Many businesses make significant investments in sales and marketing automation to accelerate the acquisition of new customers and revenue, only to leave the most crucial part of the process—actually gaining binding customer agreement— completely manual, time-consuming and labor-intensive. Could you really have made strategic investments in automation only to leave the crucial, deal closing part stranded in the world of pen and paper? The good news is that whether or not you have the ideal sales automation system in place, you can quickly and cost-effectively deploy electronic signature technology to obtain sales orders, contracts and other agreements signed faster.

1. Accelerate Sales with Electronic
Signature Technology
WHITE PAPER docusign.com
Many businesses make significant investments in sales and whether or not a document has been reviewed or forwarded and
marketing automation to accelerate the acquisition of new when. Integrated with a CRM or SFA system, the audit trail data
customers and revenue, only to leave the most crucial part of can provide unprecedented pipeline visibility. See Figure 1 below
the process—actually gaining binding customer agreement— for a sample audit trail.
completely manual, time-consuming and labor-intensive. Could
you really have made strategic investments in automation only to Figure 1. An order was sent for signature at 5:01 pm on 9/13/2009. The
leave the crucial, deal closing part stranded in the world of pen order was viewed and signed, then received at 7:17 pm the same day.
and paper? Traditional delivery methods including printing, faxing and next day
delivery would have added up to 48 hours or more to complete the
The good news is that whether or not you have the ideal sales signing process.
automation system in place, you can quickly and cost-effectively
deploy electronic signature technology to obtain sales orders, Envelope Data
contracts and other agreements signed faster. Envelope ID: 9729d31e-4dc3-49f0-8bac-8eco569dyjoE
For organizations with existing systems, electronic signature Subject: Contract for Services
technology can actually accelerate the return on investment Sent: 9/13/2009 5:01:33PM
for customer relationship management (CRM) or sales force Registered: 9/13/2009 4:57:18PM
automation (SFA) systems.
Document: 1
What if you could shave days or even weeks off of every order Signers: Joseph Kauffman
or contract you sent for signature, as well as gain unsurpassed
Status: Completed
visibility into the contract life cycle? Plus, book revenue faster?
Date Time Source User Action
Isn’t that what you expected from sales automation in the first
place? This brief discusses the role of electronic signature 9/13/2009 4:57:18PM Web Ben Smith Registered
technology in accelerating the most crucial piece of the sales 9/13/2009 5:01:34PM Web Ben Smith Sent
cycle—getting a deal signed, closed and committed. Invitations
9/13/2009 7:16:54PM Web Joseph Viewed
If a prospect gives one of your sales representatives a verbal
Kauffman
“yes,” how long does it take to get the actual order sent for
9/13/2009 7:17:02PM Web Joseph Signed
signature—not to mention getting it returned? Assuming the
Kauffman
quote has already been provided, a bit of verbal negotiation has
taken place and the subsequent updates have been made, does 9/13/2009 7:17:11PM Web Joseph Printable
Kauffman Copy
the order now need to be printed and faxed or sent via next day
Delivered
delivery? How often are faxes or overnight envelopes lost or sent
with errors that require the process to begin all over again? Or
faxed so many times that the document is in effect illegible? Is it
enough time for a competitor put doubt in your buyer’s mind? Is
it enough time to push the order out past the deadline for that
crucial month or quarter? Very likely, the answer is often “yes.”
If you find yourself sitting next to the fax machine the last day
of the month, quarter or year, take a look at how electronic
signature technology is already giving other sales organizations
significant competitive advantage by ensuring that sales orders
get to and from their customers in the shortest time possible—
electronically. In addition, the most robust technologies for
electronic signing provide realtime audit trails which show Continued

2. W HI T E PA P E R docusign.com
About Electronic Signatures
With an electronic signature, documents can be securely signed
online, without printing, faxing or mailing. Electronic signatures
can replace pen-and-ink on any kind of agreement from real
estate contracts to loan applications to commercial contracts
for any kind of goods or services. Electronic signatures have the
same legal effect as pen-and-ink, as long as they are executed
through a process that clearly establishes intent to sign and
ensures all legal elements of proof, thus complying with the
federal Electronic Signature In Global and National Commerce
Act (ESIGN), as well as the Uniform Electronic Transactions
Act (UETA).
Traditional Signing & Delivery Methods Total elapsed time = 7 days (2.5 weeks)
Customer Document Document Document Customer Client faxes, Document is Contract is
agrees created printed faxed, reviews overnights, received and processed
to buy overnighted, document couriers or scanned for
couriered or snail mails archiving or
snail mailed to signed physically filed
Customer document
DocuSign e-Signature Process Total elapsed time = Less than 10 minutes
Customer Document Document Customer Customer Contract is
agrees created sent via reviews signs and sales processed
to buy DocuSign document representative
is notified
About DocuSign
DocuSign is the world’s most trusted electronic signature network, with millions of DocuSigners who have signed tens of millions of documents.
With DocuSign you can accelerate the speed of business using the easiest, fastest, most secure way to send, sign, track and store documents in the cloud.
Visit docusign.com or call 1-866-219-4318.
1301 Second Avenue, Suite 2000 | Seattle, Washington 98101 | toll free 866.219.4318 | docusign.com
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