How Document Tracking Fixes Your PDF Proposals

You spent every week on a proposal, hit ship, after which… nothing. Three days of silence, and you don’t have any clue whether or not they opened it, skimmed your pricing and bailed, or buried it underneath a pile of different emails. The true downside is {that a} PDF attachment has no doc monitoring in-built, so the second it leaves your outbox, it goes darkish.

Which means each follow-up is a guess. You find yourself firing off one other “simply checking in” e-mail and hoping one thing sticks.

So I took the true proposal my company sends to potential shoppers and rebuilt it right into a digital flipbook to report again. Now it tells me when it will get opened, what acquired learn, and what to say subsequent to maneuver the deal ahead. Right here’s the total video walkthrough I recorded whereas rebuilding the entire thing from scratch.

Key Takeaways on Doc Monitoring Proposals

1. A PDF attachment offers you zero visibility. You may’t inform if it was opened, which pages acquired learn, or whether or not your prospect is even wanting on the newest model.
2. A digital flipbook lives at a hyperlink, not in an attachment. That’s what makes doc monitoring doable, so you may see when it’s opened, which pages get essentially the most consideration, and when it’s downloaded.
3. A separate trackable hyperlink for every prospect retains your information clear. You additionally get e-mail notifications for opens, downloads, and proposals that by no means get opened in any respect.
4. Interactive elements do the promoting for you. Video embeds, clickable case research, and a book-a-call button make the proposal price studying and lower down the e-mail back-and-forth.
5. You may swap the PDF inside an current flipbook. Up to date pricing or phrases present up on the identical hyperlink your prospect already has, with no resending.
6. Tracking tells you what somebody did, not why. It makes your follow-up smarter, however it by no means replaces an precise dialog.

Observe Each Proposal You Ship With FlippingBook

FlippingBook is the instrument I used to rebuild my company’s proposal right into a trackable hyperlink. What bought me is that the open and page-level monitoring comes on each plan, even the most affordable one. You may check it in your subsequent proposal with out paying something up entrance!

Why PDF Proposals Go away You Following Up Blind

I wish to be truthful to the PDF, as a result of PDFs are nice at loads of issues. They give the impression of being the identical on each gadget, and just about each prospect on Earth can open one.

The issue is what occurs after you ship one.

The second an everyday PDF attachment lands in somebody’s inbox, you don’t have any means of understanding something about it. Did they open it? Which pages acquired learn, and are they even wanting on the present model or one from two revisions in the past?

None of that info exists. So in case your gross sales workforce runs on PDF attachments, they’re following up blind.

And “simply checking in” is strictly what that type of follow-up appears like. No one likes getting that e-mail, and no person likes sending it both.

Loads of proposals additionally stumble earlier than they’re even despatched, which is why I coated the most common proposal mistakes individually.

The Proposal Utilized in This Walkthrough

Right here’s the proposal we ship to manufacturers for sponsoring content material throughout our publishing platforms. It’s our flagship bundle, pitched to Shopify because the working instance.

It’s a fairly regular PDF with placeholders for client-specific belongings and some numbers we tweak primarily based on who we’re pitching. If you need the basics, I coated how one can write a proposal individually.

One fast disclosure earlier than we dig in. This walkthrough makes use of FlippingBook, the sponsor of the unique video, which converts PDFs into digital flipbooks you may share as trackable hyperlinks.

I ran it on an actual company proposal so you may see precisely the way it holds up in an precise gross sales course of. If you wish to set this up alongside the walkthrough, you may try FlippingBook for free, and it prices you nothing further.

Flip a Proposal Right into a Doc Monitoring Hyperlink

I arrange the monitoring first, earlier than any of the beautiful stuff, as a result of it’s the half I worth most in a instrument like this.

Remodel a PDF Into an Interactive Gross sales Proposal

I begin by dragging the proposal PDF into FlippingBook. In lower than a minute, it’s now an interactive flipbook as an alternative of a static file. All the identical pages, all of the necessary particulars, however it lives at a hyperlink as an alternative of inside an attachment.

That is the place the proposal monitoring kicks in, since every little thing the prospect does with that flipbook will get logged.

Create a Separate Hyperlink for Every Prospect

That is the function I like most. As an alternative of 1 hyperlink for everyone you pitch, you create a separate trackable link for each prospect, and I named mine for the prospect over at Shopify.

The choices right here matter. I turned on e-mail notifications for when the proposal will get opened and when it will get downloaded or printed, and I set it up so I get an e-mail if no person opens it over the following week.

Since this proposal has an actual provide inside it, I additionally set the hyperlink to run out on a sure date.

Select How the Proposal Can Be Considered

You may set how the flipbook shows. Public means anybody who finds it may possibly view it, and unlisted means solely individuals with the hyperlink can see it, which is the setting I take advantage of.

