned responses to familiar RFP questions, preexisting proposal templates, and automatic price quoting. These features, among others, allow businesses to spend less time on tedious tasks and focus on the overall quality of their proposal.
Improved collaboration: In addition to automation, proposal software aids in content management, team collaboration, and workflow management. With proposal software, employees can work on the document with their coworkers, assign tasks out to relevant teams, and track proposal deadlines.
Sales teams: Sales teams are a huge part of the proposal process. They are often the ones who must effectively communicate the value of a company’s work, and in doing such, they must respond to RFPs with effective answers. Proposal software allows the sales team to collaborate in real time on a proposal, which allows everyone to add their expertise. Proposal software also allows sales teams to speed up the entire sales process by giving the requesting company the ability to sign the proposal online. Furthermore, proposal software integrates with CRM software, which houses all necessary contact information that must be included in the proposal. This helps identify key stakeholders to include in the proposal.
Marketing teams: A proposal is an important marketing tool for most businesses. Proposal software allows marketing teams to take control over branding and use customizable templates to present proposals with a clear and professional look. Proposal software offers a variety of templates that can be used to play to a company’s strengths. This includes templates that market a company’s SEO, social media, content marketing, video production, and much more.
Proposal managers: Proposal managers can use proposal software to lead team efforts during the proposal process. WIthin proposal software, proposal managers can use project management tools to assign tasks and track the progression of the proposal. This helps keep teams focused and aware of proposal completion deadlines.
CPQ software: Configure, price, quote (CPQ) software helps companies automate the lifecycle of the quoting and proposal process, starting with the moment a customer supplies their needs in a company’s offering and ending with sending a detailed quote to the customer or prospect. This can be used as an alternative to proposal software as CPQ software offers many of the same features in addition to pricing features.
Related solutions that can be used together with proposal software include:
CRM software: Many proposal software solutions can integrate with CRM software. If a company uses a CRM, they can research proposal tools for potential integration with that CRM. Ensuring that proposal software integrates well with current systems or expanding the search to more complex systems that can manage proposals is key to choosing the right software.
CPQ software: Proposal software works hand in hand with CPQ software. When companies are crafting their proposals, they often need to send out detailed quotes in line with what they are offering. CPQ software helps companies pull accurate quotes and helps make the proposal process much smoother.
E-signature software: E-signature software gives users the ability to gather signatures on documents shared electronically, eliminating the need for physical documents to record signatures. This is a great tool to integrate with proposal software since most proposals require signatures from the requesting company
Shifting from legacy systems: Proposal software can store documents in their native format, such as Microsoft Word and Excel, PDF, or HTML. The way the existing systems of a company handle these file types, and their preferred document type, can be a potential roadblock when they transfer to using proposal software.
Virtually every business that has an enterprise sales team will, at one time or another, send out a proposal to another company. For this reason, proposal software can truly be utilized by businesses in nearly any industry that must tailor sales proposals to a client. While some proposal software are created for certain industries such as construction, education, healthcare, or financial services, most proposal software are industry agnostic and can be used across any industry that has an enterprise sales team.
Requirements gathering for proposal software is critical to ensure that the business is implementing a product that meets all of their needs. While some businesses are more focused on the aesthetic presentation of their proposals, other businesses might be more focused on the integration with e-signature software. Whatever a company’s requirements are it is always best to create a list of the must-have features that the business needs to consider purchasing proposal software.
Create a long list
Long lists are created by eliminating software options that do not provide critical functionality. To make a long list for proposal software, a buyer should look at the following functionalities and deem which products provide the necessary functionality:
Create a short list
Once a buyer has narrowed down their list from the above functionality, it’s important to prepare even more specific requirements. For example, if a company is in a certain industry, they should make sure that there is functionality that might help them create proposals for that industry. Likewise, if a company uses a certain CRM they should make sure that the proposal software integrates with that CRM.
Conduct demos
Demos are one of the most important stages in the buying journey. This allows a buyer to sit through an actual product demo and see if the product matches all of the requirements. To make sure the demo runs smoothly, users must ensure that the vendor has all of the requirements beforehand so they can showcase their features properly.
Choose a selection team
The selection team for proposal software should include at least one member from the enterprise sales team, customer success team, and marketing team. These are plausibly the teams that will use proposal software most often, and as such, they should have the most input on desired features of the proposal software.
Negotiation
When negotiating during the purchasing stage, the selection team should always strive to have implementation and ongoing support fees included in the cost. This way if any ongoing support is needed then businesses can always contact their customer success or support representative.
Final decision
After the negotiation stage is conducted, the final decision requires buy-in from everyone on the selection team. It’s important to get everyone on the same page to ensure that all requirements are met and the final decision is supported by everyone involved.
As with any software purchase, the price of proposal software can fluctuate based on a lot of things. The first thing that will affect pricing is the number of licenses or seats that a business needs to purchase. This essentially means the number of users that have access to the software with their own logins. For proposal software, this can range anywhere from $19 per user per month up to $70 per user per month. The more seats a user wants to purchase, the more they’ll have to pay.
The reason for the wide range in pricing per seat can be based on a variety of factors. For example, some proposal software is run on a model where the user is charged based on the number of proposals they want to use per month. While the most basic plans allow users to have five active proposals at a time, the highest-priced plans generally allow users to send an unlimited number of proposals per month.
Another factor that contributes to the price of proposal software is the features included. The lowest tiered plans may include basic features such as e-signature and templated proposals, where the most expensive plans include integrations with other software, analytics, and client input forms.
Below is the breakdown of the estimated time to ROI according to the review data on G2 as of December 18, 2020:
How is Proposal Software Implemented?
Implementing proposal software is generally a straightforward process. According to G2 review data as of December 18, 2020, 68% of users were able to implement and go live with proposal software in under a month. Generally, this process is broken down into a few key stages:
During this process, some users may find a stall in implementation time when it comes to software integrations. Some users like to implement their proposal software with other products in their software stack including CRMs, content management systems, payment processing, and more. This can be a lengthy process so businesses must be prepared for longer implementation times if they go this route.