Retail insights and ecommerce mystery shopper platform Humii combines cutting-edge technology with real human analysis to help brands deliver a superior online shopping experience. When Humii needed a secure way to send sensitive files with investors, they started using DocSend to store, control, and track documents.

They found it so effective that they expanded their use, leveraging DocSend for day-to-day business operations, like sharing confidential reports with customers.

The challenge

When Humii started raising capital, they faced the same challenge as many startups – the company needed a way to share sensitive investor documents. Email wasn’t secure enough, and Google Drive didn’t look professional. The Humii team needed a solution that could control access to investor material, so that no one could download sensitive files and potentially send them to unsecure, external third-parties.

It's been a real game changer for us, moving away from sharing files via email and Google Drive. The ability to track clearly who accessed which files and how engaged they are with each of them has improved our end-to-end fundraising process .

Andy Evans

Co-Founder, Humii

The solution

Humii started using DocSend’s virtual data room to control access to all investor documents, including sensitive financial information that shouldn’t be shared freely. After seeing success with investors, the team at Humii expanded DocSend’s capabilities to include secure file sharing with prospects and customers, from pre-sales documents to crucial data reports.

Controlling investor materials in DocSend’s virtual data room

When creating a personalized virtual data room to create a unique experience for each venture capital firm, Andy can easily pull in all his investor documents from his desktop or external storage provider, and protect them with a one-click non-disclosure agreement (NDA). DocSend makes securely sharing documents easy for business owners like Andy, who can easily have investors sign an NDA before accessing material through Humii’s custom data room. DocSend’s document analytics gave Andy valuable insight into which content investors were engaging with most.

This data enabled him to have more compelling client conversations and tailor his follow-up calls accordingly. With DocSend, Andy was able to protect investor memorandums and glean valuable insights, like the fact that investors were engaging most with the company’s financials.

The virtual data room is a great way to control access, so that people can't just download a document and send it out to thousands of people. We can clearly see who has access, which is incredibly useful.

Andy Evans

Co-Founder, Humii

Narrowing down the sales funnel with DocSend’s engagement metrics

With DocSend, Humii has improved their sales process with dedicated client portals for each prospect. When that prospect becomes a customer, they continue to access all files going forward within the same client portal — a seamless onboarding process. “It was really a frictionless evolution for our customers,” Andy shared. He went on, “When we first pitch to a customer, we share details in their client portal on how our reports can improve their businesses, as well as information on pricing. Once they become a client, they can access all of their information in the same portal.”

When sales teams send out pricing information and explainer decks to prospects, they can see which parts of a document the prospect has engaged with the most.

Seeing when people are browsing through the document means you know they skimmed the data before you’re sitting in front of them. You know they have some context, which tells you what leads care about before your meeting even starts.

Andy Evans

Co-Founder, Humii

Protecting sensitive information in DocSend’s client portals

As part of their service to customers, Humii sends performance reports that contain sensitive information about each brand’s online shopping experience. Every report contains a score for each stage of the customer lifecycle and recommendations for improvement.

Humii has set up client portals for each customer, so that all reports are secure and centralized. When a customer wants to compare previous performance reports with a current one, all documents are easy to find in one centralized access point. With DocSend data rooms, there’s no risk that customer reports will get into the wrong hands.

If your business isn’t performing well, that’s not something you want your competitors to know. At a previous company, I've seen that type of thing go horribly wrong with getting the wrong data sent to the wrong customer, and DocSend prevents that from happening.

Andy Evans

Co-Founder, Humii

The post Humii locks down sensitive investor and customer documents with DocSend appeared first on DocSend.

Hodde Bros launched in the early 1900s as America’s first Budweiser distributor, but their focus shifted to soda when Prohibition hit just a few years later. In 2014, Darci Kendall (the founder’s great-granddaughter) relaunched the family business as a beverage catering company. Nearly 100 years later, Hodde Bros is now a full scale cocktail catering company based in Santa Monica, California, known for its delicious craft cocktails, Airstream bar, and virtual happy hours. Today, Hodde Bros relies on Dropbox and DocSend to securely store files and gather detailed prospect insights throughout the sales process. 

The challenge: 

Prior to using DocSend, Darci Kendall, Founder & Creative Director at Hodde Bros, was overwhelmed with countless leads that were difficult to turn into deals. Without a reliable way to prioritize prospect inquiries and needing strategic insights on how to better prioritize her time, Darci felt like she was drowning in creating proposals. 

The solution: 

Darci had already been an avid Dropbox user for years, using it to sync all of her creative and client files in one centralized place. She then turned to another Dropbox product, DocSend, to securely share finalized proposals with new business opportunities. DocSend’s advanced analytics inform Darci’s follow-up strategy to prioritize the right prospects and close deals faster. 

