Are You Ready to Get Your Deals Signed Quicker?
Written by Jan Visser on December 3, 2007. Leave a Comment on this Post.
If you find our posts useful, don't forget to subscribe to our RSS Feeds or Email Updates
“I thought we had an agreement.” Ever said that to a customer who just told you the deal was off?
Guess what - you probably did have a verbal agreement. But it’s irrelevant now.
The prospect changed his mind while waiting for your paperwork to finally arrive. Someone came in last minute with a better deal. Or better terms. Maybe a better story.
It doesn’t matter - you’re out. No ink on paper - no deal.
Online sales tools like EchoSign could have helped you get that signature quicker and perhaps even save the deal.
In many segments of today’s hyper competitive market, people expect something they can sign within 2 business days. Whether your printer broke, your team admin is on vacation or you missed the FedEx truck is irrelevant - if you can’t deliver, you lose. It’s often that simple.
Echosign provides an end-to-end workflow for rapid contract delivery, signing and archiving. When you’re registered up and you’re ready to get a contract signed, you (or an admin or your sales manager) can upload that customer agreement to a website or fax it in. Enter the customer’s email address and your prospect receives a PDF version of your contract as soon as it was sent.
Customers receive access to your contact online, add their electronic signature or print, sign and fax using a special cover sheet - and voila, Echosign takes care of the rest. Copies of the signed agreement are automatically routed to everyone involved (including, for instance, your boss, billing and contract departments etc) and archived in your EchoSign account. It really doesn’t get much easier than this.
EchoSign offers a free account for the occassional user and a $19.95 per user per month plan for unlimited sending and signing for your entire team.
Contracts signed in an hour or less! Just power up your laptop and you’ll have the deal wrapped up and your competion locked out in no time.
Their site offers a good demo, give it a try.
I use echosign. I have to say it’s a revelation, so easy to use and makes the contracts signing quicker, more auditable and more environmentally friendly too.
I understand there are different types of businesses with different demands, but do you really want to be in a business where the customer is that fickle whereby you cannot even blink an eye.
I’ve had my own sign company for the past 4 years and deal with customers that are stable and hold true to their word for the most part. Am I missing something?
Thanks,
Martin
toolkitforsuccess
Martin, you’re not missing anything - every industry, product and customer base has a different dynamic. The extent to which a prospect perceives you and your service as a commodity, will probably determine the amount of patience. But keep in mind, we’re not talking hours here - there’s businesses out there that can’t turn around a contract in less than 2 weeks or even more. I’d think that everyone gets a bit antsy at that point!
Bob, do you use a paid plan or the free service? How many agreements would you say you generate with EchoSign in any given period of time?
Got it. Thanks,
Martin
And if you’re in a small business competing against the big guys, who have to have contracts approved by the people upstairs, where upstairs represents some location elsewhere, there’s a tremendous advantage. Maybe waste management companies…uniform/textile rental companies…etc.
I have a paid plan, being in the UK it’s through a deal Echosign have got with BT our biggest telecoms provider. I pay £9.99 per month and probably have 10 contracts per month signed using it. However, when I say contract, I admit that I really use it more as a compliance solution.
Being in financial services there are usually always two documents that require a ‘wet signature’ and that is the application declaration and the direct debit mandate. These documents I usually still send out by regular post. All the other documents - of which there are many - are all for regulatory compliance purposes - i.e. fact finds, illustrations, product key features documents. These all have to be acknowledged by the customer.
Now if I was an unscrupulous salesperson, in a face to face situation, I could simply hand a customer a document opened at the page where the signature was required, say “sign here” and take it away without allowing the customer to read any small print.
With an e-signature solution, however, I am sending the customer the document remotely. They have to read all the documents before they can sign. Through the audit process I know when they opened it, how long they have been reading it and when they signed it. This means I know that I have given my customers ample opportunity to raise any questions about the product I am selling them and can prove that they read all the small print. Heck, if I didn’t think they had read the documents long enough, I could ask them to go, read and sign again!
I wonder if all US mortgage brokers had used e-signatures as the solution for their customer’s applications, whether we would be having all the problems with sub-prime ARM’s, where the devil was in the detail that the customer may not have had the opportunity to read?
After reading your response, I see it applicable with B to C contracts more than with small biz to large co. contracts. I’m a small biz and sell 50% to the Federal Gov (b/c I’m in DC) and 40% to large corporations and do not see the electronic signature as a strong plus. But when dealing with consumers, throw the book out the window.
Martin
toolkitforsuccess
Martin, electronic signatures are optional. You indicate whether an electronic or paper signature is required when you initiate the process. If ink on paper is required, you print the contract, sign and fax to a specific fax number while using a provided fax cover sheet. That inserts it into the workflow which then delivers copies, archives etc. If you’re interested, take the trial - gives you a more exact idea of how it works.