Traditionally, SDA automates outputs using content set up by your Administrator.  This allows users to automatically generate full proposals, SOWs, contracts and other documents dynamically based on the user’s selections in the SDA software.  Now there is another way to generate those outputs that allows the user to customize the content before they generate an output.  This is done using an Outline-Driven Tab.

Customized Proposals, SOWs and other Client Facing Docs

An Outline-Driven Tab allows users to decide what doc sections to include in their document outputs.  Plus, they can easily add other content to the outline like documents from a network drive, sections from the SDA Library, PDFs, images, text paragraphs and bullets, etc.  When the user generates their output document, all the content that the user has added to their outline is assembled into a single Word output document.

You can either provide your users with a blank Outline-Driven Tab and they can add all the content they want for their output or you can pre-populate the tab with standard content and users can select/unselect the content they want to include and also add new content.  You might even want to create a pre-populated tab for each of your solution offerings.

Your Admin can also set up your content to auto-calculate content like in the example below.  This formula turns the content on when the user chooses one or more leasing options in the Financing Tab.

Users can add the following content to an Outline-Driven Tab via the Insert Menu:

• Bullets
• Sub-Bullets
• Paragraphs
• Headings
• Doc Sections from your personal drive, network drive, SharePoint, SDA Library or Builder Content Library (within the RFP Response Builder module)
• Image Files
• Pricing Schedule
• Excel named Range/Chart

Watch this Video to see this in action!

When to Use an Outline-Driven Approach

• Scenario 1:  You want your users to have the ability to customize their sales documents.
• Scenario 2:  Your vendor has PDF data sheets that you want to include in your proposal.
• Scenario 3:  Your company has a new offering but you don’t want to take the time to add that content to the SDA Library.  For example, you might want to quickly add a document that shows the value of the new offering and a different contract that needs to be signed for the new solution.
• Scenario 4:  You are selling a cloud solution.  The vendor has an online tool that generates a proposal that you want to embed in your own proposal that has your branding and includes other solutions you offer.  You can easily insert the vendor’s proposal inside your proposal.

Benefits of Outline-Driven Docs

• Its quicker – generating an output from an Outline-Driven Tab is faster than the traditional approach.
• Easy for users to customize – the traditional method of generating an output is controlled by the way SDA is setup for your organization, with certain Doc Sections triggered to generate depending on user selections. By using the outline-driven approach, the output is controlled by the user.  For example, a user can pull in a customer-specific PDF network diagram by inserting a reference to the file (stored in a shared location like SharePoint) within the outline.
• Easy to update content – Some customers do not have the time to update their documents in the SDA Library. Using the outline-driven approach allows an organization to update those documents outside the library so that, when an output is generated from the outline, the updated content is included.
• Calculated content – Admins can still use Excel formulas to turn content on/off in the outline based on user selections or other conditions.
• Easier to manage content – Admins can easily make changes to what content is generated by adding/deleting them from the outline templates. They don’t need to do this in the SDA Library.

Want to take action?  Contact your CorsPro representative or support@corspro.com to get started.

For More Information:

• See User Instructions on How to use an Outline-Driven Tab
• See it in Action – watch video

The post Generate Outline-Driven Proposals and SOWs with SalesDoc Architect appeared first on CorsPro.

Easy to Use.

RFP Response Builder works within Word and Excel, making it easy to use and quick to learn for your users.  You can respond directly within the RFP by double-clicking to add content from the library.  No more endless searching through old RFPs for an answer you’ve already provided or spending countless hours reformatting the content.  You can also create standard templates for stand-alone RFP Responses that let you pull together specific responses using standard cover pages, company info, etc.

Easy to Manage.

Library content is managed through user roles.  Specified users are allowed to quickly add content by highlighting the content in Word, clicking the Add button and (optionally) assigning categories to the new content.  Managing content has never been easier.  You can sort content by modified date so you can see when content needs to be updated or refreshed.  Users can also submit content for review which flags the administer(s) to review the content.

Quick to Get Started.

Unlike a lot of other RFP Response software and tools, RFP Response Builder is easy to implement and learn.  Content is kept in a Builder Library that all users have access to.  Adding content to the library is a breeze, and getting started is super-easy: you might simply start by adding new content to the library while you are responding to your next RFP, then easily categorize your content at a later time.  We chose simplicity and speed over a fancy 3rd party interface. RFP Response Builder’s features and functionality are built into the tools you use every day, so user adoption is maximized.