Keeping a small and rapidly growing business running with Dropbox Backup

Running the day-to-day operations of a small business is no easy feat. With endless paperwork to manage, proposals to send, and contracts to track, founders juggle multiple responsibilities. Making sure all critical business documents are securely stored and instantly accessible is fundamental to a stress-free workflow and is critical to closing business quicker. 

This is precisely why, for years, Darci has relied on Dropbox to securely store all her business files. 

Dropbox holds my business life. I think I joined Dropbox when it first came out. It was the best and I just never left. We grew together and all the capabilities that we needed were there. I can access all of my files from any device and instantly sync to the cloud.

Darci Kendall

Founder, Hodde Bros

Securely sharing sales proposals with potential clients using DocSend

Renting out an Airstream mobile bar is one of Hodde Bros’ main service offerings. Their website offers detailed documentation regarding specs and layouts, which is all housed in an easy-to-access DocSend link. 

When interested visitors reach out requesting more information, Darci sends over an email with a DocSend link. Darci has more controls over her files with DocSend’s advanced security controls. With DocSend, Darci has the option to apply a passcode, set an expiration date, and allow downloading on any proposal. When Darci makes an update to content, she can easily change the file in DocSend and the updates will automatically appear to prospects on all links, without any cumbersome notifications. This allows Darci to put her best professional foot forward and makes the sales process seamless for both her and potential new clients.

Uncovering leads with DocSend’s document analytics

A key part of being a small team is learning which leads to follow and which ones to abandon. It was a strategic decision (one that is common in the events industry) to not list prices on the website. This usually leads to more leads coming in – and Hodde Bros was overwhelmed with requests. 

Although Darci was excited by the outpouring of interest, she was having a hard time prioritizing prospects and following up with leads who were actually interested. Drowning in requests without any way to prioritize left Darci feeling overwhelmed and in need of a solution. That’s when she turned to DocSend. 

I felt like I was spending way too much time creating endless proposals without landing any jobs. I had no way of knowing if a prospect was even looking at my proposal, let alone at which sections and for how long. DocSend was part of a suite of tools I put in place to help filter through all the incoming leads, and the visibility I get with document analytics is huge.

Darci Kendall

Founder, Hodde Bros

Armed with x-ray vision into prospect engagement with her shared sales collateral, Darci can identify exactly which leads are a good use of her time. She can see who’s viewing and spending time with her proposals page-by-page, insights she simply didn’t have before DocSend. 

With DocSend document analytics, Darci has full visibility into when recipients have viewed or shared the files. Darci can effectively identify which leads are truly interested, and which would be dead-end deals.   

Informed follow-up strategy closes new business faster, powered by DocSend’s analytics

From sending proposals, to tracking prospect engagement, and identifying top-performing collateral, DocSend plays a critical role in Hodde Bros’ follow-up strategy. 

Since Hodde Bros creates custom proposals, it’s critical for Darci and her team to understand what content is performing best. With DocSend, she’s able to track prospect behavior far beyond the initial open. She can see exactly how effective her marketing is by drilling down into where viewers spend the most time. For example, if they spend time on a pricing page, she can assume that the customer is price-conscious and tailor her pitch accordingly. 

In the future, Darci is excited about using these analytics to inform how she speaks to specific verticals. “We want to focus on verticals like the film industry, wedding venues, golf courses, and more. I want each of those to have their own campaigns, and with DocSend I can learn so much more about the leads that I’m reaching out to within those verticals.”

Looking forward to the future: centralizing customer documents in DocSend’s client portal 

As Darci looks ahead to running more verticalized marketing campaigns, she’s excited to house all industry-specific content in a DocSend data room. 

“After checking out data rooms, all I can say is ‘WOW!’ I have so many ideas running through my head about how we can use it for future campaigns. It will be so useful and insightful.”

The post Hodde Bros relies on Dropbox and DocSend to build client relationships appeared first on DocSend.

Sleepless Media is a full-service web design and development agency that provides innovative brand experiences anchored around custom, responsive websites. Developing creative assets for a large client base including Levi Strauss, Lenny & Larry’s, and Breeo, Sleepless Media relies on both Dropbox and DocSend to securely share project proposals and creative files with prospective clients.

The Challenge

Prior to DocSend, Jon Cattivera, CEO and Creative Director, would send partnership proposals and creative files to clients as email attachments. As his client list grew, Jon needed a more scalable solution to better control the proposal process. Additionally, he needed a more robust platform that would allow him to customize and organize design elements.

The Solution:

Jon turned to DocSend to securely send and track sales proposals to prospective clients and Dropbox to share creative files.

