Tony Flores’ Post

Stop losing time and flip the script on your sales process! I have made this common mistake myself: Like most companies, I tackled the legal part of the contract only at the end of the sales process. But once I got to the signature stage, legal questions came up, and resolving them took a long time. Digital adoption and most other software are SaaS solutions with standard contracts. And changing them is very difficult. They require extensive checking from the software vendor and operational adjustments behind the scenes. So here's my hard-learned advice: Rather than leaving the legal aspects as the final hurdle, initiate the process immediately and give the contracts to your legal department. It enables you to proactively tackle potential issues throughout the sales cycle. So once you're content with the technical solution, the value, ROI, cost pricing, IT security checks, and contractual obligations, you simply have to click that DocuSign button to dive into your project and unlock the value of digital adoption. Because if you leave it too late, you'll end up grappling with unforeseen legal inquiries, which can take much longer to resolve than you'd like! At which stage of the sales process do you involve the legal department? #sales #digitaladoption #changemanagement

Signing documents and managing agreements from any device or location is crucial and DocuSign stands out as an industry leader. But when the clock ticks towards renewal time, you need to know how to get the best deal. Here are 6 tips I've learned from thousands of negotiations: 1. Pick the Right Pricing Model: DocuSign offers two primary pricing options - per seat or per envelope. Each has its benefits, but it's vital to choose the one that aligns with your operational needs and budget. Keep in mind the fine print, especially regarding envelope limits on per seat subscriptions, and remember, discounts tend to be more generous on the per envelope model. 2. Accurate Envelope Forecasting is Key: Underestimating or overestimating your envelope needs can lead to unnecessary costs or overage charges. With DocuSign charging around 1€ per exceeded envelope, a precise forecast ensures your spend remains predictable. 3. Unused Envelope Rollover: Always ask if it's possible to roll over unused envelopes to the next contract term. It's a simple question that can potentially save significant amounts of money. 4. Negotiate for High Discounts: With average discounts hitting 30% off the list price, don't shy away from bargaining hard. DocuSign's pricing flexibility can work to your advantage if you negotiate well. 5. Time Your Contract Negotiations: Like many SaaS providers, DocuSign's discounting can improve towards the end of their fiscal year (January 31st) or quarters (April 30th, July 31st, October 31st). Plan your negotiations around these periods to capture the best deals. 6. Explore Alternatives: Awareness of the competitive landscape, including options like Dropbox Sign, PandaDoc, and Adobe Sign, can empower your decision-making process. Knowing your alternatives ensures you don't settle for less than the perfect fit for your requirements. DocuSign is an amazing tool that offers flexibility. But you'll never know if you don't ask. — — — — Interested in content like this? Follow me Maximilian Messing and ring the bell 🔔 for more.

Stop losing time and flip the script on your sales process! I have made this common mistake myself: Like most companies, I tackled the legal part of the contract only at the end of the sales process. But once I got to the signature stage, legal questions came up, and resolving them took a long time. Digital adoption and most other software are SaaS solutions with standard contracts. And changing them is very difficult. They require extensive checking from the software vendor and operational adjustments behind the scenes. So here's my hard-learned advice: Rather than leaving the legal aspects as the final hurdle, initiate the process immediately and give the contracts to your legal department. It enables you to proactively tackle potential issues throughout the sales cycle. So once you're content with the technical solution, the value, ROI, cost pricing, IT security checks, and contractual obligations, you simply have to click that DocuSign button to dive into your project and unlock the value of digital adoption. Because if you leave it too late, you'll end up grappling with unforeseen legal inquiries, which can take much longer to resolve than you'd like! At which stage of the sales process do you involve the legal department? #sales #digitaladoption #changemanagement

Public SaaS company Breakdown - Docusign You've probably used it - you might even be a customer. Docusign is (as the name suggests) in the document signing and management space. They're at scale. $2.5B in ARR Growth Rate = 12.3% Gross Margin = 79% (not great - especially for a pure play software business) Some interesting Go-To-Market Numbers... In 2022 Docusign spent $1.2B on Sales and Marketing. To put that in perspective that's $100M a month Or $23M per week or $5M per day. Off the back of that they added $318M in Additional ARR CaC payback = 60 months (really bad) NRR: 105% Slowish growth + Low GM + High CAC payback means Docusign is out of favour with the market - getting just a 3.5X multiple on ARR

