How To Employ Salesforce To Steer Contract Lifecycle Management

An organization's ability to close deals heavily depends on the efficiency of its contract management system. Sales agreements facilitate the relationship between a business and its customers. The legal division ultimately becomes the source of high-quality contracts for the sales team.  

Therefore, it makes sense for salespeople to have a solution within the Salesforce CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform to construct legal agreements. It enables the organization to translate operational efficiency into customer satisfaction and higher returns. By utilizing Salesforce for Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), businesses can get the most value from their contracts during each phase of the contract lifecycle. In this blog, we will discuss the ins and outs of CLM and how to streamline the process within the Salesforce system.  

Essentials of Contract Lifecycle Management  

Contract Lifecycle Management is the process of monitoring and controlling each stage of a contract's lifespan, from inception to execution and beyond, for better performance and compliance. Organizations can consistently produce competent legal documents with a sophisticated Contract Lifecycle Management system. It also helps to mitigate contract risks and get the best results.   

The contract lifecycle is a complicated operation with various tasks and stages. Contract management starts with the pre-contract stage, during which the organization develops a strategy suitable for its needs. They also need to ensure that everyone involved in the process is familiar with the directives and objectives of contract management. Once we have a CLM strategy, the contract managers can get on with authoring, negotiation, and review.   

All invested parties sign the finalized legal agreement during the contract stage. After execution, it is about monitoring contract obligations, milestones, performance, compliance, etc. And manually overseeing the entire process can mean a waste of time and resources for organizations. But thanks to CLM, businesses have a cohesive solution to automate the end-to-end contract management process.  

Why do salespeople need contract lifecycle management? 

Companies have different wants and needs when it comes to contract management. Therefore, choosing a customizable CLM solution to meet their specific business challenges is always the best. For organizations dealing with thousands of sales agreements, integrating CMS (Contract Management Software) with the Salesforce platform offers salespeople a straightforward way to create, share, and sign contracts within the CRM platform.  

The integrated system empowers the sales team to initiate contract requests without depending on legal counsel. Consequently, they can get the sales agreements faster to the customers without compromising compliance and performance. Salesforce contract management makes life easier for both the legal and sales department. Moreover, it reduces the legal and financial risks for all contracted parties.   

How to set up Contract Lifecycle Management in Salesforce? 

As we already discussed, contract lifecycle management through Salesforce makes it easier for salespeople to handle the contract lifecycle. The integrated system provides all the necessary tools and a dynamic platform to manage the progress of a legal agreement. It enables the sales team to focus on new possibilities and enrich the relationship with clients. Before we get into the benefits, here is how you can utilize the Salesforce platform to steer CLM. 

• Standardized Contracting 

Making competent legal agreements is the first stage in the contract lifecycle process. Through Salesforce contract management, salespeople can create compliant and efficient contractual agreements using pre-approved templates and clause library. As a result, they can quickly get the finalized document to clients without leaving the Salesforce platform.  

Also, the sales team can directly upload customer data into the contracting process. It eliminates the need for manual entry and human error during contract creation. With the integrated system, businesses can ensure that the entire organization follows a standardized process for contracting. Consequently, even self-service contracts will have legally compliant language and clauses.   

• Automated Processes 

The integrated system offers salespeople access to advanced tools like contract redlining and automated workflows to streamline the negotiation and approval process. The sales team can initiate the review procedure without leaving the CRM platform. Contract redlining helps multiple parties to discuss and review sales agreements in real-time. The invested parties can effortlessly track all the changes made to the document from either platform.  

It helps businesses to have absolute control over contract versions. Therefore, the contracted parties always have access to an accurate and latest legal agreement. Moreover, the sales team can initiate and monitor automated approval workflows within Salesforce to accelerate the contracting process. They have a holistic overview of the negotiation and approval operation. Therefore, the salespeople can quickly address any expected delays or obstacles in the tailored procedure.  

• Information Hub  

One of the massive benefits of managing the contract lifecycle through Salesforce is unlimited access to a centralized data hub. The integrated system offers a secure cloud-based location to save all client-related data. Users will have searchable executed contracts, customer databases, clause library, and contract templates available within a single platform. They will not have to go through multiple systems to get the necessary data.   

Moreover, manually storing and assessing all the legal documents and CRM data is an enormous task for scaling organizations. A centralized digital space for all the crucial documents means all the invested parties have real-time information. Salespeople benefit most from it because they need unrestricted access to data to assist customers. Salesforce contract management also helps businesses to make informed decisions on time.  

• Comprehensive Monitoring 

Contract Lifecycle Management is not over with contract execution. The organization needs to stay on top of its contractual agreements to manage all the vital milestones and dates. The integrated system empowers the sales team to contribute to the contract monitoring process. Salespeople can keep track of contract reviews, renewals, and expiry dates from within the Salesforce platform.  

The integrated system comes with automated reminders for significant dates and reminders. Moreover, obligation tasks ascertain that contracted parties stay true to all the stipulations and terms outlined in the legal agreement. Businesses can also set up notifications for counterparties to keep them in the loop regarding milestones. And the invoice function makes sure that all the payments are on time. So even once a contract is executed, the sales team can ensure compliance and performance through the integrated system.  

• Intuitive Analysis  

When using multiple platforms for business operations, it is hard to consolidate data for insightful reporting and analysis. With Salesforce contract management, organizations can access all client-related information within one platform. They can aggregate and utilize customer and contract data to generate sophisticated reports. Users can get practical insights to continuously enhance the sales and contracting process by using advanced reporting and analysis.  

Moreover, the Salesforce contract management system comes with customizable dashboards. Therefore, businesses can personalize the platform to suit their specific challenges and needs. They can select widgets and functions that help the contract managers to evaluate contract and sales performance. Thus, businesses will be able to improve contract value and returns.  

What are the benefits of Salesforce Contract Lifecycle Management? 

Integrating Salesforce with CMS refines the Contract Lifecycle Management process. Every phase of the contract lifecycle can be improved and accelerated through the integrated system. Here are some of the most notable advantages of Salesforce Contract Lifecycle Management include: 

• Improve information sharing 

When you have a centralized cloud-based location to safely store data, it is easier to share information between departments. The integrated system ensures that all the relevant parties have access to real-time data. They can utilize improved information sharing to better serve customers, make smart business decisions, and enhance processes. Also, Salesforce Contract Management offers increased OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and AI capabilities, which makes it possible to find key data in no time.  

• Drive growth 

The integrated system perpetuates healthy collaboration between the sales and legal departments. They can both productively contribute to Contract Lifecycle Management without stepping on each other’s toes. The sales team can self-serve contracts within Salesforce, whereas the legal stay in control of review and compliance. Also, sharing responsibilities means both departments have more time to engage in high-value tasks. Consequently, businesses can enjoy better productivity, efficiency, and growth.  

• Faster signing 

The Salesforce contract management system comes with secure e-signature functionality. The sales team can employ e-signatures to get the finalized agreements directly to the customers and close deals faster. Therefore, the organization does not have to wait through avoidable delays to progress a contract through the lifecycle.  

Conclusion 

Contracts guide the terms of a business relationship. Therefore, it is essential to state the demands and requirements in a commercial agreement explicitly. It helps to instill trust and accountability among the invested parties. Streamlining the contract management process will help businesses to better connect with their customers.  

With Salesforce Contract Lifecycle Management, businesses can get the actual worth from their contracts during each phase of the contract lifecycle. They can utilize the advanced capabilities and centralized platform to simplify the sales and contract process. Consequently, the sales team will be able to give more attention to the clients and improve sales.  

Want to keep your business growing? Schedule a live demo for Contract Management Software today.