Advanced insights into client proposals shorten sales cycles

As a creative professional managing a design and web development firm that caters to leading global brands, Jon juggles many different responsibilities in order to provide the best possible customer service. Following up at the right moment with a potential client is critical, especially when closing new business. However, operating on limited time, Jon must be deliberate and thoughtful when sharing project proposals and reviewing statements of work from potential clients. Previously, Jon had no intel into whether prospective clients were reviewing proposals he would send out. “I had no idea who was interested in working with us after those initial conversations. I wanted a better sense of whether prospective clients were serious about partnering with us,” Jon shared.

After trying out DocSend’s free trial, Jon immediately felt the impact of using DocSend’s document analytics. Now, Jon knows exactly which prospective clients were genuinely interested in collaborating through real-time email updates and notifications when they are viewing project proposals. Additionally, Jon can see whether individuals have forwarded over his files to the right people at the company. Instead of spending tedious weeks searching for the right person to connect with, Jon can uncover the right person and follow-up accordingly. “DocSend shows us who other core decision-makers are, which has given us back much-needed time to focus on what we do best – quality creative design and development.”

DocSend shows us exactly which prospective clients are engaging with proposals and are interested in working with us. I love how the email notifications alert me when someone is reviewing a proposal in real-time, which helps me prioritize strategic follow-up and insight on any potential questions.

Jon Cattivera

CEO and Creative Director, Sleepless Media

Intuitive presentations build stronger client relationships

Potential clients could often be looking into multiple agencies, so it is important for design and development firms to stand out among the competition. Jon is able to rely on DocSend to display custom proposals in a professional manner, which gives his agency a unique advantage. “I present my proposals directly in DocSend because I’m usually sharing just my browser and not my whole screen. DocSend lets me go back and forth between a website and my PDF all in one window, instead of having to flip back and forth to try and find the right file outside of a browser, or having to share my entire screen.”

Easily executing master service agreements with eSignature

As a nimble and growing design and creative development firm, Sleepless Media works with a range of clients with specific visions, often reflected in the statement of work. Jon was overjoyed when he found out that he could execute master service agreements and statements of work with DocSend’s e-Signature feature. “I had previously looked into DocuSign, but it was too clunky. I really needed a simple way to execute client agreements,” Jon shared. Once a client agrees to partner with Sleepless Media, Jon sends them their contract to sign directly in DocSend. “Clients can easily review their proposal and execute their agreement in one product experience using DocSend’s eSignature, without switching back and forth between different, bulky softwares,” Jon shared.

Additionally, milestones and deliverables can sometimes change for those in the creative space. Managing different change orders for a long list of clients can be tricky, but Jon is able to organize all executed client agreements in DocSend folders.

DocSend’s eSignature makes the negotiation and close process intuitive for both us and our clients. I’m able to add in necessary fields and send out critical agreements that allow us to build long-term relationships with our clients.

Jon Cattivera

CEO and Creative Director, Sleepless Media

Storing client branding assets and creative in Dropbox

Working with a wide range of businesses requires keeping close tabs on all of their creative files. Jon relies on Dropbox Business to organize all of his client logos and core design elements. Once a brand signs on to work with Sleepless Media, Jon will create a Dropbox folder containing everything he will need for their partnership. “With so many different clients, Dropbox makes it easy for us to quickly find any creative element we might need for a project. Dropbox holds all of our Sketch files, heavier design files, and branding assets,” Jon shared.

No matter where team members are located, members of the Sleepless Media group are able to work flexibly and make changes to creative files in Dropbox. In an industry where creative adjustments often come up, Jon and his team keep all files up to date securely with Dropbox’s cloud storage. Relying on both Dropbox and DocSend, Sleepless Media continues to secure partnership agreements and provide innovative web designs for a growing list of clients.

The post Sleepless Media optimizes client proposals and organizes creative assets with DocSend and Dropbox appeared first on DocSend.

The Center for Management & Organization Effectiveness (CMOE) is a learning and development consulting group that works with individuals, teams, and organizations to provide customized workshops, offsites, speaking engagements, and consultative research. Providing solutions to organizations like Northern Trust, JB Hunt, Siemens Energy, Zendesk, Amazon, and Shape Technologies, CMOE relies on DocSend to securely share documents and presentations with prospective clients during the sales process.

The Challenge

Prior to DocSend, Mark Parkinson, Vice President of Sales Enablement at CMOE, would send out sales presentations and proposals to prospective clients as email attachments. With an impressive library of growing presentations, Mark and his sales team wanted to find a more organized sharing solution that would provide them with more control over the sales process.

