Posts by Aaron Beashel
7 ways to optimize your sales process
Is your organization closing as many sales deals as you’d like? Many organizations have teams of marketers who optimize everything they can, including Facebook Ads, landing pages and email campaigns and more to try to generate more leads. But once a lead is generated and handed over to sales, the process often gets a lot…
Read MoreIntroducing: Loom video embeds in Qwilr
With the recent rise in remote work, in-person meetings are few and far in between, and getting a call on the calendar amidst the mishmash of work, home, work-from-home, and — What day is it again? — can be a real struggle. It’s one reason video messaging tools like Loom are exploding in popularity. Sending someone…
Read MoreProduct Polish: A place for everything and everything in place
We’re all busy. There are deals to close and projects to complete. The last thing we need is to waste time searching through digital debris just to find the thing we need to get started. And the more Qwilr becomes a hub for your team’s documents, the more your Dashboard can feel like a bottomless…
Read MoreShaking up the sales process: Our Series A funding
We launched Qwilr back in 2014 with the goal of reimagining how sales communication is done. We wanted it to be seamless, intuitive, impressive — and delivered fast. Since then, we’ve attracted an amazing customer base of thousands of teams from over 60 countries worldwide. This week, we’re proud to announce our Series A funding…
Read MoreCOVID-19: What we’re doing to help
In the wake of COVID-19, we’re all up against some stark challenges. But perhaps now more than ever, it’s clear that we’re in it together. We’re all part of a global community — and it’s our view that we should be helping one another in whatever ways we can, no matter how small. Here’s what…
Read MoreThree ways to reduce the time it takes to create a website proposal
As a web designer, your ability to close new business with clients is highly dependent on your ability to craft stunning, successful web design proposals. This often takes time that you may not have – most web designers can’t afford to spend three or four hours to make every single proposal perfect. You need to…
Read MoreThe 5 must-have sections in your construction proposal
The winner is definitely in the details when it comes to amazing construction proposals. Your sales team likely already has a complicated relationship with proposals. Construction proposals are the lifeblood of any firm– it’s how your team brings money into the company. Without this critical document, you don’t have a business. Creating these proposals however…
Read MoreHow to best present past projects in your website proposal
As a web developer, your job is all about creating excellent websites! Writing website proposals will come to be a task that drives your business forward and as such, you’ll do it again and again. Your proposal should ultimately be more about your prospect than your company, but that doesn’t mean you should leave out…
Read MoreWhy a problem statement is a must In your marketing proposal
Have you ever found yourself writing up a proposal and all of a sudden become confused by what is it you are exactly trying to solve? If yes, you are not the only one. Many agencies fall under the trap of jumping the gun to show their client their creative solutions. In the midst of…
Read MoreProduct polish: design-driven documents
So far this year, we’ve spent time on features that give you more flexibility when designing your Qwilr Pages, including one of your top requested features, 2 Columns. That’s because we know that design isn’t just for the creatives anymore. In today’s hyper-competitive world, it’s becoming increasingly important for all business functions from marketing, to…
Read MoreHow to increase your event proposal’s acceptance rate with an interactive quote block
From venue hiring to catering, there’s a lot that goes into events. It’s why event management can be a hard service to sell. Prospective clients are often skeptical when presented with an event proposal – questioning whether or not the event will fall through perfectly. There are just so many things for the client to…
Read MoreWhy social proof is a MUST in your business proposal
Social proof. The force influencing our everyday decision-making process. Social proof exists because as a society, we group together. All of the people around you (and their decisions) are pushing and pulling you to either do or not do certain things. This herd mentality phenomenon is a strong force as far as influencing our behaviors…
Read MoreIncrease your website proposal conversion rate and win more work with one simple trick
You may have clicked on this article looking for tips on what content to include, what structure to use, or to get some design inspo for your website proposal to optimize your conversion rate. Although all of these are crucial aspects of a stellar proposal, let’s focus on something that isn’t as big of a…
Read MoreThree ways to reduce the time it takes to create a business proposal
How do you handle business? Great leadership means that there’s a balance of both reactive pivots and proactive outreach. Having both is necessary to successfully achieve your internal revenue objectives. When you’re pitching business in a highly competitive industry, taking the time to be proactive is critical. You likely already know this; you’re focused and…
