If you are a sales manager, then contract management is one of your top priorities. This single focus gives you insight into your team, your revenue, and the strength of your team’s performance. For everything from B2B sales standard subscription customers, formal contracts are part of the process. However, a lot of sales managers think that contract management is easy.
It’s just a matter of getting people to sign the contract and putting it in a file somewhere, right?
But taking a loose approach to contract management is a quick way to get into trouble. A poorly-written contract may turn out not to be legally binding or may put you on the hook for goods or services you did not, in fact, intend to provide. This is particularly true if you are selling to government agencies or hiring creative freelancers who work with intellectual property in ways a lot of people don’t fully understand. Contract management software is part of the answer. ContraxAware has powerful contract management software features designed with sales managers in mind. You can read more about our comprehensive list of 99 features, but here are just a few that every sales manager needs:
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1. Contract Templates
Writing up a contract takes time you would rather spend on other things. ContraxAware allows you to generate contract templates, which are already approved by legal. Not only is that faster than your status quo, but it also reduces interdepartmental friction. Once you enable your contract templates and contract management software features, you can have unlimited templates, covering all the types of contracts you need. You just have to enter the specific details such as the customer, the term dates, and other details. Then, in seconds, you will have a proper contract that can then be signed by the customer. The system also validates the data you enter. For example, if the customer already has an account, then you will be able to ensure that their name, shipping address, and other identifying details are correct.
Contract management software features like this help sales managers train their teams and streamline sales. Contracts can only be created using pre-approved language, and the system won’t allow invalid data (such as end dates before term start dates) or other errors.
2. Self-Service Requests
No need to ask legal to send over the contract. ContraxAware has a web portal that allows you to request new contracts easily — including while on the road. Juggling management responsibilities while traveling can cause a substantial drop in productivity, but the right software makes all the difference.
With ContraxAware’s contract management software features, you can request a redline review, ask questions, or start the approval process at any time. Communication between contract management, sales, and legal becomes easy, and you can even facilitate better interdepartmental communication with financial teams or IT.
Emails can disappear, fade from the top of someone’s to-do list, and require you to attach unsecure data to your message. In-system request portals also keep you up-to-date on the progress of the requests and any contracts pending approval. That means you can give your customers reasonable status updates and keep an eye on sensitive projects.
3. Electronic Signatures
There’s an end in sight to printing off copies, getting them signed, and then leaving them in your car or your office. ContraxAware supports digital signature requests, which you can send in seconds to both internal and external signers, right from within the system. You can send the signature request simultaneously to legal and your customer and then electronically send the customer a signed copy.
ContraxAware works in the cloud. So it backs up the electronically signed document and you don’t have to worry about losing it. If your customers prefer to use DocuSign, there is a preconfigured workflow. You can sign on any device, as can they. Signatories can execute contracts on the spot at the job site or after you leave them to sleep on it. The system will send emails to relevant parties as soon as the customer signs the contract. If you’re operating on a tight deadline, the smart contract software can notify the project manager automatically. That means they can start on the product or service right away.
The system will store audit trails so that, no matter what happens with your contract, you have a record of exactly who signed it and when. The signed contract can be:
- Viewed
- Downloaded and printed whenever it is needed
- Locked so it can’t be amended without the approval of all relevant parties
Your salespeople aren’t contract negotiators, so you can remove the responsibility (and temptation) from their user access.
4. Contract Reporting
ContraxAware has full features for reporting on contracts. You can see reports in grid, list, chart, or timeline format. This allows you to:
- Check on the performance of contracts
- Keep track of what customers have wanted in the past
- Prepare for the end of every month and quarter
Use full-featured contract reporting to get the information you need to make better decisions. Also, you can help your customers make the right decision. Contract reporting can also be used to help track customers who are potentially a problem. You can give them careful treatment or a bit of extra TLC without filling up your schedule.
Enterprise contract management software is vital for sales managers and sales professionals. Contract templates can save time you can then spend closing more deals. Robust contract tracking software can make sure that contracts are properly signed. Even better, you can pull reports that provide vital data your team can use. In other words, ContraxAware is designed to help sales managers do their job with a lot less time and hassle. So, browse our sales-specific features or schedule a live one on one demo.
