The Path Toward Easy, Pain-Free Contract Negotiations

By Sienna Quirk, Senior Director, Product Marketing at Smart Communications

A contract is often the beginning of a formal relationship between your company and its suppliers, partners and most importantly – your customers. Whether that contract is a quote, proposal, SOW, or a more complex contractual agreement, they all bond you with your customers. The experience during the contract negotiation process can set the tone for the rest of your relationship so making sure that process as easy and pain-free as possible can benefit all parties involved.

Are Contract Negotiations Holding You Back?

As digital transformation and improved customer experience are increasingly recognized as a focus for enterprises across the globe, has your company taken the time to think about how to best apply these throughout all your business, including your contract negotiation process?

Think about your existing process from a customer viewpoint – is your contract process cumbersome and challenging? If so, this could leave the impression that your company may be viewed as difficult to do business with, which is a less than ideal way to start the relationship.  With one in three customers willing to leave a brand they love after just one bad experience, you can’t risk leaving your contracting process up to chance.  That is why Gartner says that by the end of 2019, more than 50 percent of organizations will redirect their investments to customer experience innovations.

It’s Time to Optimize Your Process

So how do you make the contract negotiation process less painful for all parties involved? One way is to automate, or digitally transform, your own internal contract process. An outdated contract negotiation process can result in frustration, causing internal struggles between departments. The last thing you want is a customer to have a poor experience before they’ve even begun a formal relationship with your company.  The first step in improving contract negotiations with your customers is to look at how you can improve your internal operations. Optimize your own internal process first, and you’ll be well-positioned to speed up your negotiation and sales cycles, reduce cross-departmental friction, and drastically improve the contract negotiation process for your team and your customers.

When your company can address contracts more effectively everyone wins, and your customers reap the benefits! Smart Communications customers see real results digitalizing and streamlining their contract process, including one who saw a 98 percent reduction in the time to generate a contract.

Optimizing your internal operations doesn’t have to be a daunting process, and it may be easier than you think. Learn more about how to optimize and speed up contract negotiations in our latest whitepaper: Speed Up Contract Negotiations in Salesforce in Five Easy Steps.