For More Information:

• See an Overview of RFP Response Builder
• Watch how the Excel tool generates an RFP response from an outline
• Learn more about Benefits and Features of RFP Response Builder

The post RFP Responses Made Easier appeared first on CorsPro.

If you aren’t auto-saving your SDA quote and output files, you should be.  You can save time and gain consistency in your quote/output file names – and the folders or SharePoint sites where they are stored – using the auto-naming and auto-saving features of SDA.  These features can be turned on by your Architect Manager (or SDA Admin) at no additional subscription cost. Start reaping the rewards with this functionality today!

Without SDA’s auto-saving functionality, SDA users often end up with folders full of SDA quote files named “Quote1”, “Quote2”, etc. or they “lose” their quotes if they are saved to a non-standard location, which happens when they’re in a hurry.  And when files are not saved to a central location, then collaboration is difficult.  SDA can help.

Benefits of Auto-Saving

• Enables collaboration so that team members can work together on files and projects
• Automates file naming and file saving (i.e., where to save files) for quotes and outputs (proposals, SOWs, etc.), saving time and reducing file naming/saving errors
• Integrated with the SDA Dashboard, providing easy access to all files associated with sales opportunities and quotes
• Integrated with Microsoft Office so that, for example, files can be modified online or at the desktop
• Combine Auto-Saving with our SharePoint integration – available with all Microsoft 365 subscriptions – so that you can:
  • Pull and/or insert always up-to-date content from SharePoint for proposals, SOWs, RFPs and other documents
  • Send proposals to customers or prospects for e-signature with SharePoint-integrated add-on solutions like DocuSign or Adobe Sign
  • Access SharePoint capabilities including versioning, history, workflow, check-out/check-in features, flexible permissions, two-level Recycle Bin, and controls that prevent accidental file deletion or moving

To address the document management confusion, you can customize SalesDoc Architect so that the information contained within the quote file (such as customer name, site description, your name, etc.) can be used to automatically name the quote file and save it to a specific folder on the network or SharePoint site simply by clicking SAVE. No more browsing for folders or manually typing in file names.

Using auto-saving and auto-naming saves you time, ensures consistency and makes it easy to quickly find the quote files you need. It also simplifies your quote file management and maintenance tasks (such as file backups), provides company-wide access to quote files, and enables your organization to take full advantage of the SDA Dashboard management tool and (if you subscribe to Microsoft 365) SharePoint.

Other Features that Rely on Auto-Saving:

SDA’s auto-saving functionality does more than just name and save your files; it enables you to incorporate other functions into the “file save” process.  You can…

• Auto-Prompt for the correct version number – prompt your users to enter a quote version number via a pop-up dialog
• Use Workflow Rules to prevent file save operations if certain conditions are not met
• Automate your Approvals process
• Leverage SharePoint document management capabilities and take Auto-Saving to the next level

How to Get Started

Architect Managers (AMs) can define quote and output file naming and folder saving schemes so that files are auto-saved to a company-specific folder structure or SharePoint site schema using a consistent file naming scheme.  Using Excel formulas, SDA “calculates” – using data pulled from the quote file – the filenames and network/local folders (and SharePoint sites) to which files should be saved.

Auto-Saving Options:

• Network: Auto-Saving to your network gets you many of the benefits of this feature – Learn More!  Also see steps for setup for AMs.
• SharePoint: Auto-Saving to SharePoint gives you full access to all of SharePoint’s benefits plus the advantages that come with the integration with SDA.  Learn More!  Also see steps for setup for AMs.

Auto-Saving to Network vs. SharePoint

There really isn’t a contest.  Auto-Saving to SharePoint opens up a host of features and add-on applications that saving to your Network doesn’t provide.  Plus, saving to the Network requires VPN access; SharePoint is cloud-based so saving files does not require network access.  Read more about the benefits of Auto-Saving with SharePoint.

Want to learn more about how CorsPro can automate and streamline your complex sales process? Drop us a line at Contact@corspro.com or visit our website at www.corspro.com/contact-us.

This article contains content about features or functionality that clients can implement on their own.  If clients need training, design or implementation assistance, our normal labor rates will apply.

The post The Power of Auto-Saving in SDA appeared first on CorsPro.

In our previous articles (article 1 and 2 in 3-part series) we have addressed the concerns about doing statements of work (SOW) the old way and the benefits of using Dynamic Discovery in SalesDoc Architect (SDA). In this article we’ll take a look at how this looks from the sales person’s perspective.

