eSignatures are a fast and efficient way to get contracts across the finish line. But can you use them in Salesforce? Let’s find out.
Gone are the days where a contract had to be sent through the mail and signed in wet ink in order to be valid. Today, businesses can close deals and finalize transactions from anywhere in the world, using any device – and it’s all thanks to eSignatures. But how can you move towards electronic signatures and depart from wet signatures?
This deep dive delves into how you can integrate eSignature with one of the world’s biggest CRM platforms, empowering legal and sales teams to streamline the contract management process without leaving the systems they love.
Definitions | Can you use eSignature in Salesforce? | How does eSignature work in Salesforce? | Common use cases | Benefits | How to work with contracts | How to set up eSignature in Salesforce
What is an eSignature?
Also known as an electronic signature, an eSignature is a digital element or markup used to signify a digital document (typically a contract) being signed. Compared to the traditional ‘wet signature’ which involved marking physical documents with a pen, an eSignature can be created using digits, fingers, or letters on a wide range of devices, rendering it a more accessible and convenient way to finalize contracts.
As with traditional signatures, the primary purpose of an electronic signature is to identify you as the document signatory. However, eSignatures have proved transformative in the sense that businesses and customers can now sign contracts on the go, over email, using mobile technology, in a browser, and even in prestige customer relationship management (CRM) platforms such as Salesforce.
What is Salesforce?
Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) tool, and it is the dominant choice for businesses and sales teams seeking to connect with and nurture their relationships with both potential and existing clients.
Can you use eSignature in Salesforce?
Yes, businesses are able to sign documents with secure eSigning through Salesforce using an eSignature integration. This empowers sales, commerce and other business teams to prepare, edit, negotiate, manage and even sign contracts electronically through the platform.
These integrations can be accessed through Salesforce’s marketplace, AppExchange, where you will find a wide range of customized eSignature applications designed to seamlessly integrate with their CRM.
Within the AppExchange, users can find free eSignature solutions for Salesforce, like Simple Signature and eSignLive, as well as a wide range of more advanced, paid electronic signature solutions, like Juro, DocuSign, HelloSign and everSign.
Are eSignatures in Salesforce legally binding?
eSignatures are recognised across the globe, and at the highest level, an electronic signature will carry the same weight as a wet ink signature, meaning that eSignatures used in the Salesforce platform will typically be legally binding.
For example, the US ESIGN Act declares that electronic signatures are valid and enforceable despite being electronic, and the European Union eIDAS regulation says that Standard Electronic Signatures are valid in most business transactions.
That said, there are some exceptions to this rule, as a select few countries perceive eSignatures differently, so we recommend consulting with your legal team or local laws before moving forward with eSignatures in Salesforce and other platforms.
How does eSignature work in Salesforce?
By integrating an eSignature functionality within Salesforce, you can streamline the agreement process. It might look like this, for example:
A salesperson decides to send a contract for signature. The prospect will then promptly receive the document, and can sign it within seconds using an eSignature. They can do this on whichever device they choose. Once the electronic signature has been created, Salesforce will receive a notification that the contract is signed, and will begin to trigger other events, like pushing the opportunity to won and notifying any important stakeholders of the completion.
Thanks to a native eSignature solution, sales teams no longer need to wait around for physical documents to be sent, received, signed, scanned and processed manually. Signing contracts with eSignature in Salesforce can be instantaneous, making the signing process less stressful for everyone.
Common uses for eSignature in Salesforce
Here are just a few of the most common use cases of eSignature in Salesforce, where businesses often see the biggest benefit from the integration:
1. Sales contracts
Sales contracts are among the most common use cases for eSignature in Salesforce, and this is true in businesses of all sizes. With an increasing number of business transactions happening across borders, the opportunity to sign and process documents electronically and remotely as opposed to in person is a game-changer, particularly if your business processes and signs sales contracts at a high velocity.
By integrating a native eSignature solution like Juro, sales teams can quickly and securely sign contracts across any device, without needing to leave the systems they love.
2. Client onboarding
Client onboarding is a critical moment for any business since it is the period where a relationship is formalized and a contract is signed – that is, if the customer actually approves of and signs the contract. Unfortunately, even the smallest delays or inefficiencies at this stage can lead a new client relationship to fall through, which is why businesses need to have the paperwork ready to sign and in the hands of a customer at the earliest convenience.
That’s why client onboarding contracts and forms are a popular eSignature use case in Salesforce. By using eSignatures on Salesforce, you can prevent onboarding delays typically caused by missed emails and inconvenient signing processes, enabling you to make the onboarding process less of a pain point for both you and your client.
3. Service requests
According to Zendesk, 65% of consumers expect customer service responses to be faster now than 5 years ago. Meanwhile, Google has reported a growth of 120% in mobile searches for “wait times”. Clearly, customers are becoming less patient.
It shouldn’t surprise you, therefore, that service requests are moving away from slow and inaccurate paper-based processes and towards digital transactions with the help of eSignature.