There are extra personal choices in the event you want them. There’s additionally an optionally available lead seize kind, so you may gather a reputation, e-mail, and cellphone quantity earlier than somebody views your flipbook.

I left that off for this one, since I’m already in dialog with this prospect.

Ship the Hyperlink and Test Engagement

The trackable hyperlink copies and sends identical to another hyperlink, straight from Gmail, with no attachments required. When the prospect clicks via, they will learn the proposal on a pc or a cellphone, and so they can nonetheless obtain the PDF to share with their workforce.

The distinction in your finish is speedy. The second I opened it because the check prospect, an e-mail notification landed telling me it was opened and when, and I even acquired notified on repeat opens and on the obtain.

Right here’s the sincere comparability of what you really be taught.

• A daily PDF tells you nothing. No opens, no web page views, no downloads, nothing.
• A trackable hyperlink tells you when it was opened, what number of occasions, how lengthy they stayed, which pages acquired essentially the most time, and after they downloaded it.

That exercise information is large from a gross sales perspective, as a result of it reveals you the way engaged the prospect actually is.

Make the Proposal Price Studying

Monitoring tells you what occurred after the ship. This subsequent half is about making the proposal itself land, and it’s what retains your model from drifting.

Maintain the Design Constant

The second your workforce begins customizing and sending decks round, the model begins slipping. FlippingBook’s branding choices repair that.

I added our brand and set a customized background so each model goes out wanting the identical. Advertising and marketing can hold the authorised variations in shared folders, so gross sales isn’t digging via a downloads folder for the proper file each time.

The brand hyperlinks straight to our web site, and I saved the background gentle. A fast preview confirmed all of it seemed proper earlier than something went out.

Add Video and Hyperlinks to Related Work

Now I made the deck interactive, which is one thing you merely can not do with a flat PDF. On web page two, I dropped in one among my previous sponsored movies so the prospect can see the work as an alternative of taking my phrase for it.

I grabbed the hyperlink to a video most related to what Shopify would care about, pasted it in, and FlippingBook pulled it right into a clear container that I dragged proper over the placeholder. There are settings to regulate when the video begins, together with autoplay when somebody hits web page two, which I feel is genuinely cool.

On the case examine web page, I linked straight out to reside outcomes for previous shoppers, so a click on takes the prospect on to the place every case study lives on my website. FlippingBook additionally noticed a URL within the deck that wasn’t hyperlinked and supplied to hyperlink it, which I accepted.

There’s a lot extra you may add right here too, like audio, animated GIFs, picture galleries, inline and pop-up pictures, even quizzes. Each a kind of decisions makes the proposal a greater learn for the prospect.

Make the Subsequent Step Simple

On the final web page, I added a clickable button to guide a name. When the prospect is prepared, the following step is one click on as an alternative of three e-mail exchanges simply to discover a time, the identical back-and-forth a pointy cold email helps you skip in the beginning. I grabbed my Calendly hyperlink and dropped it in because the button’s vacation spot.

If you happen to publish one thing like this publicly, say a companies information in your web site, you may skip the paper varieties and add a lead kind proper contained in the deck. It helps web-based varieties from Typeform, Microsoft Kinds, and Google Kinds.

Drop the hyperlink in, affirm it, and FlippingBook creates a name to motion button the place you management the feel and appear.

Put the Complete Gross sales Equipment in One Hyperlink

Right here’s what a typical gross sales e-mail used to appear to be for us, with the proposal, normally a few case research, and our media package. The prospect has to obtain all of it and juggle it one way or the other.

With a digital bookshelf, I put all of our proposals on one branded web page, within the order I need them learn, and I can ship one shareable hyperlink. All the pieces lives in a single place and the entire workforce pulls from the identical information. That’s additionally the place I add all of our interactive case research.

One fast observe on how this suits collectively. Particular person trackable hyperlinks can be found for flipbooks, not for bookshelves, so the proposal nonetheless goes out as its personal trackable hyperlink and the bookshelf is the place every little thing else lives. 

I teamed up with FlippingBook on this walkthrough, so if you wish to construct your individual trackable proposal whereas that is contemporary, you may start a free FlippingBook trial and check it in your subsequent deal.

Learn the Information and Observe Up Smarter

That is the half that adjustments how a gross sales workforce follows up.

Assessment What the Prospect Did

Bear in mind, I used to be looking like a prospect who’s curious however cautious about worth. The report for that monitoring hyperlink reveals what number of pages have been considered, which pages acquired clicked, plus the whole time spent and when the final exercise occurred.

The information advised me my prospect went to my website, checked out my case research, and clicked into reserving a name, however that reserving by no means got here via on my finish. One thing hasn’t been determined but.

In addition they spent lots of time on the pricing web page, which is price understanding earlier than I comply with up.

Learn the Alerts With out Guessing Too A lot

Listed below are the principles I take advantage of for studying these analytics.

