How to Use eSignatures with Salesforce

Electronic signatures are a beneficial solution for businesses and specifically their sales teams, as they can finalise transactions and close deals from anywhere at any time. Also, many e-signature platforms like E-Sign are designed to be integrated with a wide range of applications, including Salesforce, to ensure that businesses can create a fully digital ecosystem and that their document workflows can be more efficiently managed. Read on to learn more about how to use eSignatures with Salesforce as well as the benefits of doing so.

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is a popular cloud-based CRM (customer relationship management) platform that supports sales teams with finding leads, closing deals, and connecting with customers. It provides many useful features that streamline sales workflows, including insights that look at customer data through an in-depth analysis. 

Additionally, it effectively supports better communication and collaboration across different business departments. Not just sales but also marketing, IT, commerce, and customer service. Therefore, organisations can get a holistic view of every customer interaction to understand customers at a deeper level and successfully grow their customer base. With a complete overview of the sales lifecycle from beginning to end, Salesforce CRM is one of the best platforms on the market for helping businesses optimise their sales processes.

Why use eSignatures with Salesforce?

An eSignature integration with Salesforce simplifies the process of creating, editing, negotiating, managing, and signing contracts by doing it electronically through the platform. You won’t need to switch between different applications, once integrated, all your document requirements can be managed through Salesforce. 

After a contract has been negotiated and is agreed upon by all parties it needs to be signed. Traditionally this would be a lengthy process as the involved individuals need to apply a handwritten signature to a paper document. Whereas digital signatures make the process practically instantaneous, and the document can be securely stored in Salesforce. So it can be easily referred back to as and when needed. Signers can create a unique, secure, and legally valid signature on any device. Which can then be digitally embedded in the signature field on a contract document.

How to use eSignatures with Salesforce

There are many useful features you can take advantage of when implementing e-signatures in Salesforce. For example, you can:

• Track the status of e-signature requests
• Set document expiry dates and reminders
• Request attachments for a signed document
• Replace a signer or cancel an e-signature request
• Manage signature fields directly on the documents
• Automate the quote-to-cash process
• Sign documents faster with intuitive and interactive signing
• Merge customer, product, and pricing details to create sales documents in seconds
• Automate invoice generation with Salesforce Billing and Management
• Build contracts using pre-designed templates and Salesforce data effortlessly

Use cases for eSignatures in Salesforce

Below are some of the most common uses of electronic signatures in Salesforce. Demonstrating how the features of both tools can be used together to create seamless sales document processes for your business and its customers.

Sales contracts

With an integrated e-signature option in Salesforce, sales teams will be able to quickly and easily process contracts and relevant documents to each individual sale. Without having to wait multiple days for paper copies to be sent back and forth between parties. Sales contracts are one of the most valuable documents for a business and the most frequently signed. So it makes sense for this to be a common use case for eSignatures in Salesforce. 

Businesses of all sizes typically use sales contracts and the ability to sign them digitally streamlines the process and ensures efficient contract completion. Additionally, with the increase in hybrid and remote working, being able to send and sign contracts from any location is a key advantage. Sales teams can also integrate customer data to improve efficiency and accuracy in the process, track the progress of documents to avoid unnecessary delays, and more. 

Service requests

The modern customer demands have grown significantly with the expectation that any transactions will be quick and easy, and any problem they have should be solved instantly. With e-signature capabilities in Salesforce, businesses can avoid delays and costly cycle times. As well as provide the highest possible standard of service to their customers. 

Effective document creation and management are crucial for ensuring that customer requests are well-defined and addressed, which helps prevent disputes. This is especially important for companies involved in custom manufacturing or those with specific compliance needs. Where obtaining customer approval is necessary before finalising change orders. This process guarantees that there is a clear understanding and agreement on the service request. Minimising potential misunderstandings and ensuring that all parties are aligned.

Customer onboarding and forms

Formal agreements between businesses and customers often start when an agreement, contract, or other type of document is signed. However, deals can be significantly delayed or even lost when they rely on physical paperwork or email. 

eSignatures in Salesforce allows important onboarding documents and forms to be sent to new clients quickly and securely. With the ability to add a signature in just a few clicks. This means you can close more deals successfully and establish a positive relationship with customers from initial communication and throughout their experience with your business.

What are the benefits of using eSignatures with Salesforce?

We’ve covered a few brief benefits earlier in this guide, but there are many advantages to using a Salesforce integration with e-signatures. These include:

• Reduce document turnaround time – digitally signing documents can minimise the time spent completing transactions, from days to hours, speeding up business processes.
• Generate e-signature requests directly from the contract object in Salesforce – save valuable time for your sales team and maintain organisation in your workflows by managing all your document transactions directly from Salesforce.
• Save costs – by digitally signing documents through Salesforce you can eliminate unnecessary spending on paper, printing, ink, document storage etc, and this part of your budget can be reallocated to more important areas of your business.
• Manage multiple signers – eSignatures in Salesforce makes it easy to collect signatures from several signers, saving a significant amount of time compared to traditional paper processes. Also, you can set a specific signing order if needed to ensure a seamless transaction for all parties. 
• Keep sensitive data secure – Salesforce is a highly secure platform and if integrated with E-Sign, you can feel confident that your digital documents are protected. All documents stored in Salesforce require an access code and E-Sign electronic signatures come with a full audit trail, detailing the date, time, location, and IP address of the signature. To ensure legal validity and improve organisational compliance with relevant regulations.
• Improve the customer experience – providing potential customers with the smoothest possible experience is essential to closing deals. eSignatures in Salesforce make it easier for customers to review, sign, and return documents to businesses, with the entire process taking only a few minutes. The flexibility to sign from any device is another benefit when offering customers a seamless signing journey.

E-Sign for Salesforce integration

E-Sign’s integration with Salesforce is essential for Salesforce users looking to optimise their document workflows even further. In addition to the benefits listed above, E-Sign’s integration also enables businesses to implement automation into their sales processes. By automating time-consuming, manual tasks like reviewing, signing, billing, and updating records, productivity is increased as your team can focus their attention on closing deals. 

Also, the integration can support businesses through the use of templates. You have the option to upload your own previously created templates or use E-Sign’s pre-built templates. Both options allow you to quickly generate tailored documents like contracts and invoices. Which enables quicker and more efficient deal closures. Saving time and increasing efficiency in your sales workflows with E-Sign for Salesforce will allow you to increase your workload capacity and sustainably grow your sales and business overall. 

Conclusion

It’s clear to see that electronic signatures are a must-have feature for Salesforce. Due to the additional features and benefits they can provide to business document management. If your business uses Salesforce and you’re looking to incorporate an effective e-signature solution into your existing workflows, E-Sign’s integration is the best option. 

Contact us today to discuss your requirements and our digital transformation team will be able to support you and answer any questions regarding the integration to ensure the process is as seamless as possible. If you want to try some of the features and functionality of the E-Sign platform for yourself, you can register for our 14-day free trial and see how it can benefit your organisation’s document needs.