June 2019 Jim Rapoza Research Director

RR

E-SIGNATURE &INTEGRATED SALESTECHNOLOGIES:ACCELERATINGSUCCESS FORBUSINESSES &BUYERS IN 2019

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In this research report, Aberdeen explores the modern technology environment, in which e-signature has become a must-have solution for competitive sales teams and identifies how this technology can make a significant impact.

The Sales Finish Line: Who Struggles, Who Sprints?

What does it look like when a world-class runner wins a race?

Whether it’s a sprint or a marathon, the scene is often the same — a smooth, swift, in-control burst over the final stretch that shows strategy, skill, and speed, culminating in victory. While it may lack similar spectacle, a successful sale should follow the same pattern. Should, however, is the operative word. Figure 1 shows the top hurdles among all sales leaders surveyed by Aberdeen that can hinder the sales process.

Figure 1: Top Disruptions to Successful Sales

Leading sales organizations are 90% more likely to use e-signature

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Looking at this data, it’s apparent that one of the greatest challenges sales departments face is time. Sales reps having to work extra hours to close deals, missing information eating into workloads, and unnecessary delays in closing sales deals. Most sales reps have faced these unnecessary delays, with the most frustrating of all being a postponed closing due to delays in approval or a missing signature.

As this report is intended to explore the impact of e-signature and integrated sales technologies on sales performance, this context of late-stage ineffectiveness is critical to our discussion. As a solution that facilitates secure and binding digital or “electronic” endorsement of documents, e-signature is a proactive solution that directly addresses this late-stage struggle. While improving efficiency in the final stretch of the sales process is critical for businesses, the benefits of e-signature start on the buyer side.

Figure 2: Digital is the New Normal – Leading Organizations Build Buying Experiences Accordingly

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In Figure 2, the most considerable difference between leading sales organizations and their underperforming peers in terms of leveraging consumer-like technologies and practices helps validate the importance of seamless touchpoints throughout the sales process. Leading sales organizations are also 90% more likely to have already adopted e-signature to speed approvals and boost customer loyalty.

Even in complicated consumer purchases such as buying a home or purchasing an insurance policy, signing off on the transaction can usually be done via e-signature or a similar digital-signing solution; buyers now expect similar seamless signing experiences in their business-to-business (B2B) transactions. E-signature is not a luxury — it’s a necessary part of the typical buying experience that all savvy sales teams should be leveraging.

How E-signature Fits into the Sales Technology Landscape

Before looking at e-signature’s impact on business performance, it’s important to observe the goals that sales leaders across B2B firms aim to accomplish — Figure 3.

Figure 3: Top Priorities for B2B Sales Leaders

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The key takeaway from Figure 3 is that leading organizations are 2.5x more likely to focus on streamlining all proposal, contract, ordering, and sales approval workflows. This means that sellers are provided with technologies that streamline the process, from first creating a proposal to a delivering a finished, signed contract. Complementing all other digital experiences in the buying process, not to mention mobile touchpoints, as most e-signature platforms now operate on any device, e-signature allows deals to be “signed, sealed, and delivered” in concert with, and connected to, most other customer-facing tools.

As a case-in-point, consider e-signature’s impact on CRM. Traditionally, CRM has been a tool that aggregates sales activity data from sales reps and rolls it into reports supporting sales management in decision-making and planning.

Despite its wealth of benefits for the organization at large, for sales reps, CRM served a simple “use only as needed” role. If a conversation could be had outside of CRM documentation, or if a commission could be collected from a deal closed in-person, a sales rep would be less likely to backtrack and make sure such steps were captured in CRM. In other words, if CRM utilization posed any additional work, CRM data for sales leaders would remain incomplete, and the CRM’s utility to the business was destined to remain limited.

But with an e-signature / CRM integration, the easiest way for a rep to close a deal (and collect a commission) is through a one-click, auto-generated, field-populated e-signature workflow within the CRM. For the auto-generation element, all existing data in CRM can be used to select the right contract based on defined details for the opportunity. Additional CRM data on names, titles, proposed offerings, and prices can be filled in beforehand without generating extra work for the rep. Better use of the CRM earlier in the sales process streamlines the important final stretch for the seller.

With reps increasingly invested in the CRM, sales leaders can realize greater value from the insights produced by the system. Furthermore, with CRM as the system of record, other tools such as configure price quote (CPQ) platforms and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions can more conveniently customize and deliver offerings that are rolled up in — and signed off with — e-signature.

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From Principles to Performance: How E-signature Produces Winning Numbers

Based on the factors outlined above, it’s clear how e-signature works to improve sales performance. How, though, does e-signature work in the real world?

In Table 1 (below), we see how organizations utilizing e-signature gain a significant competitive advantage over peers that have yet to leverage this technology.

Table 1: E-signature in Action – A Consistent Source of Competitive Advantage

Sales departments using e-signature technology are:

E-signature is a connector for consistent, year-over-year revenue growth. A company’s revenue growth is usually driven not by one single tactic or strategy, but by a convergence of diverse efforts coming together as desired. E-signature users

65% more likely to see lower customer acquisition costs.

60% more likely to achieve increased annual company revenue.

55% more likely to gain annual improvements in attaining sales goals.

50% more likely to see a reduced average sales cycle.

50% more likely to gain annual profit margin improvements.

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grow revenue at a 60% greater rate year-over-year thanks to e-signature’s ability to streamline critical sales functions.

E-signature increases ease of customer acquisition. Earlier in this report, we made the connection between leading sales organizations facilitating consumer-like interactions via solutions such as e-signature. As e-signature users are 65% more likely to see lower customer acquisition costs, we see this trend reflected in measurable business results, too. While customers will, in theory, appreciate organizations that make it easy to be a customer, the data validates this theory.

E-signature helps ensure a stumble-free final stretch to closing deals. E-signature removes the hurdles and barriers that can complicate, torpedo, or significantly stall a sale. Therefore, we see that e-signature users are 50% more likely than their competitors to achieve a shorter sales cycle.

Key Takeaways

The impact e-signature adoption has on the entire dynamic between businesses and buyers is what makes it so critical for sales success. The simple, seamless, anywhere, anytime, any device capabilities of e-signature make buying a comfortable, quick, and convenient experience.

E-signature is only one piece of a digital buying landscape, but it’s a piece that makes the whole greater from being added to the sum of all parts. E-signature can help organizations get one step ahead of their peers in performance and service to buyers — and though that’s just one step in a marathon-like sales process, that step falls right at the finish — where it counts most.

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About Aberdeen

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