Is DocuSign Worth It? Pros and Cons, Pricing & Features in 2024

Is DocuSign Worth It? Pros and Cons, Pricing & Features in 2024

Did you negotiate away too much?  How do you know? We've all been here: 4:59pm - Last docusign executed.   Huge sigh of relief! 5:05pm - First sip of (hard-earned) drink. 5:06pm - Fleeting thought “Whew, that was last minute.” 5:07pm - Thinking more…”but not really tough.  Maybe even too easy?” 5:08pm - “Ugh, I know we could have kept that last 5%.  And then I’d be closer to….” After the dust has settled, either out-loud or in our heads, we all go through this. And our only barometer is how hard or easy it was. Which is like judging a marathon time on how the runner ran the last mile.  When it's the first 25 that really matter (I'm told it's mostly miles 10-20). Negotiation is the same. So, instead answer “did we get everything we could?” by considering: Did we keep give/gets equal through the process? Did we anchor high enough? Did we keep value front & center? Did we always say 'no' to the first ask? Did we keep a thread on our champion to the end? Did sr. execs help when we needed it? Did we negotiate more than just price?  (Term length, expansion incentives, renewal structure, upsell constraints, implementation scope, service levels, specific contract terms, marketing support). Depending on whether you get to be part of the upsell, these may be more or less financially material questions.  But definitely a learning opportunity - don’t miss it! PS Congrats to my brother Douglas McDowell who just set a PR in the Chicago marathon last week, and raised major $ for the Danny Did epilepsy foundation! PPS Make it a point to find out eventually how you did in the negotiation - in sideline conversations or over a drink. With more than just your champion.  Not only for learning, but to know where the bar is set for long-term value.

Congratulations - your future client told you they’d like to proceed with your solution. You’re halfway there! Now it’s time to help them secure executive support over competing priorities. 🔑 When crafting enterprise software proposals to new clients, emphasize options that show how your solution will improve their business and their ROI, not product features and vendor jargon. 🔑 Factor all services to ensure a successful implementation and frictionless adoption. 🔑 Align with all stakeholders, including Legal, SecOps, Infra and others. 🔑 Make it easy for senior executives to approve your proposal. They need cleariy defined, mutually agreed-upon plans with actions, owners and dates. 🔑 Download "Why SaaS Sales Leaders Need An Enterprise Deal Coach" https://lnkd.in/gv3e6ZsA #customersuccess #sales #salescoaching #enterprisesoftware #saassales

FROM OUR PARTNERS AT DOCUSIGN: INTELLIGENT AGREEMENT From the desk of DocuSign's CEO Allan Thygesen Welcome to the new world of agreements Hi Gregory, Over the last year, it has been a joy to travel, meet many of our customers, and learn from their experiences. They’ve told me how Docusign eSignature has been transformative for their businesses, but they’ve also described some universal pains that have yet to find solutions: Crucial win-win deals get caught in the negotiating process, and they slip another quarter Vendors don’t deliver what they promised in their contract  They lose out on top talent in a competitive market Sales lag because reps do more paperwork than selling  For organizations both large and small, these pains add up. They cause massive frustration and cost businesses time, money, and opportunity. They have more in common than you might expect: They’re all symptoms of mismanaged agreements. Agreements are the heartbeat of every business but the valuable information they contain is often overlooked and trapped inside unstructured, flat files, consigned to digital file folders. In fact, research from Deloitte shows that outdated agreement systems and processes cost businesses nearly $2 trillion in global economic value each year! It’s time to bring agreement management into the 21st century. Docusign is the company with the best expertise and tools to do it, so we're expanding our focus and opening up a new SaaS category – intelligent agreement management – and announcing a new intelligent management portfolio as the first entrant in that category — Docusign IAM. Docusign IAM is a new intelligent agreement management platform that uses AI to make every step of the agreement process smarter. We want to help you create smarter agreements, commit to those agreements more efficiently, and actively manage them to unleash and realize their full value. We are building on 20+ years of innovation in agreement management, contract lifecycle management, and e-signature to deliver powerful solutions for our 1.5 million global customers and beyond. In late May in the U.S. and expanding to major international markets later this year, we’ll begin launching Docusign IAM and new line-of-business applications including IAM for Customer Experience and IAM for Sales for customers who want to start finding solutions to those universal pain points we all discussed. Thank you for joining us on this journey as we build the future of intelligent agreement management. - Allan Thygesen, Docusign CEO P.S. A new company direction warrants a new look! I hope you enjoy the new Docusign look, feel, and sound across our product, website, emails, and more. https://lnkd.in/eAKfer_a

There we go again! Another huge milestone for Docusign as we accelerate to help organizations everywhere unlock the value in their Agreements. Alongside AI platform innovations and partner integrations like Microsoft #Copilot for Sales, Docusign continues to prove why we are the most trusted partner to help companies create, commit to, and manage all their agreements. Lexion #genAI #agreements