The Solution:

The team turned to DocSend’s secure document sharing solution to manage all documents shared during the sales cycle.

Seamlessly sharing sales proposals and presentations

Managing a pipeline of prospective Fortune 500 companies requires meticulous attention to detail and focus. It is critical to know exactly when proposals were sent out and what materials prospective clients can access. For Mark, email attachments were outdated and did not represent his organization in the best light in front of major companies. It simply wasn’t professional to include multiple attachments on an email, which could also get stuck in spam filters or never reach prospects.

When Mark first explored DocSend, he was excited by how he could more securely organize client-facing documents in a way that was more intuitive for clients to access. CMOE has an impressive library of content as part of their consulting packages and Mark often shares previews of presentations with prospective clients, so they can get a taste of CMOE’s learning and development offerings. These presentations contain intellectual property that Mark did not want to get into the wrong hands. With DocSend’s secure sharing capabilities, Mark can easily add an email verification or passcode, so that only approved prospective clients can access the materials. Additionally, Mark can set expiration dates, so that prospects can only access the content during an allotted period, like during an active sales cycle. “DocSend gives us more control over our documents, which is crucial in a fast-paced sales environment,” Mark shared.

To ensure that prospective clients know exactly where to find all CMOE presentations relevant to their needs, Mark created over two-hundred individualized content portals to house client information using DocSend Deal Rooms. While hundreds of individualized client folders might sound like a lot of time to create, with DocSend, Mark can easily duplicate a deal room template in less than a minute. “I’ve templatized four different deal rooms based on our four different product offerings. When a client shows interest in one product offering, for example, Applied Strategic Thinking, I can duplicate that deal room and include a customized sales quote. Creating a personalized, visual representation of content helps us provide the best possible customer experience,” Mark shared. In addition to presentations that address the prospective client’s primary area of interest, Mark also includes statements of work and individualized pricing proposals in each personalized deal room. Whereas email attachments could come off as an informal or tedious experience, a clean, customized deal room with CMOE’s logo and banner gives prospective clients reassurance that CMOE is an organization they could trust.

I would never build a sales technology stack in the future without DocSend. This genre of tool is huge. Salespeople have never before had visibility into their prospects’ actions outside of a tool like DocSend.

Mark Parkinson

Vice President of Sales Enablement, CMOE

Uncovering decision makers with document analytics

Among one of the many challenges sales organizations face is determining who is the right decision maker to sign off on a deal. Before using DocSend, Mark had a tough time figuring out the right person to speak with in order to seal the deal. “Nine times out of ten we were talking to someone who is talking to other consulting organizations and presenting findings to a decision maker,” Mark shared.

Mark now has more visibility into where his documents are going with DocSend’s analytics and can use those insights to his advantage. “The beautiful thing about DocSend is I can now see who gatekeepers might be forwarding pricing proposals to, which lets me get a better idea of who the final decision maker is, and be able to connect with the right person at the right time,” Mark shared. By identifying the final decision maker earlier on in the sales process, Mark can get the right information in front of the right person and ensure that CMOE is top-of-mind for prospective clients.

Whereas our competitors might be sending many bulky attachments over email, we are relying on DocSend as an amazing presentation tool to show-off our offerings. The way you can click into a file and view it in a browser is incredible. I’ve had prospective clients tell me they went to a meeting with their vice president and showed them our DocSend link and they were instantly sold on going with us because of how professional and organized it looked.

Mark Parkinson

Vice President of Sales Enablement, CMOE

Framing a conversation with a data-driven approach

Before DocSend, Mark had little visibility into whether prospects were consuming the content he shared with them. While Mark did have insights into whether an email was opened, he had no idea whether a client was looking through their proposals. The only information Mark could rely on was the initial prospective meetings, which left him in the dark most of the time.

Now, Mark can see how prospective clients are engaging with the materials he sends. “After sending out presentation decks and sale proposals, I can see, for example, if prospects are looking at the pricing page and for how long. This can tell me if they might be concerned about pricing, so I can address that in our next call,” Mark shared. Using data to his advantage, Mark can approach conversations with prospects, anticipating any questions or concerns they might have. Mark adds, “Before a call, I’ll jump into DocSend and search a person’s name and see their content consumption data. Seeing everything they’ve looked at helps me frame a conversation.” The key to consultative selling is to predict your prospective client’s needs and provide them with as much information as possible to make an informed decision. Mark can more accurately forecast potential deals each quarter and gauge their interest using DocSend analytics.

It’s great knowing whether a prospect has opened a document and how long they have spent on our pricing page. Having this level of visibility in the sales process is something that I have never had before using DocSend. It provides predictability as to whether a prospective client is interested.

