You sent the proposal. It’s been 48 hours and you have no idea what’s happening on the other end. Did they open it? Are they reviewing it? Is it sitting in their spam folder?
You’re looking at your CRM trying to decide whether or not to follow up, and you’re completely in the dark. You might be sending a “just checking in” email before they’ve even looked, or you accidentally wait too long and the perfect moment passes.
This comes down to a timing problem. It’s not usually about what you say but when you say it. And that will change completely when you can see exactly how your prospects are engaging with your proposals in real time.
This guide will cover just that: how to replace the guesswork with real-time engagement data.
Why follow-up timing is the problem, not follow-up frequency
Here’s the calendar schedule most reps use: follow up at 2 days, then 5, then a week. It seems like a process, but it’s really just a schedule based on guesswork.
When they send a “just checking in” email that delivers before a prospect has even opened the proposal, it can come off as impatient. It’s essentially asking for their attention before they’ve signaled that they’re ready to give it.
Alternatively, when you wait too long, the prospect might have already moved on. The momentum is gone by the time you actually reach out.
The real window you actually want is the moment the prospect is actively reading. That’s when a message will come across as helpful rather than intrusive. Offering to walk them through pricing options together makes more sense at this point, because they are literally looking at the pricing page.
If you knew the exact moment a prospect opened your proposal, you wouldn’t need to have a follow-up schedule. You’d just reach out at the right time!
What changes when you can see how prospects engage with your proposals
When you implement document tracking and analytics to your document send workflow, you’ll get rid of the follow-up conundrum. Here’s why:
You know the instant a proposal is opened — that means no more wondering if it was delivered or buried
You can see which sections got the most attention (pricing, terms, scope) and then shape your follow-up around what they were actually reviewing
When a proposal is opened by multiple people across multiple sessions, that's a signal a buying committee is involved
Your follow-up stops being generic: "I saw you were spending time on the pricing section" reads as attentive, not automated
A proposal that hasn't been opened in five days needs a different approach than one opened three times today
See it in action — start a free trial
Is this the right approach for your team?
You're a strong fit if:
You're a sales rep or account executive who sends proposals and follows up manually, with no signal from the prospect about whether they've even looked
Deal velocity matters to your team, and being first to follow up at the right moment is a competitive advantage
You've lost deals because you followed up too early (came across as pushy) or too late (prospect had moved on)
Consider alternatives if:
Your follow-up process is fully automated through CRM sequences regardless of prospect behavior
Your team doesn't use a document step: verbal quotes, platform-generated contracts, or any flow where nothing is sent through PandaDoc won't have tracking available
How to track when a prospect opens your proposal: step-by-step
The good news is that proposal tracking is built into PandaDoc’s proposal software. That means there’s nothing to configure before you start.
The following steps are all about making sure you’re sending documents the right way and reading the data well.
1. Send your proposal through PandaDoc
Tracking only works when a proposal is sent via PandaDoc, not when it's downloaded as a PDF and emailed as an attachment.
When you send directly from PandaDoc (by email or shareable link), tracking starts automatically.
Every time a recipient opens the document, time-on-page data begins recording. No extra setup, no code, nothing.
If you download a PDF and send it through your regular email client, PandaDoc can't track engagement. The recipient needs to open the live link for tracking to work.
This is the one step that requires deliberate behavior from the rep: just use the PandaDoc send flow instead of email attachments.
2. Read the engagement data
The document dashboard will give you a good view of everything that’s relevant to make a follow-up decision:
Total views, total time spent, last view date, whether the PDF was downloaded, whether any links were clicked
Per-page time analytics will show you which sections the prospect lingered on and which they skipped
Multiple sessions are logged separately, so if three people at the company opened it, you'll see three sessions; this can indicate buying committees getting involved
For example, a rep might see a prospect open a proposal three times in one afternoon and spend most of that time on the pricing and terms pages. Instead of sending a check-in that’s generic, the rep can send a short message offering to walk through the pricing options together. The prospect might be more inclined to respond in this scenario.
That's proposal tracking and analytics doing exactly what it's built for.
3. Set up email notifications for real-time alerts
PandaDoc sends email notifications when a document is viewed, signed, or commented on. Here’s what to check for:
Check that your notifications are enabled in your account preferences. They're on by default, but this is worth confirming.
Each notification includes the document name, the recipient, and what happened. So you will know exactly which proposal was opened and by whom, without having to log into PandaDoc to check.
If your team deals with high proposal volume, these notifications can be filtered into a dedicated folder to keep your inbox clean.
Keep in mind that email notifications are the default channel. We’ll talk about Slack notifications next.
Take it further: get Slack notifications the moment a proposal is opened
Say your team lives in Slack; routing document activity there will mean that your reps don’t have to monitor email or check Pandadoc manually. The Slack integration will put the alert right in your Slack workspace.
Here's how it works:
Install the PandaDoc app in Slack and connect your PandaDoc account
Use /pandadoc manage in Slack to choose which events trigger notifications: document viewed, signed, or commented on
When a prospect opens a proposal, the rep will get a direct message in Slack with the document name, the event, and a link to open the document
The rep can dive right into PandaDoc from the Slack notification to review the analytics before reaching out to the prospect
Here’s an example of how this would work: A rep sends a proposal on a Monday afternoon. By Tuesday morning, a Slack DM arrives alerting the rep that the prospect just opened it. The rep can pull up the analytics and see that they’re on the pricing page. The rep then sends a message offering to walk through the options. The prospect responds in minutes and the conversation progresses.
A few things to keep in mind: notifications go to individual DMs via the PandaDoc Slack app. They do not go to shared Slack channels. Each user will have to install the app individually. This is available on Business and Enterprise plans.
Sales managers can also use the same engagement data at scale to coach their reps. See how to use document engagement data across your whole team.
Implementation timeline and requirements
The setup is close to zero – yes, you read that right. Tracking is automatic as soon as you use PandaDoc’s send flow, and Slack adds minimal configuration.
Document tracking: zero setup required — active automatically on every document sent through PandaDoc
Email notifications: on by default; confirm they're enabled in your account notification settings
Slack integration: around five minutes per user — install the PandaDoc app in Slack, connect your account, and set your notification preferences
Ongoing maintenance: none — tracking runs automatically on every sent document
Results
Any reps who follow up based on engagement data instead of a traditional calendar schedule will change the quality of every customer interaction. Here’s how:
Every message is timed to when the prospect is engaged, not when a reminder is fired
Follow-up quality gets better when reps can reference which sections the prospect reviewed
Stalled deals surface faster, since a proposal that hasn't been opened in a week is visible before the rep has written it off
Deal velocity increases when reps reach out during peak engagement rather than guessing when the right moment is
Next steps
Ready to start using real data to progress your deals? Start your free trial today, or request a demo to see exactly how proposal tracking works.
