How Archistar creates beautiful proposals, at speed with Qwilr

No matter what product or service you sell, you’ve probably spent a decent amount of time carefully considering how you present yourself, and your company, to the outside world. Being able to create a consistent brand experience, at speed, all while maintaining top-notch design can be a tall order.

Take for example Archistar. Their world-class property development software helps clients find, visualize, and assess potential property development opportunities. With such a large responsibility, and discerning customer base, they knew having a consistent brand experience all the way through the sales cycle was very important to drive trust and excitement for their product.

After completing a significant refresh of their visual brand, including a new website, the last element to connect to their new brand was their sales collateral.

Making a change

Initially, when looking for a proposal tool they were just interested in the more standard functionality. "We were just looking for e-signature software that integrated with our CRM to improve efficiency,” said Neil de Jesus, Head of Marketing at Archistar.

Some months later the sales team was making a switch over from their old CRM to Salesforce. That paired with the reality that their current tool didn’t match the rest of their brand aesthetic and was somewhat slow to use led them to search for a new solution.

That’s when they found Qwilr.

A new look

Though the solution Neil and the Archistar team were using prior to Qwilr did the basics, it left something to be desired. “We would go through the whole sales process, then attempt to close the deal with an unattractive document, which wasn’t ideal.”

Since Neil had spent so much time developing the company brand he wanted to make sure it carried all the way through the sales process. “For the brand itself I put an extreme emphasis on visuals and upfront demonstration of value.”

With Qwilr’s design tools they were now able to reflect the overall brand aesthetic in their proposals. Also, since Qwilr pages are web pages, they could also easily utilize other assets they had like videos and pictures. “We could just copy and paste from our content library and not worry about reformatting like we did before.”

All of which added up to a consistent brand experience for the prospect all the way through the sales cycle. “As a marketer it’s refreshing to have control over the selling process up until the final point of sale...it allows me to have consistent bright lights right up until the end of the deal.”

Leveraging Salesforce data to improve efficiency

The switch over to Salesforce meant Neil was interested in solutions that could easily integrate with their new CRM. After getting a personal recommendation from a trusted colleague, Neil decided to check out Qwilr.

After an initial call with the sales team, he decided to do a demo of the product. “The demo went about as good as you could hope for.” Neil found the interface to be quite intuitive and user-friendly. Not unlike some other web editors he’d used prior.

“I like that it [Qwilr] works like other CMSs. It made navigating and setting up a template really quick to do.” Along with being able to set up a template quickly, Neil also found setting up the Salesforce integration was hassle-free and very powerful for the whole team.

“The integration with Salesforce is seamless...our reps are able to make proposals right in the CRM.” Being able to create sales proposals without leaving the CRM, while also being able to utilize pre-built templates really added up.

By utilizing tokens and other automations with Qwilr’s Salesforce integration the sales team at Archistar was able to make huge gains. “Our sales reps are able to generate proposals in about half the time meaning they can send higher quality proposals, faster.”

Futureproof

Once upon a time PDFs were the standard for sales proposals. However, as time goes on PDFs are starting to lose favor. “The printing out of paper contracts is losing prominence, especially in SaaS.” Beyond simply moving away from paper proposals, even the digital experience of a PDF is quickly starting to feel very dated.

“When you’re looking at a PDF page you get one view on mobile, then another on desktop, and it’s not always the same across devices. On mobile you might have to zoom in on the contract and look through to see where to sign or initial.”

Modern buyers expect a more seamless experience. Things like responsive design that may have once been seen as a luxury are quickly becoming non-negotiable. “Qwilr meets the expectation of what people look for in the digital age...I feel like this is the way of the future.”

Looking ahead

With the help of Qwilr, Neil, and the rest of the Archistar team, are now able to ensure a consistent brand experience all the way through the sales cycle. As a marketer, Neil greatly appreciates that fact. “Marketers are all about right time, right place, and right message and Qwilr helps us achieve those in spades.”

Along with a consistent brand experience, they’re also able to move faster and get more done. Something that Neil doesn’t think is possible with any other solution. “We want to have the highest quality, personalized, marketing, sales, and pitch material out there as fast as we can. Qwilr is the best way to do that.”