Mark Parkinson

Vice President of Sales Enablement, CMOE

Looking forward to the future: customizing prospective client portals

As Mark continues to utilize DocSend as a sales tool within his organization, he is hoping to try out more customization options in DocSend Deal Rooms. “I’m excited to customize banners and add prospective client logos to their deal rooms to give them even more of a personalized feel,” Mark shared. Providing that individualized touch can go a long way when forming relationships with new clients. DocSend makes it simple for sales professionals like Mark to go the extra mile when creating proposals remotely.

Additionally, Mark is eager to test out the new deal room update notification when adding new materials into content portals. “Having the ability within DocSend to notify prospective clients when I add information to their portal is excellent. It will help me continue to provide value to a prospect and remind them about an earlier conversation we had with helpful information, which might grab their attention, or even reengage a stale lead,” Mark shared. Mark now has more control over his relationships with prospective clients, allowing him to bring all that CMOE has to offer to even more organizations.

The post CMOE uses DocSend as a Sales Insights Tool to Strengthen Prospective Relationships appeared first on DocSend.

Educating brands with plentiful, diverse content

“As a marketing and sales organization, we engage with brands to teach them how Gen-Z behaves as a demographic, and ways to attract them as customers,” begins Matthew Mortimer, Head of Demand Generation at Student Beans. “Content is very important to this education process.”

Top-of-funnel content, such as a guide to Gen Z, is used by sales and marketing alike to identify warm leads. Student Beans also utilizes later stage content such as case studies, media packs, and rate cards during the decision stage. There is a lot of effort put into content creation so it is critical for them to understand what is resonating and what isn’t. That is where DocSend comes in.

Building a data-focused culture with document analytics

“Understanding what content works for our target audiences gives our sales team a competitive edge,” comments Matthew. “Prior to DocSend, we distributed emails with attachments, assuming our audience wanted to hear what we had to say. Now, we take learnings from DocSend along with other tools which has enabled us to engage with prospects and customers more deeply.”

“As a sales and marketing team, we spend a lot of time looking at DocSend analytics so we can understand which topics are most relevant to certain brands or markets,” says Matthew. “It’s embedded into our business. Whether DocSend is used to help identify a warm lead by knowing someone is reading a guide or to speed up a deal by using page by page analytics of our rate card, it allows us to be more strategic in our sales and marketing efforts.”

These learnings are then shared across the entire company. “We have a weekly dialogue with the sales team to go through what content is working and what’s not,” Matthew says. “Our sales teams operate across U.S., UK and Europe, and APAC, and we want everyone to see and learn from DocSend performance insights.”

DocSend’s granularity of document analytics allows our sales team to be more strategic and proactive. It also provides our content and creative teams with aggregate insight into consumption so they can produce higher quality content.

Matthew Mortimer

Head of Demand Generation, Student Beans

Putting insights—big and small—into action

The marketing team regularly reviews DocSend analytics to gather feedback on content consumption and implement that into both the writing and design of future content. Matthew continues, “We use these learnings, along with client feedback, to update our collateral. DocSend tells us when our content is top notch or when it needs improvement.”

Even smaller insights, Matthew shares, can lead to big improvements, noting an enhancement they made to their rate cards, thanks to DocSend. Initially, rate cards included pricing across all territories in an effort to accommodate global prospects. However, they learned this created some confusion. By using DocSend data of rate card consumption, they instead opted to split rate cards per territory for pricing that better reflected what they were selling and to whom.

Prospects were confused by the level of detail shared on our original rate card. By utilizing DocSend analytics, we were able to make data-driven improvements to our rate card. This shift has notably affected our selling and closing strategy.

Matthew Mortimer

Head of Demand Generation, Student Beans

“We also use DocSend as a key part of our onboarding and implementation process,” he continues. “When we onboard a new brand partner, we share documents through a DocSend Space. This makes it easy for a customer to consume our instructions, and we’re able to track whether they are opening, reviewing, and following the different guides to get up and running on our website.”

Reflecting back while looking forward to the future

Looking ahead, Matthew shares that the Student Beans team is focused on extracting even more value by integrating Salesforce and DocSend.

“When we initially implemented DocSend, we had two instances: one for our sister company and one for Student Beans,” he mentions. “With the help of the DocSend team, we migrated them together for greater performance insights. Bringing Salesforce into this picture will provide even deeper insights into prospect and customer interest.”

Having worked closely with their DocSend account manager for several years, Matthew enjoys knowing he has a knowledgeable, collaborative team to rely on for guidance. The feedback and communication loop between the Student Beans and DocSend teams has remained closely aligned. “A while back, we shared feedback about an enhancement idea for the platform,” Matthew shares. “At the time, we assumed it’d be written down on a piece of paper and didn’t expect to hear about it again.”