• If somebody lingers on pricing, the follow-up is about worth and choices, no more options.
• In the event that they hung out on the introduction and clicked the case examine hyperlinks, they need extra proof, so I’d ship one other case examine that appears much more like their enterprise.
• In the event that they opened it as soon as and by no means got here again, it’s in all probability not the proper timing, and I’d slightly know that.
• In the event that they downloaded it, there’s a great probability it’s being handed round internally, so I’ll provide to make that simpler.

Write a Observe-Up That Matches the Prospect’s Exercise

Right here’s the follow-up e-mail I’d ship that prospect primarily based on what the report reveals. Discover it doesn’t say “simply checking in” wherever, as a result of it picks up proper the place they left off contained in the flipbook.

That’s the entire sport with follow-up emails, anticipating objections and assembly them earlier than they’re raised. The page-level information tells you what’s on a prospect’s thoughts earlier than you kind a single phrase.

Replace Pricing or Phrases With out Sending a New Hyperlink

This one appears like a horrible concept at first, however it isn’t.

Exchange the PDF Contained in the Current Flipbook

Say your pricing adjustments, or the phrases of the deal want an adjustment, otherwise you spot a typo on web page three after it’s already gone out. With a PDF, it’s a must to ship a model new file.

Now your prospect has “proposal ultimate” and “proposal ultimate V2” sitting of their inbox, and also you’re hoping they open the proper one.

For a workforce that updates pricing or phrases frequently, that’s how final quarter’s numbers find yourself in entrance of a prospect by chance. Then you definately’re nearly assured to be negotiating in opposition to your self on worth.

In our instance deal, I noticed a missed alternative to pitch Shopify on reserving their full yr of content material partnerships abruptly, at a reduced price. So I needed that added to the deck earlier than the prospect dove in.

If you happen to construct your proposals as template-based paperwork, this sort of swap is a one-step job. With FlippingBook, I uploaded the up to date model to the identical flipbook, and the hyperlink didn’t change in any respect. Right here’s the way it went.

1. Open the extra choices menu contained in the flipbook and hit change PDF.
2. Maintain your interactive parts when FlippingBook asks, so the video embed and clickable hyperlinks carry over. After all sure. Who likes duplicating work?
3. Choose the brand new PDF, and the up to date deck lives proper there on the identical hyperlink.

All of it occurs behind the scenes, since FlippingBook swaps the outdated file for the brand new one whereas protecting the identical hyperlink and all of the interactivity.

Then I refreshed to test, and every little thing held up.

• The autoplay video remains to be in place.
• All my hyperlinks are intact.
• The brand new web page with the full-year low cost is true the place it ought to be.

Everybody on the prospect’s workforce is now taking a look at the identical hyperlink with up to date pricing.

Flip Off a Hyperlink When an Provide Expires

If a deal goes chilly or a suggestion expires, I can change that hyperlink off. The monitoring stats all keep, however the hyperlink stops working, which retains expired affords from floating round lengthy after they’re lifeless.

Contemplate the Instrument’s Limits and Plan Choices

A number of sincere limits earlier than you set this up by yourself proposals.

Know Which Options Sit on Greater Plans

Trackable hyperlinks are on each plan, together with the most affordable one. Branding, bookshelves, video embeds, and lead varieties begin on the Optimum plan.

A number of issues, like animated GIFs, API integrations, and password safety, are on the Superior plan, which is the tier I used for this walkthrough. That type of tiering is fairly commonplace for instruments like this.

The excellent news is the function I like most, hyperlink monitoring, comes with each plan.

Deal with Analytics as a Information, Not a Substitute for Dialog

That is the one I hold coming again to. Doc monitoring makes your follow-up smarter as a result of you understand what your prospect really checked out.

It doesn’t inform you what they have been considering, and it gained’t shut the deal for you. Use the information to information the dialog, then have the dialog.

FAQs About Doc Monitoring for Gross sales Proposals

A number of fast solutions to the questions I get most about working doc monitoring on proposals.

Closing Ideas on Doc Monitoring

The entire downside with a PDF proposal is that you simply ship it and go blind. A trackable proposal fixes that, as a result of it tells you when it’s opened, what acquired learn, and what your prospect really cares about, so your follow-up picks up the place they left off as an alternative of ranging from “simply checking in.”

If you wish to check flipbook doc monitoring in your subsequent proposal with out paying something up entrance, you may try FlippingBook for free. It prices you nothing further, and it’s the identical setup I simply ran via an actual gross sales course of.

Observe Each Proposal You Ship With FlippingBook

FlippingBook is the instrument I used to rebuild my company’s proposal right into a trackable hyperlink. What bought me is that the open and page-level monitoring comes on each plan, even the most affordable one. You may check it in your subsequent proposal with out paying something up entrance!