Loopio’s Product Summit Recap: Introducing 10 New Features (Plus, a New Framework)
Saying 2023 was a year of rapid change is an understatement. Tighter budgets, inflation surges, and generative AI—these cover just a few of the curveballs that businesses faced over the last year.
That’s why we’ve been thinking a lot about how response teams should prepare for 2024 (and how we can help).
At our inaugural Product Summit (Oct. 12, 2023) Loopio’s CEO, Zak Hemraj, revealed a new framework that your team can use to communicate your contributions to the bottom line. Plus, introduced 10 new features that’ll empower you with faster first drafts, strategic insights, and much more.
Keep reading to learn about:
Loopio’s New Framework for 2024 & Beyond
Traditionally, a proposal team’s responsibility has been responding to a bid. But to truly help companies win in 2024, proposal teams need to work with other departments to influence the full buying cycle.
How? By partnering with sales before a bid drops to influence who is considered—or supporting after you’ve been shortlisted to tackle additional sales follow-up questions with ease.
In other words, we shouldn’t think about the RFP process as a straight line going into 2024—companies should follow a loop of activities to be successful in the buying process. A rotation that gets stronger (and more informed) with each passing cycle.
Introducing the Response Management Loop
New Framework for Response Management Teams
What is the Response Management Loop?
The Response Management Loop is a framework for responding to RFPs, questionnaires, or really, any inquiry during the sales process. It provides a holistic approach (and operational flywheel) that proposal, sales, operations, and technical teams can use to work together, and successfully secure new business.
5 Components of the Response Management Loop:
- Influence: Sales teams influence a deal before an RFP is issued by planting the seed about your solution.
- Evaluate: Proposal and sales teams evaluate incoming RFPs, making strategic decisions on which to pursue.
- Respond: Proposal team works with sales, legal, technical experts, and more, to complete the response.
- Close: Proposal teams empower sales and security to answer ad-hoc questions from email to questionnaires.
- Analyze: Sales and proposal teams analyze the results to influence how they approach the next bid—and start the loop over.
10 New Features Announced at Product Summit
At Product Summit, we announced 10 new features that’ll support proposal and sales teams at different stages of the response management process.
Below is a recap of everything announced. A variety of large to small (yet impactful) releases that’ll support your response management process in 2024 (plus, where they fit into the new loop framework).
1. Evaluate Opportunities With Go/No-Go in Salesforce
Commonly referred to as the ‘go/no-go’ or ‘bid/no-bid’ decision, many proposal and sales teams use a straightforward framework (or question set) to evaluate if they should participate in an RFP.
Good news: you can soon qualify RFPs in Salesforce directly. Both sales and proposal teams can decide (together) which proposals to tackle—and report on the results.
View of Go/No-Go Data in Salesforce
📅 Release Date: Early 2024
2. Craft Answers With Secure, Generative AI
Loopio can now generate answers to questions in your RFPs, security questionnaires, or more—from scratch. How does it work?
Select the question you want Loopio to answer, then hit the ‘Generate Answer’ button, and voila! Loopio will craft a unique answer for your RFP, based entirely on the trusted information you already have in your content library.
Generate Answer Functionality in Loopio
📅 Release Date: October 2023
3. Translate RFPs With Ease
Translating RFPs is critical for global proposal and sales teams who sell into different geographies. That’s why Loopio’s new translation functionality will help you import Excel projects, then toggle between languages with a single switch.
Translation Toggle in Loopio
📅 Release Date: January 2024
4. Create Confidential Projects
Some RFx projects are highly confidential (for good reason). That’s why new settings in Loopio allow you to customize who can see specific projects, when you start them. You can choose between standard and confidential projects.
Preview of Confidential Projects in Loopio
📅 Release Date: October 2023
5. Response to Checkbox Requirements
Checkboxes? Check. ☑️ Soon, you’ll be able to import and easily collaborate on checkbox requirements in Word document projects. Checkout the preview below.
Checkboxes in Loopio
📅 Release Date: Early 2024
6. Leverage Smarter, Semantic Search
Looking for the perfect answer? With our improved semantic search, you can find relevant answers in your library—even if the keywords are not a perfect match. This means you can now see answers ranked in Loopio’s platform (similar to Google Search) based on the context of your question.
Preview of Semantic Search Results in Loopio
📅 Release Date: November 2023
7. Integrate Loopio With Hubspot
Good news, Hubspot fans. You’ll soon be able to create Loopio projects directly within Hubspot. Connecting your CRM data directly to RFP projects will be a helpful step towards tracking revenue influenced by RFx.
Preview of Loopio Integration in Hubspot
📅 Release Date: December 2023
8. Access Sales Answers Anywhere
Even after making the shortlist, sales teams still have to answer many questions to close a deal. That’s why we’ve made the Loopio library accessible from anywhere you work. In a PowerPoint presentation? No problem. Question through email? Easy.
Simply highlight your question and a sidebar will appear so you can search your Loopio library for the answer, without ever switching tabs.
The best part? If the answer is too long (or too formal), you can use the ‘Summarize’ button to modify the response, all based on the approved (and secure) information in your library. 🤯
Preview of Sales Knowledge Extension in Loopio
📅 Release Date: Launch in January, Beta Available in November 2023
9. Gain New Insights Through Library Reports
Reliable, accurate content is a foundational part of a powerful response process. That’s why we’ve created a 360-view of your library with new reporting capabilities. 📊 Your visual reports show what needs updating at a glance. (Plus, all new filters so you can dig deeper into the results.)
Preview of Library Reports in Loopio
📅 Release Date: Early 2024
10. Set Advanced Roles & Permissions
Many RFx require different levels of permissions. That’s why you’ll soon have the flexibility to choose exactly what specific user roles can do in Loopio. You can soon define roles that meet the unique requirements of your organization’s response process.
Advanced Roles & Permissions in Loopio
📅 Release Date: Early 2024
What’s Next? Leveraging These Updates in 2024
That’s a wrap on our inaugural Product Summit ⛰️—but not the last you’ll hear from us about these new features (or the new Response Management Loop). Which update are you most excited about?
If you’re curious to see a closer look at any of these features, please don’t be shy. Reach out to our team directly.
Contact Us
Fill out the form below for general inquiries.