“A few months ago, our account manager emailed us to let us know the enhancement we asked for was being rolled out in the next release,” Matthew remarks. “Listening to customer’s suggestions and taking action—you don’t always see this in tech.”

The post Student Beans’ GTM teams utilizes DocSend analytics to the improve customer experience appeared first on DocSend.

There is a shortlist of technologies I always bring with me to a new company and DocSend is no doubt one of those.

Matt Hammond

VP of Sales & Marketing, Campus

Prior to DocSend, Campus’ sales team was sending marketing content and sales proposals as attachments. This left a lot up for interpretation with no insight into how prospects or customers were engaging with their documents during a deal or negotiation.

When Matt and his team invested in DocSend, they were coached on how to think about document analytics and use this new insight to their advantage. “We quickly realized that insight into document consumption, like a sales proposal, can improve our sales results and deal velocity.”

“The moment I realized that DocSend was mission-critical was when we sent out a 7-figure sales proposal while at my last company. DocSend coached us to put each of our 3 pricing options on their own page and utilize analytics like time spent per page to our advantage. Before the customer even came back to us, we knew they’d go with option B. Because of this insight, DocSend helped us negotiate much more effectively. This result was a clear catalyst for me to purchase DocSend at each new role I undertake.”

The post How DocSend Led to a Better Negotiation of a 7-figure Sales Proposal appeared first on DocSend.

Negotiating the deal with a competitive edge

“Trying to remember what I used before DocSend is tough. I came into Quartz using DocSend and at my previous employer for nearly 5 years prior – so I’ve always been an advocate of the tool,’ recalls Ryan Froats, Director of Partnerships at Quartz.

With a focus on selling advertising to financial services and insurance, Ryan’s target customers are big on security. He found that sending attachments via email was not compatible with their heightened security and firewalls. Prior to DocSend, he tended to lean on sending a PDF as an attachment or using a file transfer app for larger files.

“With high security clients, I tended to have to lean on a number of different file transfer services prior to DocSend. Often they were never compatible with their infrastructure, resulting in frustration on both sides of the table,” said Ryan. “But with DocSend, I have no issues. It only requires them to enter an email to view our pitch.”

The world of media sales is very competitive — and it was even more so in 2020. Managing many proposals per quarter, Ryan needs to ensure he puts his time and effort into the most fruitful deals.

“’With the competition we face, we welcome any and all strategic intel we can get our hands on. I love that I can see when a client spends time with our proposal because it allows me to be more strategic in my role — helping to prioritize my time and ensure I’m focusing on the right deals,” said Ryan.

If their pitch shifts or there is an edit made, rather than having to send an updated link or file to a client, DocSend allows Ryan to update the file already out there with no client interruption. This allows for him to be more organized in his pitching approach and strategic in his follow up strategy.

“I love being notified when our proposal is viewed, forwarded on, downloaded, and even clicked back into. DocSend’s insight can help us turn a cold lead into a warm lead or a warm lead into a hot lead,” Ryan shares.

Creative proposal creation without a hiccup

Once pitches are identified by the media sales team, Quartz’s creative team then comes into the fold to create a campaign response to the client’s brief. A lot of time and creativity is put into each client proposal, therefore it’s important that the brief is buttoned up when passed over for review.

“Prior to DocSend, we used a variety of tools in order to share our creative briefs and proposals. But with these proposals there are often last minute changes made, leading us then to have to send a whole new email and link to the client. DocSend allows us to be more streamlined and organized in our client communication,” states Tara Mallen, Senior Creative Strategist at Quartz.

With DocSend, Tara is able to ensure that the client always has the latest and correct version of her campaign response without needing to follow up with additional links. Not only that, but she has insight into who has reviewed it and if they seem to prefer one creative concept over another through DocSend’s page by page analytics.

Tara shares, “I have two favorite DocSend features. First, the ability to update a presentation or document in the backend while keeping the link the same to the end user. If there happens to be an error in what we send, the client will never need to be notified. Secondly, I love that when a presentation is viewed in preview mode within DocSend, GIFs can play so that the client, at a quick glance, can grab the concept of our pitch.”

“Recently, Quartz reevaluated the tools we were using. The sales and creative team were really vocal in ensuring we kept DocSend. At the end of the day, it is our competitive edge.

Ryan Froats

Director of Partnerships, Quartz

The post Quartz Views DocSend as a Business Critical Tool for Media Sales appeared first on DocSend.

