fr
Imagine this contract management scenario…
Your company has just agreed to work with a new supplier, but you forgot to send over the NDA like you were supposed to. Now you have to coordinate with your Legal department to get one in place as soon as possible. If you don’t, you won’t be in compliance with company policies.
Or maybe you have to send a statement of work (SOW) to the consulting firm your organization just partnered with. That way their team knows what tasks they need to complete and when they need to complete them. The last thing you want is confusion at the beginning of the relationship.
Or perhaps you’ve been asked to support your company’s sales team. Your duties? To send terms of use, warranty, or SLA details (depending on the kind of products or services you sell to new customers.) Doing so will help keep your company in good standing with buyers.
Whatever the case may be, one thing is true: contract management software will help you complete the above tasks in less time. After all, you won’t have to copy and paste relevant data into every document. You’ll simply pull up a template, adjust it for your needs, and send it off.
Note: we tackle this topic from a Salesforce perspective—mostly because the app is so popular. That said, the benefits of an effective contract management process pertain to most companies. Even those that use lesser-known tools.
What is Salesforce Contract Management Software?
As the name implies, salesforce contract management software help users monitor, track, and otherwise manage their legally binding documents from one central location.
A Salesforce contract management solution does all of this inside the Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) platform. This is especially beneficial for sales teams who already use Salesforce on a daily basis. Let’s talk more about these benefits…
Why Effective Contract Management is Important for Sales Teams
Sales teams around the world can benefit from contract lifecycle management.
Once you commit to it, you’ll be able to create contracts faster, automate various workflows, simplify management processes, and more. Let’s dive deeper into these key benefits:
1. Create Contracts Faster
Your contract management system will help you create contracts in less time.
How so? First, you’ll be able to turn popular documents (like the standard contract you send to most potential customers) into templates. The contract creation process will fly by when 90% of the work is done beforehand. All you’ll have to do is personalize the document. Speaking of…
Second, you’ll be able to set your own contact generation rules. For example, you can create standard clause libraries; then have specific policies included in every contract you send.
And third, you’ll be able to use your contract management software to name, tag, and store your templates. Once this happens, you’ll be able to quickly search for and find them in the future. While this may seem simplistic, it has the potential to supercharge operational efficiency.
2. Automate Contract Workflows
Contract management will also give you access to automation.
When you can automate your typical contract workflows, you’ll be able to eliminate multiple manual processes, like sending contract requests to your legal team and asking management for contract approvals.
Depending on your contract management software, you can also use automation to create finished contracts with a click. (Just know that you’ll have to set up business rules and integrate with your company’s CRM software. More on this in a minute.)
Automation will make your sales team more productive—but that’s not all. Your contracts will also be more accurate. Machines don’t make the same mistakes as humans. You won’t have to worry about inaccurate pricing, for example, which will save your company money.
3. Simplify Contract Management
Your contract management software will act as a central repository for contracts.
Storing company documents across multiple digital storage services—or worse, in physical filing cabinets—is inefficient. We’ve all wasted time searching for contracts this way.
4. Enhance Customer Relationship Management
Every salesperson wants to close more deals. As it turns out, creating exceptional customer experiences is a great way to make sales on a consistent basis.
The question is, how do you create these experiences? Contract management can help.
As we’ve already discussed, a contract management system will help you create, send, and track your company’s contracts. So customers won’t have to wait to receive documents. Also worth noting, the documents they receive will accept digital signatures, which further streamlines the customer management process for both parties.
Now, let’s talk about your CRM software, AKA your sales team’s single source of truth for customer information. By integrating your CLM solution with your Salesforce CRM, you’ll ensure accurate contract data. After all, the details will be pulled directly from your customer database. This will streamline the sales process, which is almost always preferred by customers.
5. Connect the Sales Process to the Contract Lifecycle
According to Aberdeen, the creation, negotiation, and approval of contracts accounts for 18% of the sales process. To shorten sales cycles, find a better way to manage contracts.
The truth is, effective contract management looks different to every company. Small operations might be able to get away with a well-organized Google Drive. (Though you won’t have access to all the contract automation tools that other platforms give you. Food for thought.)
Larger companies might need a full-fledged system they can use to generate contracts, track activity, accept e-signatures, and otherwise facilitate the entire contracting process when there may be many deals in motion at once.
The point is, once you find the right CLM software for your needs, you’ll be able to connect your sales routines to the contract lifecycle and close deals faster than before.
6. Receive Real-Time Updates on Contracts
Did the prospect receive the contract you sent them? Have they read and signed it?
Sales reps ask themselves these questions all the time. But with a proper contract management system in place, they won’t have to. They’ll automatically know the answers.
Invest in the right tool to easily view the status of contracts. Then dive deeper to analyze individual contract performance and know which ones are most effective. You can even program your app of choice to send you notifications of contract milestones if you wish.
Of course, this level of contract data isn’t just about peace of mind. Sellers can also use the information to make more sales. For example, customers that sign their contracts quickly might be candidates for upsell and cross-sell offers, which will help drive additional revenue.
7. Improve Decision-Making Processes
Last but not least, effective contract management will help you and/or your team make better business decisions that lead to revenue growth. Here’s a quick example:
You study all of the signed contracts your sales team has produced over the past year. You then find the average number of deals closed per month and the profit generated. Armed with this information, you’re able to accurately forecast sales for the next quarter. Based on your projections, you decide to hire and train a new sales rep so that you can make additional sales.