Today, customers want convenient access to their documents, and to be able to make decisions on the go. What they don’t want is to spend hours trailing through old emails for important information. By pairing Salesforce with eSignature software, users can swiftly access and sign documents with an electronic in a more mobile way.
4. Non Disclosure Agreements
Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are signed at scale within businesses, and they are standard practice for most organizations dealing with customers, employees and potential investors.
By using eSignatures in Salesforce, your business can ensure that NDAs are signed conveniently and securely. The integration will also allow you to access a full audit trail, track progress and address any friction with ease.
The benefits of using electronic signature in Salesforce
1. Sales teams stay in the systems they love
As any salesperson will tell you, the ability to work from a single platform to perform various different functions is invaluable. By integrating an eSignature tool like ours with a major CRM platform like Salesforce, business teams are empowered to stay within the systems they love, rather than switching platforms to perform different tasks.
2. Better customer experience
Delivering better customer experience ought to be a priority, even at the end of a transaction. By integrating Juro’s eSignature app with Salesforce, you can make every prospect’s signing experience a positive one. Clients can sign in quickly and securely from anywhere in the world to access and sign documents in real-time, using any device.
3. More secure
There are a few main ways that Juro’s eSignature integration on Salesforce delivers this enhanced security:
- Juro collect information from counter parties to confirm their identity through identity verification
- Contracts signed on Juro are made immutable using secure hash algorithms
- Connections to Juro are encrypted
- Juro servers comply with all applicable data protection laws.
Read more about the security of our eSignature tool.
4. Single source of truth
By using eSignature in Salesforce, you can benefit from increased data integrity. Contracts signed through Juro, for example, are time stamped and made immutable using secure hash algorithms. This means that they are immune from tampering, and almost impossible to manipulate.
What’s more, eSignature through Salesforce with Juro creates an audit trail of all activity, which is fantastic for making the forecasting process easier.
5. Cost effectiveness
Research has revealed that companies that adopt an electronic signature solution can reduce the costs associated with document handling by an impressive 85%. Meanwhile, Forbes estimates that businesses can become 70-80% more efficient after removing manual processes and adopting digital technologies like eSignatures.
Preparing, sharing, printing and storing physical documents can become costly as your business scales. By digitizing your signature process and breaking free from your paper trail, you could be saving precious business resources.
6. Close deals quicker
One of the biggest advantages of using eSignature with Salesforce is that you can dramatically reduce the amount of time spent finalizing a contract. Compared to traditional signature processes that typically involve an awful lot of emailing, printing, redlining, scanning, using an electronic signature integration will cut out the need for manual labor when it comes to closing deals and allow you to focus on what matters most – closing.
How to work with contracts in Salesforce
It isn’t enough to simply know that Salesforce supports eSignature. To truly get the most out of the integrations, you need to understand how to work with contracts in Salesforce to begin with. Here’s how a contract is typically managed through Salesforce, before being signed off with an intuitive eSignature tool:
For Juro users, it couldn’t be easier:
- Sales reps are able to self-serve by generating contracts in Salesforce using templates prepared by their legal team in Juro. This pre-signature stage of a contract lifecycle typically resides with the sales team.
- Once a contract has been shipped, the sales team can remain focused on monitoring the customer status, pipeline and potential leads. Simultaneously, the legal team can assess risk, negotiate friction points and monitor legal terms within the contracts. This can all happen in real time, within a single system.
- Sign electronically! Using an eSignature integration on Salesforce, parties can quickly and easily sign contracts no matter where they are.
- Post-signature, departments like finance, sales, legal and procurement will be able to track renewals, analytics and other contract data, which can inform future strategy and improve visibility using one single source of truth.
Sounds pretty seamless, right? Let’s help you get going.
How to get started with eSignature in Salesforce
There are a few simple steps to follow to set up Salesforce and Juro, and begin using our eSignature feature:
- Install the Juro package on Salesforce, using the link found at Juro Salesforce Releases.
- Access your Juro workspace and set up your Salesforce integration. This can be found under settings.
3. Connect Juro and Salesforce by filling in your Salesforce account details.
4. Sync your Juro templates with Salesforce to begin loading and using your contract templates.
5. You’re good to go!
Once you have integrated your Juro app with your Salesforce account, you will benefit from live-synced data shared between the two platforms, meaning that legal can remain in their system of record for contracts, and sales can continue working from Salesforce, without losing or needing to manually input the data for each. That means no more waiting around for contracts to be signed and delivered, enabling you to capture revenue more quickly and efficiently.
Ready to use eSignatures?
Ready to say goodbye to lengthy, cross-platform processes when signing your contracts? Fed up of email trails and wet ink signatures slowing you down? It might be time to move towards eSignature – a secure, efficient and mobile way to get to yes.
Electronic signing is offered as standard as part of Juro’s end-to-end contract automation platform. We help you capture signatures through intuitive, mobile responsive signing flows, making contracts legally binding and delivering a great user experience for your most trusted stakeholders.