Before using DocSend, 104 West organized and managed media relations across different lists, Google Drive folders, and documents. Maintaining a running list of pitches, press drafts, and media kits per client was both tedious and time-consuming. “As an Account Manager, I’m always striving to provide transparency to our clients of our pitching process and status. The pitching progress we can share with clients is pretty black and white. We either pitched and didn’t hear back or we pitched and received a response. This leads to a decent amount of hypothesizing on our part to determine when and how it’s best to follow up with the media contacts we don’t hear from,” shares Laura Kubitz, 104 West Account Manager.

When pitching a story to a targeted list of media who could be a good fit for a story, reporter interest and pickup depends on a number of things including a compelling story, an existing working relationship, and of course, chance. Timing, current projects, and the news cycle can all impact media interest and inclusion in a story. 104 West utilizes DocSend to host the content they are pitching, such as a press release or piece of content, using a unique trackable link per story so they have aggregated analytics into the amount of interest a particular pitch is experiencing. This allows 104 West to anticipate the expected interest or on the other hand, if a new angle should be tried or a different group of media should be pursued.

“Now with DocSend, I can provide a much more tangible and accurate status report of our pitches to our clients. For example, has the media looked at the pitch, how much did they dig in, and even if they shared it with colleagues. This then empowers us to strategically approach certain media based on how we know they’ve interacted and proactively propose the best next steps,” said Laura.

One simple and secure link for maintaining and distributing client media kits

104 West maintains their client’s media kits to ensure that the imagery and copy that’s published about each client is the most accurate and up-to-date. Previous to DocSend, Allison Heard, 104 West’s Creative Services Manager, would maintain a Google Drive folder per client and at times even per media outreach, in order to ensure that the relevant stakeholders saw all of – or only – what they should see. With Google’s limitations in user provisioning and secure sharing, this led to having to manage multiple media kits per client based on the pitch. At other times, media kits were shared as an email attachment but many times the files were too large causing delivery issues and lag time or confusion during a critical time.

“At times, we only want to share a certain video or custom graphic with the media. Alternatively, one media contact we may want to share a different level of detail with than another. So we would find ourselves creating multiple folders for a single client pitch, which then created internal confusion and led to issues with a single source of truth,” recalls Allison.

“With DocSend, we’re able to easily maintain our client’s media kits in Spaces – a central, secure place. The link is always live and up-to-date, so I no longer have to worry about media having an outdated logo or incorrect boilerplate, and we can also provide different levels of access or custom views to different sets of media contacts. This is a game-changer for us when it comes to ensuring we have the right information in front of the right folks,” shares Allison.

104 West manages their client’s media kits in DocSend

Managing an embargoed story through secure sharing

For 104 West, managing embargoed stories can be tricky when sharing a highly anticipated or highly classified bit of information or upcoming story. Prior to DocSend, this was managed over email either with an attachment or Google Doc link. Although Google Docs is great for real-time editing and collaboration, when it comes to securely pitching highly anticipated information, a link or PDF attachment in the wrong hands can ruin a story’s debut.

“With DocSend, we can protect the security of our embargoed pitches by requiring an email in order to view it. Even if that link is forwarded to someone else, we are notified of that and they also can’t view it without providing their email. This not only gives us a great peace of mind that a story can’t leak but also provides us insight into the media’s interaction and consumption of our timely pitch,” shares Brian Mast, Managing Partner, 104 West.

“With DocSend, we have real-time insights as to which part of our story resonates – or not. With these insights we are building better relationships with the press and providing better transparency, media strategy, and overall service to our clients.

Brian Mast

Managing Partner, 104 West

A new lens into client and media relations

With DocSend, 104 West is now able to more proactively manage media relationships as well as provide their clients with more detailed and specific insight into their pitching process and strategy. With real-time, secure sharing, tracking and maintaining of client assets, 104 West is able to spend more time nailing the story angle than playing the follow-up.

“DocSend has transformed the way we pitch and share information with the media. The best way for us to work with the media is to give them relevant and valuable information. We now have real-time insights as to which part of our story resonates – or not. With these insights we are building better relationships with the press and providing better transparency, media strategy, and overall service to our clients,” concludes Brian.

The post How 104 West Keeps Tabs on Media Interest and Acts Swiftly appeared first on DocSend.

Like many companies, Symphony Talent’s marketing and sales teams work closely to ensure the consistency of messaging, content, and to ultimately optimize the experience for Symphony Talent users.

Like most companies, this wasn’t always the case.

The Problem: Consistency and Personalization

Elyse Mayer, Symphony Talent’s VP of Marketing, has some idea of the pain points that frustrated her early on:

“Consistency and understanding of usage was an issue. I was Director of Content at this time and constantly asked for more content but without any context of what was working, why it was working, and who was using what.”

