Sales Contract Management Software: Main Features To Consider

Contracting is one of the most crucial steps in the sales cycle. Salespeople need competent contracts to onboard customers and close deals. It establishes the groundwork for the relationship by defining rights, pricing, and responsibilities. However, sales contract management can be challenging due to the content and volume of contracts and the numerous stakeholders involved. 

A lot can happen during the process, such as needless delays between the request and drafting, a laborious signing procedure, or the parties losing track of critical dates. Any inadequacies in contract management may impact the company's bottom line and sales velocity. Specialized software for sales contract management can go a long way in overcoming these challenges and improving the results.

Why do businesses need sales contract management software?

Businesses formalize customer relationships through sales agreements. It helps them to build trust and convince potential clients to purchase their goods or services. They can clarify legal responsibilities, product specifications, transactional details, warranties, and guarantees. That is why effective content and processes are essential for smooth client onboarding. 

Scaling organizations may need to create, agree on, and sign voluminous sales contracts to stay profitable. In these situations, mid- and large-size businesses cannot meet the demands solely through manual methods. They require specialized contract management solutions for sales and legal teams to collaborate on the contracting process. They enable parties to automate the drafting, negotiating, approving, and signing of sales agreements to close deals faster. 

What are the key characteristics of sales contract management software? 

Most companies' sales cycles involve salespeople requesting contracts from legal teams. They may have to deal with unnecessary delays and communication gaps, whether they initiate requests via email, chat, or call.  Signing, reviewing, and negotiating take longer without the right tools and processes. Businesses can overcome these shortcomings by utilizing sales contract management software. 

Utilize CRM Data

Sales agreements must include details about each party, such as name, type, contact information, address, parent company, and owner. Manually entering these data to create contracts makes the process vulnerable to errors and holdups. Salespeople may not communicate the necessary information accurately while making contract requests. Sales contract management software allows businesses to import CRM data to create contracts. 

Accuracy and competency in the legal documents make it easier to pass them through review and approval processes. Moreover, the enforceability and competency of the sales agreement aren’t up for debate either. Auto-populating contract request forms shorten the sales cycle without compromising quality at any point.

Accelerate Contract Generation

One of the immediate benefits of using contract management software is that it allows you to quickly draw up sales processes. No more sending a request out to legal for a new contract. Instead, you can access stored contract templates that can be easily amended for your prospects. Drafting contracts can be a lengthy and painful process. You can cut down on this by using contract management software that guides you through your templates and provides fields that autofill information for you. Because of this, contract management software can take the process of drafting a new sales contract down from weeks to mere minutes.  

Streamlined Negotiations 

Negotiating a contract can be the slowest part of contract lifecycle management. Both parties want something, and neither is going to get exactly what they want. Trying to come to a compromise that works for you and your prospects takes time. Sending a sales contract over email can lead to issues where someone forgot to send it, or it gets lost. With contract management software, you can offer real-time sharing and collaboration features. Both parties can access and edit the document without needing to worry about finding it. Further, with red-lining and real-time status tracking you can track what’s being added and removed to get a full view of your contracts. That way both parties are up to date on all of the changes to the contract and can go into each call ready to make changes and finalize it.  

Real-Time Audit Trails and Alerts 

A salesperson needs to know what’s going on with their sales contracts. Further, salespeople need to be able to ensure compliance with all of their sales contracts. For both of these, contract management software can help immensely. First, when a change is made to a contract it sends out a notification of the change. This allows a salesperson to go in, check on what happened, and know what to talk about in future meetings. Second, ensuring that your sales contracts comply means you can spend less time going back through and checking on issues. Contract management software makes it easy to track and pull audit trails so you can make sure that there are no issues with your contracts.  

Automated Workflows 

The contract management process is full of tiny, menial tasks that take up your time. While a couple of minutes doesn’t mean much at the moment, these minutes can potentially add up to hours of wasted time throughout the sales cycle. Contract management software with automated workflows eliminates this wasted time. Instead of having to manually move contracts through and implement processes, the system will do it for you. Automated workflows allow you to automate many of the menial contract management tasks. This way, salespeople can spend more of their time on important sales processes and close out the sales cycle faster. 

How do businesses benefit from sales contract management software?

Sales contract management software accelerates the sales cycle by automating workflows and syncing contract data directly with customer profiles. Sales representatives can generate, send, and finalize contracts without switching between platforms, reducing delays caused by manual processes. They can utilize e-signatures and automated approvals to further speed up the process, allowing businesses to respond quickly to client needs. This efficiency translates into shorter sales cycles, increased deal closures, and improved revenue.

Self-serve contracts

Sales teams' dependency on the legal department to close deals considerably prolongs the sales cycle. By utilizing sales contract management software, businesses can offer self-serve contract capabilities to their teams and clients. Sales representatives can quickly generate contracts using pre-approved templates within the CRM system, eliminating reliance on legal or administrative teams. This autonomy reduces bottlenecks and ensures that contracts are compliant and standardized. Clients, too, benefit from self-service features, as they can easily review, edit, and approve contracts within the same platform, enhancing their experience and speeding up the agreement process.

Client-focused agreements

Sales contract management software enables businesses to create highly personalized, client-focused agreements. By leveraging customer data stored in the CRM, businesses can tailor contract terms to align with client-specific preferences and history. This level of customization enhances trust and satisfaction, fostering stronger client relationships. Additionally, tracking client interactions and feedback through the CRM ensures that future agreements meet their evolving needs, increasing the likelihood of repeat business and long-term partnerships.

Enhanced collaboration

Sales contract management systems enable teams across the organization to access, review, and edit contracts within a single platform, ensuring everyone stays aligned. Real-time updates, version control, and commenting features streamline the negotiation process, minimizing errors and miscommunication. This unified approach allows sales, legal, and client teams to work together more effectively, accelerating approvals and improving overall efficiency.

Improve visibility

Sales contract management software provides unmatched visibility into the contract lifecycle. Businesses can track contract progress, monitor renewal dates, and identify bottlenecks directly within their CRM dashboards. Advanced analytics and reporting tools offer insights into key metrics, such as contract performance and compliance risks. This level of visibility empowers businesses to make informed decisions, avoid missed opportunities, and proactively address potential issues, leading to improved operational efficiency and better outcomes.

Conclusion 

Specialized contract management solutions for salespeople can help them close deals faster. Dock 365’s integration with popular CRM platforms enables sales and legal teams to collaborate on sales agreements from a single platform. They can foster lasting customer relationships by automating contract drafting, negotiating, reviewing, signing, and monitoring. They can import customer data to create accurate legal documents, customize workflows, and set up reminders without switching between multiple systems. DocuSign, Adobe Sign, and Sertifi are available within Dock 365 to guarantee a painless signing process for customers. 

Explore our custom plans and book a demo today to see sales contract management software in action.