Better Collaboration, Better Proposals: Don't Let Team Efforts Go to Waste

Using traditional methods like email chains and shared drives to create proposals gets messy, fast. It often feels like you've entered a puzzle competition where everyone's working on their own section to bring the big picture together. Except, it's as if you're all starting from a slightly different image of what the final picture should look like.

In the process, pieces go missing, get mixed up, or end up in the wrong place altogether. Before you know it, your proposal is more Frankenstein's monster than Michelangelo's David.

And when it's time to present it to a client, the hodgepodge of ideas, styles, voices, and thoughts becomes glaringly obvious. Clients can tell when a proposal feels rushed, inconsistent, or unclear. They notice when sections don’t flow, when different ideas clash, and when important details are missing. As a result, they're left doubting your attention to detail and your ability to handle their project with care.

The worst part? This bad first impression could have been easily avoided by using proposal software with collaboration features.

Working together in real time

If you're trying to collaborate on proposals in Word, losing track of what's been changed is just a normal day. Imagine you've just finished a proposal draft, but you need feedback from Jack in finance and Joan in marketing. You email the draft to both of them, they each make their own edits and send separate files back. Joan also sends you additional notes via Slack.

Now, you have three versions of the same proposal and have to sift through each one to find and implement changes. On top of that, you have to remember to check your messages for the rest of the feedback. A few hours of cross referencing, copying, pasting, and double checking later, you finally put the proposal back together.

With real-time collaboration in proposal software, this process goes from chaotic to smooth. Instead of juggling multiple files, everyone logs in, makes changes in real time, and leaves comments in one central place. Additional notes are now right there in the document, not lost in a Slack thread. By the time you're done, you have a polished proposal with none of the wasted time that comes with email threads and local file versions.

Speaking of local file versions...

Keeping track of files like Proposal_Draft, Proposal_Draft_v3, Proposal_Draft_final is hard enough if you're the only one working on them. Add a team into the mix, and you've got yourself a great foundation for misunderstandings, lost edits, and mistakes like sending the wrong version to the client.

With each new draft, team members create their own “final” versions, saving them in separate folders or sending them over email. Soon enough, nobody knows which document is actually final and feedback gets lost in the shuffle.

In the worst-case scenario, a client receives the wrong proposal version with the wrong pricing or key details missing. Even if you catch the mistake quickly, having to send a follow-up correction is an embarrassing place to be in. Besides creating confusion, it also risks damaging your client's trust. The last thing you want to do is make a client wonder if there's anything else you've overlooked.

With proposal software, this situation is completely avoidable. Since your team is working inside one platform, all edits, feedback, and approvals are centralized. Everyone on the team is working on a single, up-to-date version of the proposal.

You no longer have to wonder which draft includes the latest changes or worry about sending the wrong version to the client. With real-time updates and approvals, you can make sure your proposal is perfect the first time it gets in front of the client.

What about the big picture?

The proposals you send shape how clients see your company. If you're aiming for professionalism, reliability, and trust, what your proposals need is consistency.

However, when different team members contribute independently, staying consistent becomes tricky. Each person brings their own writing style, tone, and preferred formatting.

Without a system to keep everyone on the same page, proposals end up feeling patched together. Sections don't flow, the fact that different teams were involved is obvious. As a result, your proposal feels unprofessional and the trust you've worked hard to build is at risk.

Instead of being reassured that you're the right choice for the project, the client now has doubts. They wonder if the lack of consistency in your proposal reflects the level of disorganization they can expect throughout the project. Your abilities to communicate effectively, do quality work, and deliver on time are now called into question.

With proposal software, you can make the exact opposite impression. No matter how many people collaborate on a proposal, you can have a uniform, professional proposal every time.

You start by embedding your brand guidelines like colors and fonts to make sure they're automatically applied to every document. Then, you set up a template for a consistent structure and layout in every proposal. Maybe you even add a library of pre-approved content everyone can grab and add in a few clicks.

Now, everyone is working with the same framework, ensuring consistency from the first draft to the final version. The result? Proposals that leave no room for doubt, instill confidence, and reinforce your brand. The best part is, creating a proposal this way takes just a fraction of the time while creating better results.

Better collaboration, better proposals

Let's be honest - teamwork makes the dream work, but it can also make a nightmare come to life. Ideally, your proposal process would be more along the lines of the former.

For that, you need a system that makes collaboration smooth and efficient. You know, a tool that keeps everyone on the same page at all times. We're biased, so we'll recommend Better Proposals.