Seeing when your client opens your proposal, which sections they read and for how long. What exactly gets tracked, how an engagement score from 0 to 100 works, when to follow up and a worked example.
Proposal tracking means your proposal is not sent as a PDF attachment but as a link to a web page. Every time the client opens that page, the software records what happens: when the proposal is opened, which sections are read, for how long, and whether it is forwarded or signed. Without tracking, every proposal you send is a message in a bottle. With tracking you do, and that turns your follow-up from a guess into a conversation that matches what the client actually did. This article explains what is recorded, how an engagement score from 0 to 100 works, when to follow up and what that looks like in a concrete situation.
Most tools, Proposal Expert included, record the following events per proposal. 1. The first open, with date and time, which tells you whether the client is giving the proposal priority. 2. Time per section, so you can see whether the client spent ten minutes in the approach or only scrolled to the price. 3. Scroll depth, whether the client reached the end of the document. 4. Re-opens, because a proposal opened three times is being discussed somewhere. 5. Device and approximate location, which tells you the proposal was opened on a device other than your contact's. 6. Forwards and downloads, a strong signal that a second decision-maker is involved. 7. Acceptance, signature or a reply through the comment function. Each of these events is placed on a timeline per proposal, and you get a notification the moment something happens.
Individual events are hard to compare. That is why Proposal Expert summarises the events in an engagement score from 0 to 100. The score weighs how often and how long the proposal was viewed, how much of the document was read, whether the pricing and terms sections were viewed and whether the proposal was shared with others. A low score, roughly below 30, means the proposal has barely been looked at and the client may not have seen it or does not consider it urgent. A score around the middle belongs to a client who read the proposal but has not come back to it. A high score, above 70, belongs to a client who opens the proposal several times, lingers on the pricing or forwards it. The score is a tool for allocating your attention, not a prediction.
A simple rule that works well: on day 3 and day 7 after sending, look at the score and the timeline and choose your action based on what you see. On day 3 there are three scenarios. If the proposal has not been opened, send a short reminder with the link again, because email gets lost. If it has been opened with a middling score, send a substantive question about the section that was viewed longest. If the score is high, call, because the client is actively working on it and a fifteen-minute conversation does more than an email. On day 7 you repeat this with a different angle: a piece of new information for the client who read but did not respond, and a question about timing for the client who has reopened the proposal. In Proposal Expert you set reminders on the days you choose and the tool sends them automatically, with the tracking data attached.
Take a consultancy that sends a proposal for 9,800 euros to a manufacturing company on Monday. On Monday afternoon the contact opens the proposal, reads the summary and the approach in eight minutes and closes it. Score: 45. On Wednesday, day 3, nothing new has happened. The consultant sends an email with a question about the phasing, the section that was viewed longest. On Thursday the proposal is opened again, now from a different device, and the reader spends four minutes on the pricing page and downloads the PDF. Score: 78. The consultant calls that same afternoon. In that call it turns out the finance director is reading along and has questions about the payment terms. The consultant adjusts the payment terms, sends version 2, and on Friday the proposal is signed. Without tracking the consultant would have sent a generic follow-up on day 7 and missed the moment the second decision-maker came on board. The amount and the scores are an example, the pattern shows up regularly in practice.
Some common patterns and a fitting response. A long time on the scope and none on the price: the client is unsure about the content, offer a conversation about the approach. Briefly on the price and then closed: the price is off-putting, address the breakdown in your follow-up or offer an option with a smaller scope. Several re-opens within a day: the proposal is being discussed internally, ask whether you can clarify something for a colleague. Opened on a different device or forwarded: there is a second decision-maker, send a one-page summary your contact can pass on. The point is that your follow-up connects to something the client actually did, which makes it welcome instead of disruptive.
Tracking per proposal helps with this deal. Tracking across all your proposals together reveals patterns you would otherwise miss. Which sections are read more often in won proposals than in lost ones. At which point in the document clients typically drop off. Whether a pricing page with three options leads to more signatures than a page with one price. Proposal Expert brings these insights together in Data Lab, so you improve the structure of your proposals based on behaviour rather than on gut feeling. The proposal tracking page describes what is available.
They may, and it is sensible to mention it in your privacy statement or in the email that carries the link. Proposal Expert asks the reader for consent for non-essential cookies and, without that consent, only records what is needed to display and sign the document.
The download itself is recorded, but what happens to the PDF file afterwards is not. That is why it is wise to keep the link as the primary format and offer the PDF as an archive copy. Signing always happens through the link, so the signature is attached to the right version.
Yes, because it costs you no extra time. For a proposal of a few hundred euros you will not check the timeline every day, but a notification that it was opened or forwarded stops you following up at a moment the client has not looked at it yet.