Without a clear understanding of what collateral was effective and being used, it was difficult to prioritize sales feedback and approach collateral creation from a strategic standpoint. For the other side of the story, here’s Mike Delzotti, Inside Sales Manager at Symphony Talent:

“We needed more personalized, targeted pieces to give to leads and prospects. We saw that this kind of content greatly increased the likelihood of conversion, and wanted to run with it. But, adding new logos and new numbers to one-pagers and white papers isn’t exactly scalable for a small content team either.”

It was clear to the team that a new strategy or tool was needed, so it was time to begin vetting different options and getting the right stakeholders involved. They tried Veelo, but found that while it suited sales fairly well, the marketing team didn’t find it useful in coordinating content.

After a bit more digging, the marketing team found the perfect balance: DocSend.

The Solution: DocSend, Personalization, and Activity Tracking

Elyse remembers her first “Aha!” moment with DocSend.

This tool captured my attention in 5 minutes as opposed to 3 hours of training. No one needs another multi-week training and rollout for new technology in an already busy schedule, and when I saw Sales actually sending content to prospects that first week, I knew we were on a good path.

Elyse Mayer

VP of Marketing, Symphony Talent

Marketing and Sales were working harmoniously and were able to put more focus where it mattered, on revenue growth across both departments. Consistency and continuity reigned again. In the meantime, the other side of the office was finding its own unique uses for DocSend. Here’s Mike again:

“Using DocSend’s Spaces feature, my team is able to fully personalize any meeting or interaction we have with potential clients. We put their logo and our logo in there, punch in their metrics and goals, and really strive to make them feel catered to. That makes all the difference in sales, and has really allowed us to grow exponentially.”

But DocSend isn’t just a “set it and forget it” tool. Mike’s team can actually pull metrics from those Spaces and documents as their prospects view them.

Most importantly, we want to understand when links within content are being clicked on and how much time is being spent viewing that content, so we can follow up with that prospect accordingly. These metrics turn what used to be a cold lead into a warm one. While they may not be answering the phone, they are checking out our content.

Elyse Mayer

VP of Marketing, Symphony Talent

The Impact: Efficiency, Quality, and Quantity

Neither Elyse nor Mike can really quantify the impact that DocSend has had on sales numbers or marketing metrics. But, they don’t really have to in order to feel the impact it’s had on their departments.

For Mike, “Overall the efficiency of leveraging the platform is extremely valuable to the team. It helps us stand out amongst our competition, and get our message in front of our prospects in a new and modern way.”

And for Elyse, “We don’t send PDFs anymore. Everything goes into DocSend. If you don’t use DocSend, you’re not getting it. Our first line of defense on a content question is, Go to Docsend.”

That kind of speaks for itself. DocSend just makes sense. A collaboration platform that improves sales numbers and keeps marketing happy? What’s not to love?

Try DocSend today, and see how we can help your business like we helped Symphony Talent.

The post Symphony Talent Drives Prospect Engagement with DocSend appeared first on DocSend.

For us to win new clients and effectively demonstrate our unique approach, we need the ability to quickly distribute complex and often dense research to a range of different viewers. We believe that access to knowledge makes the strategic transaction planning process more effective and ultimately demonstrates an important part of the strategic value we bring to clients.

Michael Magruder

Managing Director, Madison Park Group

MPG needed to be able to easily share a library of research with clients, as well as distribute marketing collateral to prospects. Given the unique aspects and needs of each group, laser-focused content is imperative. With hundreds of viewers, and significant amounts of information being shared, it is difficult to understand what content is important to whom, and how to prioritize marketing and research efforts.

DocSend analytics allow MPG to engage new prospects & manage existing customer needs

MPG uses DocSend to host and distribute market research for specific software categories and marketing collateral. This material can include a wide range of content forms and includes everything from one-page company profiles for key industry players to extensive presentations outlining macro-economic analysis and commentary.

With this approach, MPG gained access to analytics that allowed a better understanding of which readers were spending time on what content pieces. On an individual level, this allows them to see specifically who is interacting with which parts of the content and how. This has allowed MPG to better cater to customer needs and more effectively engage new client prospects.

By understanding specific stakeholders’ interests, we are able to gain valuable intelligence on key industry trends and ultimately better advise our clients.

Michael Magruder

Managing Director, Madison Park Group

DocSend gave MPG the granularity they needed to understand what specific readers found valuable in their content. Whether they are speaking to a CEO who is interested in raising investment capital or corporate development professionals who want to learn more about early-stage, market-disrupting companies, MPG walks into each meeting knowing how to tailor the conversation. This results in a more effective marketing and client engagement process for MPG, saving significant time by focusing on how to best serve the client.

Curious how you can do the same? Click here to get started with DocSend for free.

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