Read MoreHow to best present past projects in your marketing proposal
It’s important to the process of closing sales that you don’t confuse your prospective client by putting irrelevant content into the wrong sections. We often see marketers (such as yourself) put the performance data into the experience section of their marketing proposals. Remember, experience refers to the past involvement on projects that are similar to…
Read MoreWhy social proof is a MUST in your marketing proposal
There’s a lot of anxiety around B2B purchasing. The truth is that we don’t know how any one decision will work out for us. Even in business (especially in business), there are a lot of unknowns. Despite this, we take a gamble, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t lessen the risk. As a marketer,…
Read MoreThe 5 must-have sections in your sales proposal
Great sales proposals don’t happen overnight. Your sales proposal will be reviewed by all decision-makers and purchasers involved in the process. On occasion, proposals are just a mere formality and your prospect has already made their decision. But it’s much more likely that your proposal is what makes all the difference. More often than not,…
Read MoreProduct polish: new ways to collaborate
For many of us, work is becoming more collaborative than ever before. And that’s a good thing – when we work together, we reap the benefits of drawing on different perspectives and broader expertise, leading us to better results. Whether it’s crafting the perfect pitch, creating a winning proposal, or putting together any document that…
Read MoreWith collaboration more important than ever, it’s time to think bigger than Microsoft Office
About four weeks ago, I started writing this piece. It was about how Microsoft Office, as the default generalist software package for pretty much every business, is frequently finding itself out of its depth when it comes to functionality. Modern tech-driven businesses live in dynamic, digital environments, and their processes require dynamic, digital documents. Static…
Read More9 Tips For Marketing Your Startup
Marketing is a big challenge for every new rising brand. Being a startup, there are limitations on both budget and resources, and owners don’t always have the facilities to conduct full-scale marketing campaigns. And then there’s keeping up with the competition. Other startups might have already matured their marketing strategy, while established businesses might have…
Read MoreHow You Can Close More Sales With An Effective Logo
Whipping up business solutions comes naturally for entrepreneurs. Still, too many brands lose the chance to close sales. This is not because they have bad products per se, but because they have underwhelming identities represented by a bad logo. So often ineffective logos fall short in answering these three essential questions about a brand: What…
Read More8 design shortcuts for visually impressive documents
Designing great presentations can be hard, high pressure work. Whether I’m designing for an internal presentation to people I know, a pitch deck for Founders to pitch to VCs, or even to design a winning grant proposal for Bill Gates, the challenge is always the same—how can I design this so the presenter’s message so…
Read MoreProduct polish: small document details that make the difference
Creating documents in Qwilr is simple, but there a few tricks you can try to make creating your documents that bit more enjoyable. This month, we’re shining light on a few improvements aimed at doing just that, along with helping you manage the volume of pages in your dashboard. Whether you’re a small business working…
Read MoreHow to attract leads with marketing when you’re not a marketer
66% of small business owners say that attracting leads or finding new clients is a top concern. So, of course attracting a loyal, engaged audience is high on your business bucket list. But, as a small business owner or freelancer, you’re tired, tight on time and lacking in resources. You’re the accountant, the salesperson, the…
Read MoreIntroducing Block Styles: The fastest way to create expressive sales and marketing documents
Over the past few months, a lot of our work has been driven by a question—how do we make it easier to quickly customize Qwilr Pages to reflect your brand style? This is a core experience in Qwilr, and something we take particular pride in, but our customer feedback showed us the improvements we needed…
Read MoreHow to construct the perfect social media ad for your business
Every business with an online presence can benefit from a social ad strategy. They’re affordable, scalable, and can drive conversions with efficacy. But you can’t just knock up a basic ad, up your ad spend, and wait for the results to start rolling in — a solid social ad strategy relies on a number of…
Read MoreThe beginner’s guide to creating an event sponsorship plan
Getting the right sponsors to join forces with you for your conference can make a big impact on the success of your event. It’s a guaranteed revenue source, and if you partner with relevant companies, the relationship will also provide added value to attendees. To do this well, take the time to create personalized packages…