Take a closer look at discovery-driven automation in action!

You could be getting better statements of work for free!
All of this functionality is included with your SDA subscription.

Benefits for sales people using SDA Generated SOWs

• I don’t get myself in trouble due to items that should or should not have been included in the SOW; this eliminates mistakes that I used to make
• Putting my statements of work (SOWs) together is so much easier now
• An SDA-generated SOW is a selling tool that sets us apart from our competition
• Now we can deliver customer-specific and project distinct information in our SOWs
• For managers, everyone is on the same page; we no longer have an issue with everyone doing it their own way
• My customers understand what we are doing and what we are not doing, and the expectations are clearly set

The Dynamic Discovery Tab

In SDA, content for the SOW is automatically generated based on responses to discovery questions on a Dynamic Discovery tab.  The Dynamic Discovery tab is divided into sections that make sense for your business. Users make selections (e.g. include/don’t include, etc.) and enter information as needed based on the project specifications. The user selections and entries on the left side trigger the text on the right side that should be included in the SOW (indicated by a check mark). This makes it easy for users to see what is and what is NOT included in the SOW. These selections and entries can also drive labor estimates (optional).

Sample Dynamic Discovery Tab

Insert Function

SDA’s Dynamic Discovery functionality enables users to dynamically insert text, documents and even graphics so that the statement of work for a specific customer can be customized beyond the “templated” content. Users can insert additional custom content into the SOW including:

• Bullets and sub-bullets
• Paragraphs
• Headings, which are formatted in Word according to Word’s heading styles
• Images such as network diagrams
• Doc files (from SharePoint or a shared network location)
• PDF files, which inserts images of each PDF page into a Word output page, with images sized to either fit the entire page or to fit within the margins

How to Get Started

All of this functionality is included with your SDA subscription.  So, what do you need to get started? Reach out to your CorsPro representative or contact support@corspro.com to get started. We will provide you with the tab template that you can use as the starting point to customize with your own information.

Get all of these great features with SDA’s Dynamic Discovery:

• Parts and quantities can be calculated based on the selections made on the tab
• Users can add notes, paragraphs, bullets, and sub-bullets to the tab that will auto-output to the Word-based SOW document
• Users can incorporate document files, graphics or PDF files; for example, you might add manufacturer information on the fly by inserting a document file, or you might insert a network diagram image
• Labor can be auto-calculated based off of user choices

Want to learn more about how CorsPro can automate and streamline your complex sales process? Drop us a line at Contact@corspro.com or visit our website at www.corspro.com/contact-us.

This article contains content about features or functionality that clients can implement on their own.  If clients need training, design or implementation assistance, our normal labor rates will apply.

The post The Benefits for Sales People using Better Statements of Work appeared first on CorsPro.

In our previous article (article 1 in a 3-part series) we talked about how generic, boiler-plated statements of work (SOWs) aren’t the way to go. Now let’s take a closer look at how you can use SDA’s Dynamic Discovery automation to put those SOW woes behind you so that you can easily and quickly generate detailed, custom-fit SOWs.

Take a closer look at discovery-driven automation in action!

SDA Dynamic Discovery accumulates all the important information – including requirements – and then (here it the best part!) assembles those results automatically into a professional SOW in Microsoft Word.  Using the right up-front discovery questions, you can collect all the necessary details and your users can document the information in one place (in a SDA Quote File) with concise language and a clear set of expectations for the customer.

Pain Management

Using a familiar Excel interface, each SDA Dynamic Discovery sections steps you through the information that needs to be gathered from the customer.  This collected data is automatically fed into pricing and labor calculations and the content of the SOW and other documents you generate from SalesDoc Architect.

Example:

Let’s say your customer is going to handle their own data network for the implementation.  By selecting “Customer” from the “Data network manager” drop-down, labor wouldn’t be added for managing the network.  In addition, the SOW would automatically include language stating that the customer is responsible for the network, and this selection could also trigger a Network Assessment waiver form to generate.

Sample Dynamic Discovery Tab

As we know all too well, quotes are rarely “one and done”. New information is always being uncovered throughout the process.  With SalesDoc Architect, that’s not a problem. By modifying the selections in ONE PLACE on the Dynamic Discovery tab, all calculations (labor, pricing, etc.) and SOW output content will update automatically. So, if your customer decides that it would be a better idea to have you handle the network, you aren’t stuck recalculating labor and pricing and rewriting the proposal and SOW.

