DocuSign is an eSignature solution that’s used by over a million companies across the world. When a company shifts from its Standard to Business Pro or Enterprise, it is typically purchased through its sales team.
Before you start negotiating a discount with DocuSign, you must understand what levers you can pull to maximise the ROI on your time spent.
To help with this, we've analyzed hundreds of DocuSign contracts and millions of dollars of spend to help you understand what levers you can pull in the following scenarios:
Managing a DocuSign renewal when your contract value is increasing:
When your contract increases, it’s highly likely you’ll negotiate a discount with DocuSign. Your first consideration is what pricing model you choose. You can be charged per user or based on the number of envelopes you send. When you negotiate DocuSign, the levers you can pull are:
- Envelope-based pricing: When negotiating with DocuSign, consider opting for the envelope pricing model, as it can potentially secure a larger discount. Bear in mind that there will be no refunds for unused envelopes in this option.
- Expanding your use of DocuSign: Utilize the knowledge of increased discount potential with more DocuSign products to your advantage. This information can be kept private and not shared immediately during negotiations
- Billing frequency: Paying upfront can secure a higher discount with DocuSign.
- Time: Conversations need to kick off 90 days in advance. The closer to your renewal date, the less leverage you have.
- Competition: The eSignature space is highly competitive. Use Hudled’s pricing insights to find out what Pandadoc, Qwilr and other eSignature companies offer.
- Benchmark price: Reference Hudled's pricing insights to gather information on what other companies similar to yours are paying and the best terms that are offered.
Managing a DocuSign renewal when your contract value is staying the same:
If you are content with your current discount, there is no need to engage in negotiations. Your contract can be auto-renewed without the need for additional time investment. However, if you do decide to negotiate with DocuSign, the levers you can pull are:
- Billing frequency: It's unlikely you can negotiate the best possible terms and discounts without material changes in your contract. There may be an opportunity for you to get a bigger discount if you pay annually.
- Competition: If you have data on a competitive tool, your leverage increases. Find out what other eSignature companies like Qwilr or Pandadoc cost using Hudled’s pricing insights.
- Negotiations timeframe: 30 days is a sufficient time frame to conduct productive conversation during negotiations.
Managing a DocuSign renewal when your contract value is decreasing:
When your contract with DocuSign decreases, the chances of successfully negotiating a significant discount may be low. The bargaining power is limited, and it may be difficult for the DocuSign account managers to secure approval for significant reductions. However, there are still a few levers you can pull:
- Creating Sympathy: Share a convincing story about the reasons for needing to reduce costs as a negotiation strategy. Whatever you share here should be genuine.
- Rollover unused envelopes: If you had overestimated the number of envelopes required for the current contract term, explore the possibility of transferring unused envelopes to the next contract year.
- Temporary discount: You can negotiate a temporary discount e.g. 25% off for six months until you close your next round of investment. This is normally approved on a case-by-case basis.
- Competition: Find out what other companies charge e.g. Pandadoc. It's not ideal to migrate, but you can use our pricing insights as a reference point.
- Time: 30 days is a sufficient time frame to conduct productive conversations during the negotiations.
Negotiate a discount with DocuSign when purchasing for the first time:
You will be able to negotiate a discount with DocuSign when you purchase for the first time. Many factors will impact the terms, and having access to Docusign pricing insights will help. The levers you can pull are:
- (RFP) Request for proposal: Vendors will take you more seriously and typically offer higher discounts when they have to tender for your business. Note that this strategy is more effective for larger companies.
- Billing frequency: Use Hudled's Docusign pricing insights to find out what companies like you are paying and what the best terms that are offered are.
- Time: Start speaking to DocuSign at the end of the financial year. If that's not possible, the end of the quarter or month will increase your chances of a higher discount.
- Urgency: Use time to your advantage. See if there's an opportunity to improve the deal terms if you close faster.
- Competition: Do you know what terms Pandadoc is offering? Use competition to your advantage.
It’s essential to remember that cost is just one factor any business needs to consider when purchasing or renewing SaaS tools like DocuSign.
Would you like more pricing insights?
At Hudled, we’re building a SaaS intelligence platform to manage the full lifecycle of your SaaS stack. Our data-driven approach enables you to leverage data to buy the right tools at the best price. To ensure you're paying the best price across your entire SaaS stack, get started for free and request a SaaS audit.
Please note the author generated this text in part with GPT-3, OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model. Upon generating draft language, the author reviewed, edited, and revised the language of this publication
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