Ready for another example? You dive into your CLM software to review contracts. After a few hours, you realize that 20% of the contracts your reps send are never signed. You investigate the matter and realize your reps need to generate higher-quality leads. You also redesign your contracts to look more modern. These two things help boost your signed contracts.
What Kind of Documents Can You Manage with Salesforce Contract Management Software?
You can use Salesforce to manage contracts, as well as the documents that come before, like quotes and proposals. Various legal agreements, sales reports, and invoices are options, too.
Let’s talk about these documents and Salesforce’s related capabilities for your sales team.
Quotes
A sales quote is a document that tells a prospect how much your product or service will cost.
It’s typically the first document that sales reps send potential customers (besides the brochures, infographics, and other materials that explain and promote their offerings, of course.)
It’s important to note that quotes are not legally binding. They simply tell prospects what to expect in terms of price. In some scenarios, they’re also used to introduce company values.
Sales quotes will help you and/or your sales team evaluate leads and shorten the sales cycle. Fortunately, they’re one of the documents that can be managed inside of Salesforce.
Proposals
A sales proposal is similar to a sales quote. The difference? Proposals are more in-depth.
A quote will deliver pricing information in an appealing way. A proposal will talk about pricing, but will also detail the unique value a company can provide to the prospect.
More often than not, proposals outline holistic solutions, while touching on topics that revolve around customer pain points and goals. After reading a proposal, prospective customers should feel like the company understands their unique problem—and crucially, has the ability to solve it.
Proposals can also be sent and managed from inside the Salesforce platform.
Sales Contracts
As you would expect after reading this article, Salesforce can help manage contracts for your sales team, in addition to the quotes and proposals we just talked about.
A sales contract, sometimes referred to as a sales agreement, is exactly what it sounds like: a legally binding document that outlines the terms of exchange between a buyer and a seller.
One of the best things about managing contracts in Salesforce is information. You’ll have access to all of your Salesforce data when you build a contract. This will boost your efficiency because you won’t have to transfer details between apps. You can even automate the process.
Either way, the contracts you create will be less prone to human error and more accurate.
Legal Agreements
Your legal department will appreciate this one…
Salesforce can be used to manage legal documents like contract amendments, service agreements, non-disclosures, and 29 other law-related business materials.
Sales teams and legal teams seem to be locked in an eternal death match. Reps despise in-house lawyers for slowing down their deals. And in-house lawyers get frustrated with reps for structuring deals that put the company in legal hot water.
Salesforce might be able to solve the issue. By managing sales contracts and legal agreements in the same spot, you’ll encourage communication between these departments.
Sales Reports
Quotes, proposals, contracts, and legal agreements are fairly similar. Sales reports belong in their own category. That said, they will help you assess your sales teams’ efforts by tracking the number of signed sales contracts they produce and their value. So let’s talk about them.
A sales report is a business tool that helps sales managers evaluate department performance by tracking specific KPIs. Some of these KPIs include monthly sales gross, customer acquisition cost, customer lifetime value (CLV), average purchase value, and sales cycle length.
You can’t run a sales team without sales reports. Good news: all of the sales reports you generate can be stored and organized inside of Salesforce.
Invoices
Once you convince a prospect to sign a contract you’ll need to send them an invoice. In other words, you need to send them a document that reminds them to pay you—sooner than later.
Your invoices should detail the products and/or services sold, when payment is due, and the various ways your new customer can compensate your company. You’ll probably want to put your organization’s physical address and contact information on the invoice too.
Remember, invoices are not receipts. An invoice reminds customers to pay you, and gives them the information they need to do so. A receipt shows payment was received.
You won’t be surprised to learn that Salesforce can help you manage all of your invoices. Win!
The Salesforce Contract Management Process in Action
So, what does a Salesforce contract management software solution look like in real life? Here’s an example to illustrate the power of Salesforce when it comes to contract lifecycle management:
You roll into the office, fire up your computer, and check your email. At the top of your inbox is a message from the prospect you’ve been talking to for the last few weeks. They’ve decided to purchase your product. Even better, they want to buy the onboarding package you offer, too.
You feel the sudden urge to happy dance, but you control yourself because you know time is of the essence. Instead, you login to Salesforce and quickly pull up a contract template. Using the data in your CRM, you edit the document to meet your new customer’s needs and expectations.
A few hours later, you have a signed contract on your hands and a goofy smile on your face. Why wouldn’t you? You just closed a huge deal and the commission check is going to be sweet!
As you can see, Salesforce makes it easy to manage contracts. You won’t have to transfer data between apps. And you can use automation to streamline your processes.
Is Salesforce the only tool you can use for contract management purposes? Absolutely not. There are a bunch of quality solutions in this category. But if you’ve already chosen Salesforce as your CRM, you might as well use it to manage your sales team’s documents, too.
Elevate Your Contract Process With Experlogix
Effective contract management isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a game-changer for your sales team. Imagine creating contracts in minutes, automating tedious workflows, and having a central hub for all your essential documents. With Salesforce, this vision becomes a reality. But why stop there? Integrate with Experlogix to supercharge your contract process. You’ll not only boost efficiency and accuracy but also make smarter decisions based on real-time data. Ready to see the difference? Book a strategy call with us. We’ll dive into your needs, show you a tailored demo, and help you streamline your contract management like never before. Let’s make contract chaos a thing of the past.
To learn more about Experlogix and accelerate your processes, schedule a strategy call with us. We’ll assess your needs and provide a tailored demo to showcase our platform.
