3 Best Practices to Accelerate Sales Customer Contracts

When sales contracts are delayed due to endless rounds of negotiations and coordination between stakeholders, the impact on your customer experience and revenue can be significant. You want to reclaim those lost hours to focus on the next deals in your pipeline, but streamlining the sales contracting process isn't always easy. Contracts need to meet the expectations of everyone involved: customers, in-house counsel on both sides, and business heads. It’s a tricky task, but it doesn’t have to be.

The ideal situation is one where the process is smooth, frictionless, and collaborative by design. You want to deliver an exceptional customer experience during contract authoring and negotiation, not have them stuck in email loops and multiple contract versions for weeks. So, how do you accelerate and optimize sales contract management? Here are three key practices to get started:

1. Solve for Self-Reliance with AI-Powered Solutions

In services contracting, the customer often sends the first draft of the contract, adding complexity to the process. The structure and content of their contract may seem foreign to your team, leading to lengthy back-and-forths with your legal department. This inefficient workflow can slow down the entire sales cycle.

The solution? AI-powered contract management systems. These tools can understand natural language, deconstruct external contract templates, and compare clauses with your internal standards. AI highlights potential risks in the contract, saving legal teams from having to manually review drafts. Instead of constant follow-ups, legal teams can allocate risk scores and define thresholds for clause acceptance, drastically reducing manual effort and improving contract accuracy.

2. Make Contracts Amendment-Friendly

In the services industry, contracts aren’t static. The dynamic nature of services and changing business environments mean that modifications—such as adding new services, updating the Statement of Work (SOW), or renegotiating terms—are common. As such, having an amendment-friendly contract management process is crucial.

When an amendment arises, you must have quick access to all initial documents, versions, negotiation history, and collaboration threads. Keeping all your contract data in one centralized and secure location is key. Disjointed systems like email chains and manual files won’t suffice. A centralized platform allows for seamless tracking and easy retrieval of any contract versions or changes.

3. Integrate Contract Management with Your CRM

Siloing contract management from your CRM system can hinder the effectiveness of your sales team. To speed up the deal-to-signature cycle, integrate your contract management solution with your CRM. This seamless integration allows sales teams to easily convert deals into new contract drafts without leaving their CRM platform.

By integrating your CRM with a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) system, you streamline the contract creation process, automate workflows, and eliminate the need to toggle between different tools. This integration reduces administrative overhead and accelerates the process from negotiation to final signature.

Conclusion: Transform Your Sales Contract Management Process

If you recognize the challenges in your current sales contract management process, adopting these best practices can make a significant difference. By leveraging AI-powered solutions, making contracts amendment-friendly, and integrating contract management with your CRM, you can drastically reduce contract turnaround times and improve your team’s efficiency.