Close Deals Faster with Electronic Signature for Salesforce

Salesforce, the leading CRM software, and Docusign align on a core mission: to help companies ease processes and optimize relationships. In addition to satisfying customers’ growing preference for digital experiences, digital contracts help companies close deals faster and limit risk. For those who want to combine the transformative capabilities of Salesforce with streamlined agreements, Docusign eSignature is the ideal place to start.

As Lauren Dunne, lead Salesforce evangelist at Docusign, said at Docusign Momentum ‘22, “Our eSignature integration is oftentimes a stepping stone for many customers to unlock the incredible value of having Docusign embedded directly into Salesforce.” Docusign eSignature allows sales teams to generate standard contract templates, send documents for internal or customer approvals, and lead secure agreement workflows—without ever having to leave Salesforce.

In a session entitled, “eSignature for Salesforce: Tips and Tricks!” Caroline McCarthy, enterprise customer success manager at Docusign, and Brian Deady, Salesforce platform and planning manager at Three Ireland, joined Dunne for an illuminating discussion about the diverse benefits of the Docusign eSignature for Salesforce integration. In this session, the three share tips for optimizing your Salesforce investment using Docusign eSignature, as well as customer stories.

A smooth digital experience means a seamless customer experience

As a longtime Salesforce customer and one of Ireland and the UK’s largest telecommunications and internet providers, Three Ireland, is intimately familiar with the benefits of an optimized digital experience. “Salesforce is really central to what we do from the business sales side,” says Deady. “That’s how all orders are tracked, shipped and activated on our network.”

But before integrating with Docusign, Three Ireland found that disjoined agreement tools were slowing down their sales process and preventing them from delivering a superb customer experience. “The main challenge was the clunky nature of the functionality that was there,” says Deady. “It didn’t look good in terms of it not working and us having to resort to paper forms.” Their customers, busy organizations themselves, had to install error-prone signing software on their own machines, requiring them to troubleshoot with the desktop support team. Even after signing, Three Ireland’s sales team would have to spend additional time uploading the contracts into Salesforce.

All of that changed when Three Ireland implemented Docusign eSignature for Salesforce. Now, Deady says, “All that was required was internet coverage and a license. We didn’t need software installed on machines anymore.” Using eSignature, sales representatives can create orders within Salesforce, generate contracts in front of customers, and gather signatures remotely or on the spot.

“With Docusign as part of their digital transformation,” Dunne says, “companies can empower employees with the tools to move their business forward where work is being done.” eSignature works within the full Salesforce Customer 360 and throughout the end-to-end agreement process—from document generation to payment collection. Read on to discover five ways to ensure you are getting the most out of your Salesforce investment.

5 ways to make the most of Salesforce as your business grows

1. Generate documents within Salesforce

The document generation process can be extensive, even for experienced sales teams—but eSignature for Salesforce standardizes the process for more efficient agreement creation. Saddled with a 35-step form generation process, Docusign customer Tipalti was putting in significant time and money to meet their increasing monthly demand. As they reached a critical moment in their growth, this cloud software company needed a more efficient way to prepare orders and create contracts.

Turning to Docusign eSignature and Docusign Gen for Salesforce, Tipalti was able to automate and simplify the document generation process. “Tipalti sales reps stay entirely within Salesforce,” says Dunne, “eliminating many of the time-consuming manual and error-prone steps by automatically pulling data from Salesforce to build new contracts.” Today, Tipalti’s sales team can create new sales orders within five to ten steps.

2. Get contracts signed faster with SMS signing

One of the biggest challenges for Docusign customers, says Dunne, is finding an effective way to deliver agreements to customers constantly inundated with emails. With hundreds of emails reaching their inboxes every day, recipients can find it difficult to respond even to a small portion. At the same time, she explains, customer behavior is changing. “More and more people are shifting towards mobile as a means to share and access critical information. This is a great way to reach signers.”

Docusign eSignature extends Salesforce agreement workflows into many signers' preferred means of receiving information through SMS contract delivery. Administrators can generate forms and link them securely and directly within an SMS notification.  “All your sales team has to do is check a box to deliver an agreement by SMS,” Dunne says. Using automated SMS contract delivery, companies can improve paperwork completion rates and reduce times to sign across customers.

3. Expedite post-sale processes

Though eSignature for Salesforce is an integral tool for sales teams, its capabilities can also extend to post-sale workflows. Before implementing this integration, Three Ireland’s process for conducting third-party verifications and voice contracts with customers after a sale was time consuming. After a completed sale, they would have to call the customer back and manually go through terms and conditions. This could take between two and three additional phone calls.

“Now with the use of Docusign,” says Deady, “the contract is generated; it’s emailed over to the customer, and the contract is back in a matter of minutes, whereas before it would have taken a couple of days.”

4. Write data back into Salesforce from your signed contracts

eSignature for Salesforce marries electronic agreements with consolidated Salesforce data to facilitate faster, more accurate agreements. Merge fields allow sales teams to quickly populate contracts with up-to-date information stored in Salesforce. According to Dunne, merge fields means “no more double data entry.” From a single source of truth, sales teams can create documents that pull in customer data. Any updated customer data is then automatically stored in Salesforce.

By removing manual steps and reducing opportunities for human error, merge fields save time and expedites the agreement process. “With merge fields with eSignature for Salesforce,” says Dunne, “you can streamline processes, empower your users, automatically update Salesforce, and reduce risk.”

5. Generate, send, and sign documents from Slack

For the eSignature for Salesforce integration, the COVID-19 pandemic represented an opportunity to expand streamlined agreements to new platforms. “In this last year, as we have all leaned into tools that make it easier to work together,” Dunne explains, “Integration with Slack has helped customers send and sign agreements more easily.”

This heavily-requested feature allows teams to conduct Salesforce agreements within Slack—increasing productivity and providing integral visibility. Within Slack, sales professionals can access Docusign templates, send signing reminders, and simplify business processes like completing HR forms. “Think new hire onboarding, company policies,” says Dunne. Though currently only available in English, this Slack integration is included in all eSignature for Salesforce plans.

Efficient sales processes and elevated customer experiences from beginning to end

Rapid contract generation, accurate data fields, flexible signing methods—integrating Docusign eSignature with Salesforce is an investment in an improved agreement experience for your sales team and your customers. With easy reviewing, redlining, and signing capabilities, sales teams don’t have to wait to get back to the office—they can forward their agreements on site, as needed. For Docusign, Dunne says, “Our platform is purpose built to integrate for better joint customer outcomes across the Salesforce technology stack.”

Learn more about how Docusign for Salesforce streamlines agreements and supports a  digital customer experience by watching the full session, eSignature for Salesforce: Tips and Tricks!