Read More13 awesome things you can do when you create your proposals as webpages
Have you viewed a PDF on a mobile or tablet recently? Chances are, you have, as the PDF has been the default document format since its invention in the 90s. It’s also highly likely you have had to wait for the file to download, zoom in to view the content, swipe across to read it,…
Read MoreThe basic steps for a successful event marketing plan
You’ve chosen a venue, booked the speakers, and locked in a date for your big event. You’ve selected which snacks and meals you’re serving (because, let’s be real, we all remember what the food was like). You’re starting to wonder which talk people will love the most, and maybe a little anxious about making sure…
Read MoreTips to work on, not in your small business
When independent casting director Cinzia Coassin started her business, she offered two distinct services—workshops for actors and casting services to film producers. She had years of experience as an actor and worked for casting directors negotiating film and TV deals and auditioning actors. Starting her own business gave her the income she needed but also…
Read MoreThe small business hustle—tips and free tools
There’s a cult of entrepreneurship that says scaling a startup into a big, massive business is more worthy than solopreneurs running a small, creative business harnessing free tools and cheap technology. But there’s a great lifestyle on offer running a small business or side hustle. There’s no pressure around capital raising or 60-hour week burnouts…
Read MoreThe bookmarkable guide on writing case studies
A case study is the story of where your client was before they found you, how they used your services, and how it improved their business because of it. They aren’t just a bunch of logos and metrics—they’re real stories that can help you find more leads, and get you across the line. In today’s…
Read MoreBranding in small business—why it matters
It’s a fact. People care more about their personal appearance than the logos or branding they use to get clients and make money in business. “People happily spend hundreds of dollars getting their hair done but then they want a logo that costs $5 for their business,” says digital designer Zoe Tattersall. “It’s madness.” Visual…
Read MoreGet the upsell without pressure tactics
Upselling can often get a bad rap. It might trigger a memory where you’ve unnecessarily—or maybe unknowingly—purchased something you didn’t need at the hand of a pushy sales rep. Or maybe when you didn’t realise what you were buying into due to a convoluted and confusing contract. There’s a clear way to avoid this kind…
Read MoreSigning with speed—how to design your proposals for faster acceptance rates
Sometimes, the most surprising thing about working at an agency is how much time you spend trying to win work instead of actually doing work. If you’ve found yourself in this situation, don’t worry: you’re not alone. We’ve spoken to a range of customers who’ve told us their biggest challenge at work is reacting faster…
Read MoreOvercoming the Sales vs. Marketing hurdle
I’ll be sharing our observations on sales and marketing teams, and some tips to help these teams evolve using Qwilr, including effective retargeting, better search engine discoverability, and a path to faster social sharing. Short on time? Check out our two minute video summary: Getting started Aligning sales and marketing tactics We all know businesses…
Read MoreHow to dramatically reduce the time it takes to create proposals
Do you feel like you’re spending too many hours creating and sending proposals? If you do, it’s likely an even bigger issue than you think. Not only can it be unexciting, repetitive work, but it typically isn’t billable, so you’re actually losing money doing it. To help you out, we’ve highlighted 5 different ways you…
Read More5 reasons not to use PDF for proposals
As a growing company, you probably send a lot of proposals to potential new customers. But if you’re still sending them as PDF or Word documents, it might be hurting your ability to close deals. And that’s never a good thing. Imagine if there was a way to send proposals to potential customers that were…
Read MoreWinning more work series part I: Winning the quote before making the quote
Winning work starts long before you send the quote. No matter what your business, how you present yourself before you have the chance to quote will determine what you’re asked to quote on, and whether your quotes succeed. This article looks at how your business can make sure its set up to win quotes before…
Read MoreWinning more work series part III: Closing more deals
In our first article in this series, we looked at how to set yourself up to win work before you’ve even submitted a quote. In our second, we looked at how to put forward a winning quote. In this article, we want to look at how you can turn your quotes into cash by tracking…
Read MoreWinning more work series part II: Presenting a winning quote, proposal or pitch
In our first article in this series, we looked at how to set yourself up to win work before you’ve even submitted a quote. In this article, we want to look at what you can do to make the actual quote as successful as possible. Of course we’re biased and think one way you can…
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