Save Time and Your Sanity

By using SDA’s Dynamic Discovery automation, you are also able to easily repeat back to the customer (in the SOW) the discovery information you’ve gathered from them.  This demonstrates that you are diligently considering their current environment, needs and objectives when recommending the best solution.  With discovery-driven SOW automation, you…

• Save Time
  By letting the Dynamic Discovery do most of the work for you
• Increase Customer Satisfaction
  By setting the right expectations up front in a well prepared, customized statement of work
• Drive More Sales
  By spending more time on customer interactions and less time on “the process”

How to Get Started

All of this functionality is included with your SDA subscription.  So, what do you need to get started? Reach out to your CorsPro representative or contact support@corspro.com to get started. We will provide you with the tab template that you can use as the starting point to customize with your own information.

Get all of these great features with SDA’s Dynamic Discovery:

• Parts and quantities can be calculated based on the selections made on the discovery tab
• Users can add notes, paragraphs, bullets, and sub-bullets to the tab that will auto-output to the Word-based SOW document
• Users can incorporate document files, graphics or PDF files; for example, you might add manufacturer information on the fly by inserting a document file, or you might insert a network diagram image
• Labor can be auto-calculated based off of user choices

Want to learn more about how CorsPro can automate and streamline your complex sales process? Drop us a line at Contact@corspro.com or visit our website at www.corspro.com/contact-us.

This article contains content about features or functionality that clients can implement on their own.  If clients need training, design or implementation assistance, our normal labor rates will apply.

The post Build Better Statements of Work in less time with SDA appeared first on CorsPro.

If you find that your statement of work (SOW) process is way too painful, you are not alone. Lots of companies are shifting away from boiler-plated, generic SOWs and moving to a document that provides a detailed description of the deliverables. But they are finding that building a meaningful SOW is painstaking and takes way too long.

Learn more about it in this video!

Custom Scopes of Work – while providing better details – do have their drawbacks:

• It takes too long to put custom scopes of work together
• Mistakes are easily made when you are cutting and pasting information
• It’s hard to remember all the things you need to include
• Each person in your organization does it a little differently

SDA CAN Help!

Avoid SOW pitfalls by delivering a document that protects you and your customer. Let your discovery process drive your complex technology proposals and statements of work.  Watch this video to see how CorsPro’s SalesDoc Architect uses all-at-once automation to create customized proposals and detailed statements of work.

From Start to Finish

What’s the best way to safeguard that your discovery process will drive a solid statement of work? By automating it. With CorsPro’s SalesDoc Architect, you can program questions, rules and workflows to ensure that all statement of work questions and issues are addressed in advance. The answers to the pre-programmed discovery questions become the basis of the statement of the project to be provided, which is then communicated in the proposal and statement of work that you deliver to your customer.

Furthermore, when using an automated process, answers to discovery questions can drive configuration logic that auto-calculates the required labor hours. Answers to discovery questions not only build your proposal but also your statement of work. Using the example of a communication solution, discovery answers automatically build the type of communication solution required, including number of users, required labor AND equipment and licenses. Your statement of work should reflect this information, therefore providing an accurate description of the project’s scope.

All-At-Once Automation

Discovery-driven automation takes all the information related to customer requirements, needs, areas of pains, etc., then compresses it and all-at-once automates several steps so you can:

• Drive customer-specific labor and material pricing based on answers to discovery questions
• Auto-generate documents like proposals and statements of work
• Easily change pricing and proposal/SOW documentation
• Modify information in one place, instead of modifying the same information in several places as is the case without automation
• Feed content to your executive summary, post-discovery customer emails, proposals, and SOWs

Using a familiar Excel interface, SalesDoc Architect’s discovery module steps you through the information that needs to be gathered from the customer. Next, the collected data is automatically fed into calculations that auto-configure products, services and labor, and then into the content of the documents you generate from SalesDoc Architect.

For example, let’s assume that during the discovery phase you find out that the customer is going to handle their own data network for the implementation, meaning you don’t need to add any additional data networking labor to the labor total. By selecting “Customer” as the answer to the “Who will manage the network?” question, SalesDoc Architect automatically includes SOW language stating that the network is the customer’s responsibility.

Included with all SDA Subscriptions

All of this functionality is included with your SDA subscription.  So, what do you need to get started? Reach out to your CorsPro representative or contact support@corspro.com to get started. We will provide you with the tab template that you can use as the starting point to customize with your own information.

