Most businesses focus on the upper stages of their sales pipeline. Their efforts prioritize steps like contact and nurturing and often miss the final stages of closing the deal.
Therefore, you lose visibility into the end stages of the funnel that lead to revenue generation. What if someone drops out from the bottom of the funnel? How do you track delays and bottlenecks in closing your deals?
This is where proposal management comes to the rescue. It allows you to control your proposals and track the progress of signing the deal.
However, it is better to rely on technology and use a proposal management tool. Moreover, integrate your CRM software with your proposal management solution for optimum outcomes.
Let’s explore more on the topic.
Why You Need CRM Software with Proposal Management
Proposal management is a multi-faceted process. It requires varied skills and often involves many team members working on a single proposal.
Businesses that respond to requests for proposals (RFPs) know their challenges. Therefore, they set up a standard process to manage proposals.
However, manual processes make you lose out on productivity and efficiency. Moreover, proposal management is often complex, with multiple steps for large businesses.
As a result, companies rely on proposal management software for overseeing and execution of proposals. It allows them to track the progress of workflows associated with the final stages of a sales funnel.
Most importantly, proposal management tools make proposal drafting easier. They come with readymade templates that you can customize to your needs.

Where CRM Software Comes In
A CRM is a powerful sales tool. It gives you actionable data to optimize and improve your sales processes. You can automate several workflows and save time, effort, and costs.
Best of all, CRM boosts your conversions leading to more sales.
However, a CRM often is not designed to send or manage proposals. Each tool in your tech stack has a purpose, and you cannot expect a single solution to meet your needs.
Therefore, you must create your tech stack with the right tools to get a solid infrastructure. The same happens when you integrate your CRM software with a proposal management tool.
The top benefit is end-to-end visibility of your sales process. You are able to monitor the final and essential stages of your sales funnel. It helps you stay on track and find out what’s happening to your proposals and prospects.
Benefits of Using CRM Software with Proposal Management Solution
A business can expedite its sales process and close more deals by linking tools in their tech stack. A few outstanding advantages of using CRM with proposal management software are:
Respond to RFPs Faster
A proposal management solution lets companies draft proposals faster. The sales team can customize pre-built templates and pricing packages to create proposals in minutes.
Integrating your CRM with your proposal management software can make the process quicker. You can fetch data directly from your CRM to populate your proposals with the latest information.
Moreover, your customer list is synced to provide relevant context. Proposal writers can facilitate research and get customer information.
Therefore, you can respond to RFPs quickly to secure more demos and deals.
Actionable Data
The data from your proposal management tool shows up on your CRM. You can automate the deal progression and track every step from your dashboard.
Moreover, the prospect moves seamlessly through the funnel as the deal reaches toward finalization.
Most importantly, you can create a single source of truth for your reps. They don’t have to switch between tools or manual processes to find the right information.
Everything becomes easy to work on without leaving your CRM. It reduces errors and goes a long way to boost productivity.
Improved Document Management
You may be able to store and keep a tab on all your sales documents using your proposal management tool. However, connecting it to your CRM brings better results.
All your deal papers and documents will have a central storage. You will be able to attach more documents as you go without losing track.
Everything will be visible once you choose the deal on your CRM. Therefore, using CRM with proposal management makes your reps jobs simpler.
Alerts and Notifications
You can execute proposals from your CRM when you sync your proposal management software with it. You can view tasks in your CRM timeline and any associated activities, such as:
- Proposal stages
- Comments
- Deals signed
- Disruptions in the process
Moreover, your CRM may allow you to set custom alerts for specific activities or tasks. You can get automated notifications to know if a proposal is opened or more information is requested.
Close Deals Faster
A proposal management tool adds velocity to the sales cycle. It reduces the time spent in manually drafting and tracking proposals.
A CRM quickens the process by bridging the gap in the process. You can maintain complete control on your leads, from breaking the ice to generating loyalty.
Moreover, you easily identify barriers and can take timely actions to make deals happen. Your sales cycles become faster, helping you close more deals efficiently.
Final Thoughts
Proposal management tools are ideal to automate and optimize the final stages of your sales funnel. Combining them with CRM software can open new possibilities and streamline the entire process.
Businesses can gain end-to-end visibility and monitor everything from contact to closing the deal. Moreover, you can expect quicker sales cycles with the ability to draft proposals faster with self-populated data. Additionally, you get actionable data to generate vital insights to improve your sales processes.
Last Updated on March 22, 2024 by soubhik