Want to learn more about how CorsPro can automate and streamline your complex sales process? Drop us a line at contact@corspro.com or visit our website at www.corspro.com.

This article contains content about features or functionality that clients can implement on their own.  If clients need training, design or implementation assistance, our normal labor rates will apply.

The post Use SDA to Ease the Pain in Your Statement of Work Process appeared first on CorsPro.

Less than 50% of technology resellers provide customers a statement of work (SOW). And for those that do, the SOWs often only list generic services and legal terms. If you really want to set yourself apart from the competition and maintain healthy project margins, shut down scope creep in its tracks with a well thought-out, customized statement of work.

Got 2 minutes? Click to watch this short video to see how discovery questions can drive a winning SOW.

The End Game Begins with the First Step

Many people think that because the SOW describes the implementation details – what happens after the sale is complete – they can complete this document later in the sales process, or perhaps after the deal is sold. This is a crucial mistake, and an expensive one. The details of a SOW begin with the first questions asked during the discovery process. Pre-sales mistakes lead to post-sales pain. If you are experiencing shrinking project margins, numerous change orders, or customers complaining about “nickel and diming” them, the fault may reside in an insufficient discovery process.

A good discovery process identifies customer needs and issues along with requirements and constraints. It becomes the catalyst to designing the proper solution, accurately calculating implementation labor, and confirming and communicating expectations. You’re already doing discovery … but are you taking a long-term view toward the end game? Are you only scratching the surface and merely learning your customer’s wants, or are you digging deeper to uncover what they actually NEED and planning ahead for what that entails? Are you ASSESSING or are you GUESSING?

Gone are the days of selling “boxes” and “speeds and feeds”. We live in an age of applications, which require a greater understanding of customer needs, specifics of the proposed software, and how the application will be configured. In the world of selling complex, custom-fit applications, the SOW is becoming even more important to closing the sale.

Make your discovery process your secret weapon to more profitable sales. In 2 minutes we’ll show you how – click to watch this short video.

Let your discovery process drive your complex technology proposals and statements of work. Watch how CorsPro’s SalesDoc Architect uses all-at-once automation to create customized proposals with an integrated statement of work

You Know What They Say About When You “Assume”…

Many sales organizations face numerous challenges during implementation, including…

• Mis-configured solutions
• Under-estimated labor
• Unclear customer requirements, constraints & responsibilities
• Unclear project scope, leading to scope creep
• Dissatisfied customers because you can’t deliver on your promises – leading to poor referrals and lost future sales

Without a thoroughly defined scope of work, the customer can only assume what you’ll be providing, leading to misunderstandings that can end up being very costly to the solution provider. If expectations are not set properly, your implementation team may believe they are delivering only one or two software features, while the customer may think they are getting “everything”. A customized statement of work identifies both what IS included and what IS NOT included in the sold solution. In addition, the SOW details who is responsible for what. For example, the customer will know he’s responsible for having a properly configured network in place prior to your laying a communication solution on top of it.

From Start to Finish

What’s the best way to safeguard that your discovery process will drive a solid statement of work? By automating it. With the right tools – like CorsPro’s SalesDoc Architect – you can program questions, rules and workflows to ensure that all scope of work questions and issues are addressed in advance. The answers to the pre-programmed discovery questions become the basis of the scope of the project. It then defines the solution to be provided, and is communicated in the proposal and statement of work you deliver to your customer.

Furthermore, when using an automated process, answers to discovery questions can drive configuration logic that auto-calculates labor hours. Answers to discovery questions not only build your proposal but also your scope of work. Using the example of a communication solution, discovery answers automatically build the type of communication solution required, including number of users, required labor AND equipment and licenses. Your statement of work should reflect this information, therefore providing an accurate project scope.

All-At-Once Automation

Discovery-driven automation takes all the information related to customer requirements, needs, areas of pains, etc., then compresses it and all-at-once automates several steps so you can:

• Drive customer-specific labor and material pricing based on answers to discovery questions
• Auto-generate documents like proposals and statements of work
• Easily change pricing and proposal/SOW documentation; modify information in one place, instead of modifying the same information in several places as required without automation
• Feed content to your Executive Summary, post-discovery customer emails, proposals, and SOWs

Using a familiar Excel interface, SalesDoc Architect uses its discovery module to step you through the information that needs to be gathered from the customer. Next, the collected data is automatically fed into calculations that auto-configure products, services and labor, and then into the content of the documents you generate from SalesDoc Architect.

For example, let’s assume that during the discovery phase you find out that the customer is going to handle their own data network for the implementation, meaning you don’t need to add any additional data networking labor to the labor total. By selecting “Customer” as the answer to the “Who will manage the network?” question, SalesDoc Architect automatically includes SOW language stating that the network is the customer’s responsibility.

Conclusion

Asking the right questions up front positively impacts the sale and implementation of your solutions. Don’t short-change the discovery process. This crucial first step can – and should – drive the immediate next steps and final steps, ideally with all-at-once automation, and feed directly into your proposal and statement of work. The discovery process lays the foundation for a long-term customer relationship, showcases your expertise, and protects both you and your customer from costly misunderstandings and delayed implementations.

For more information about this post or any other CorsPro functionality, click here to email us.

The post Increase Sales Margins with Discovery-Driven Scopes of Work appeared first on CorsPro.

Learn the 3 challenges to SaaS configuration changes. Click here to download your free infographic.

But there’s a problem for those providing digital transformation solutions and services. As SaaS solutions have matured, they’ve become increasingly complex. And with that complexity comes the reality that even seemingly minor configuration changes can wreak havoc from pre-sales all the way through operations to your bottom line.

So many sales and operations teams are making the mistake of trusting traditional configuration management for their SaaS solutions. Without modernizing and automating project configuration management (PCM), you’re putting your bottom line at serious risk.

3 Configuration Change Challenges for Sales and Operations

Traditionally, the SaaS sales and operations model hinged on deep collaboration and manual processes. Your sales team works to understand the needs of prospects and sell services accordingly. Those needs are handed off to engineers for configuration. And once the services are deployed, your operations team works to maintain client satisfaction and collaborate with engineers to make ongoing configuration changes.

But manually coordinating configuration changes both large and small can result in significant challenges for your sales and operations teams, including:

• Getting Quotes to Clients Quickly: All your sales team wants is a simple and quick quote to deliver to prospects. But with increasingly-complex SaaS solutions, they’re constantly being asked discovery questions from engineers trying to get a handle on what must be included in each quote. The sales team becomes an intermediary between customers and engineers that leads to delays in delivering quotes, pushing prospects to your competitors.
• Minor Changes, Major Problems: It’s up to sales and operations to make sure prospects and customers are getting the services they want/need. And sometimes that means making configuration changes at the last minute. What started as service for 500 phones gets updated to 525 phones by a salesperson trying to close the deal. That may not seem like a major change to sales—but on the backend, the configuration change can impact licenses, network integrity, and other technical aspects of the SOW and inevitably degrade service quality.
• Inaccurate Configurations: When configuration management is manual, ensuring engineers are working off of the right information can be a challenge. Half the time, services go into effect with configurations that don’t match the services promised to a customer. Even if you have processes in place for discovery and qualification, engineers can see ambiguity that leads to inaccurate configurations.

The top-line impact of these challenges is that you’ll have unsatisfied prospects and customers that believe that you did not deliver on your promises. Whether a prospect gets frustrated by the time it takes to receive a quote or customers aren’t given the services they expect, these top-line consequences of poor configuration change management will lead to bottom-line costs that quietly hurt your business.

The Impact of Configuration Changes on Your Bottom Line

For all the benefits of a SaaS model, the transition away from traditional hardware-based services puts real pressure on your margins. In the past, you could sell $150,000 worth of hardware with high margins on installation services. Now, those same services come in a software package at a fraction of the cost to customers, compressing your margins in the process.

The services included alongside your SaaS packages mean everything to your bottom line. Configurations are based entirely on the pricing and scope of the work described by sales and operations. Upselling a customer on a new product feature or service is great—but only if that upsell is accompanied by the appropriate configuration change. And all too often, you end up providing services that were never rolled into the pricing for the original configuration.

Over-delivering on services can mitigate some of the top-line consequences of poor configuration management. But these gains for customers come at the expense of your profit margins.

CorsPro can help you better control config changes.

Click here to set up a time to talk.

The high costs of poor configuration management for complex SaaS products often lead sales and operations leaders down one of two paths. On one hand, you can give your sales teams free reign to quote prospects accordingly. But this results in inaccurate quotes and revenue losses as you set unclear expectations with customers.

The other path is to set strict rules for the sales process. In theory, this path could help ensure operations teams receive detailed discovery information that leads to accurate configurations. However, if the discovery and qualification processes become too complex, you risk having sales focus their efforts on lower-value, easier-to-sell products.

Rather than trying to choose between these two less-than-ideal approaches to configuration management, you can automate the end-to-end process and protect your bottom line.

Solve Configuration Management Challenges with Smart Discovery-Driven Automation

It’s tempting to point fingers when configuration changes start to negatively impact customer satisfaction and your bottom line. Sales focuses on the frustrating discovery and qualification processes while operations say they weren’t given all the necessary information. But finger-pointing isn’t going to help you sell more of your high-value SaaS solutions.

Customers are looking to hire experts. They want to believe that you have all the answers and that you’re asking all the right questions to ensure you’re delivering a configuration that will maximize their results. Meeting those needs means simplifying and automating project configuration management.

By employing a software solution that uses smart automation – beginning at the earliest discovery stages – you can tie all components of an SOW and proposal together and ensure that any configuration changes are documented and carried through to the final product. Discovery-driven automation will use workflows as its starting point for configuration management. With SalesDoc Architect from CorsPro you will:

• Drive solution configurations based on answers from the beginning of the sales process
• All-at-once automate solution configurations, including labor, software, licenses, and professional services
• Turn your quote file into the central receptacle for configuration, labor, output content, etc. Changes to the quote are programmed to flow through to update application settings, hardware requirements, labor hours, pricing, professional services. and documentation.

Watch how you can use discovery-driven automation for your technology proposals and statements of work with SalesDoc Architect. Or for a deeper dive, contact us to schedule a live demo of SalesDoc Architect.

For more information on this blog post or any other CorsPro functionality, please click here to email us.

The post Configuration Changes: The Silent Threat to Your Bottom Line appeared first on CorsPro.

Learn how automating 4 areas of the sales process can drive better margins. Click to download our guide.

Now, 43% of available jobs in the tech industry are non-technical roles like sales and marketing as companies work to differentiate themselves.

And whether you’re a value-added reseller, an integrator, or a service provider, you’re not immune to these trends. Unfortunately, digital transformation trends have made your traditional proposal-based sales process less effective.

To maximize your profits, you need to embrace the new sales king—statements of work.

Get to the Heart of the Matter with your Statement of Work

If you look back 10 or 15 years ago, statements of work (SoWs) were almost entirely geared toward operations teams. They were cookie-cutter, contractual outlines of the systems that would be implemented and the expectations for the project.

And while the operations team focused on creating detailed SoWs, you and your sales team focused on closing deals with proposals. But times have changed, and your proposals are no longer enough.

Rather than trying to force your proposal process to fit the new tech landscape, it’s time to take advantage of SoWs and address four key trends.

1. From What to How

Traditionally, SoWs explained the “what” of your project—the hardware to be installed and the timing expectations. But in a world of cloud solutions and applications, your deals are more about professional services than physical equipment.

Unlike your typical proposal, a SoW dives deeper into the scope of work around the software licenses you’ll be providing. By explaining the context of your professional services, you’ll be able to differentiate your business and create a lasting impression with prospects.

2. Need for Speed

In the past, it wasn’t uncommon for sales teams to send 60+ page proposals for business. Prospects may have grown accustomed to bloated, unnecessary proposal templates. But in the era of digital transformation, your prospects don’t have the patience for traditional proposals.

With a statement of work, you can get right down to brass tacks. It’s an opportunity to create a concise, customized document that worries less about marketing your brand and focuses more on explaining your unique approach. The faster you can show how you provide better onboarding, migration, and support services, the easier it will be to close deals.

3. Trust in the Sales Process

No matter the purchase, buyers are always looking for two things—to trust their vendors and reduce uncertainty. High-level proposals that focus too much on marketing often generalize the scope of your project. You might close the deal, but you’ll lose profits when the operations team experiences issues during implementation. These issues can impact margins as well as your organization’s overall profitability.

A detailed SoW eliminates these concerns. You lay out the expectations for the end-to-end process—from sales to onboarding, implementation, support, and any professional services in between. When prospects understand exactly what you’re offering, you’ll earn more trust than with a traditional proposal.

4. Optimizing Profit Margins

Profit margins were clear when deals were hardware-based. You sold $250,000 worth of equipment, had a standard implementation process, and could expect a predictable profit margin. But with professional services driving the bulk of modern software deals, it can be difficult to balance your need to exceed customer expectations with attempts to optimize profit margins.

Statements of work keep the scope of any project in check. Without clear SoWs, you could make mistakes in labor or product configurations that lead to similar projects being priced differently from customer to customer. You’ll be closing deals while leaving money on the table due to erratic profit margins.

Click to download our guide to learn how discovery + automatiomation = better SoWs and margins.

Embracing statements of work instead of traditional proposals will help you address each of these trends and contribute to a more profitable business. However, creating SoWs that you can truly rely upon can be a challenge. They may take too long to deliver, improperly define the scope of a project, fail to address specific customer issues, or contain profit-killing errors. To avoid these problems, you need two things—effective discovery and automation.

Discovery and Automation: Two Keys to a Great SoW

The key to an effective SoW is laying a strong foundation upfront. And that all starts in the discovery stage. Coming into discovery conversations with your prospects will ensure you’re delivering the correct solutions, that labor and implementation calculations are accurate, and you know which products and solutions are being added to the core offering.

But discovery stages aren’t anything new. Even in traditional proposal processes, discovery was the key to making a proper handoff from your sales team to the implementation team.

The problem is that discovery has become much more difficult in the wake of technology changes and the shift to professional-services-based contracts. Missteps in the discovery stage might only become clear once you’ve implemented the wrong solutions, forcing you to go back and diminish profit margins while dealing with unsatisfied customers.

Rather than accepting human error and inefficiency in the discovery stage, you can create more effective statements of work by automating the process. Automated solutions ensure that every answer to your discovery questions is recorded and carried over through every stage of the contract.

But automating your statements of work is about more than just recording the discovery process. That’s why we built SalesDoc Architect and the Dynamic Content Creator. With these solutions, you can:

• Drive solution configurations based on answers to discovery questions
• All-at-once automate product configurations, labor configurations, proposal content, and SoW content based on discovery answers
• Enable users to select from a built-in list of prospect needs and issues, pushing that content to SoWs
• Guide users through the process of building a compelling executive summary that addresses your prospects specific needs

Don’t think of automation simply as a means to eliminate human error from your SoWs. This is an opportunity to customize statements of work according to specific customer problems. A truly customized SoW will help you stand out amongst competing proposals. And automated tools are your key to customizing at scale.

If you want to learn more about creating customized SoWs that drive better profit margins than traditional proposals, we’re here to help. Contact us today for more information.

The post 4 Reasons Statements of Work are the New Sales King (and how to get the most out of them) appeared first on CorsPro.

• Based on user inputs or answers to discovery questions
• Triggered by specific types of solutions or part numbers configured
• Inserted ad hoc by a user for a particular quote or proposal

How Does Dynamic Content Creator Work?

The Dynamic Content Creator (DCC) can:

• Drive solution configuration based on answers to a list of discovery questions
• All-at-once automate product configuration, labor configuration, proposal content and statement of work content based on answers to discovery questions
• Enable users to select from a built-in list of prospect needs and issues – and dynamically insert additional needs/issues –and push that content to proposals and other outputs
• Guide users through the process of building a compelling executive summary for the proposal that addresses the prospect’s specific challenges and needs

The DCC can take this information and automatically format it based on user selection to create:

• Bullets and sub-bullets
• Paragraphs
• Headings
• Tables
• Images

Administrators can set up “stock” content elements and program content configuration rules. Users can go beyond the stock content by dynamically inserting ad hoc content on a quote-by-quote basis.

Using SalesDoc Architect’s Dynamic Content Creator, the Excel-programmed elements are automatically intermixed with the document library content. This creates rich, illustrative document outputs that are highly customized for the particular solution, and to the particular customer.

Benefits of Dynamic Content Creator

Because Dynamic Content Creator functionality is an inherent part of SalesDoc Architect, the arduous task of writing and generating a fully customized proposal and scope of work is more automated. Sales people are no longer limited to the manufacturer-included content only to add in customer-specific or one-off pieces of information in the Microsoft Word output.  All information is formatted and included in the SDA Quote file.  The quote file becomes the central receptacle for configuration, labor, output content,etc.  By modifying the fields in your SalesDoc Architect quote file and making use of SDA’s dynamic content creator, you only have one area to make the changes. Those changes then flow through to update pricing, content, and documentation. So, when your customer decides it’s a better idea for you to handle the network, you aren’t stuck remembering to add that to the updated proposal and SOW.

Watch Dynamic Content Creator in action below. See how quickly you can go from Discovery to a detailed Scope of Work.

For more information on CorsPro’s Dynamic Content Creator and discovery-driven automation, send us an email.

The post SDA Dynamic Content Creator – Better, Faster, Stronger Proposal Content appeared first on CorsPro.