5 Tips To Facilitate Efficient Salesforce Contract Management

Closing deals is the main priority for any business. They need the customers to sign on the dotted line to finalize a sale. That is why it makes sense for the sales team to be involved in the sales contract lifecycle. But in most organizations, the salespeople depend solely on the legal department to create sales contracts. It leads to unnecessary delays and miscommunication in the sales process. 

But businesses overcome this drawback by integrating contract management software with the Salesforce CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform. The integrated system enables the sales and legal team to navigate the sales contract lifecycle more effectively. In this blog post, we will discuss the best way for salespeople to generate accurate and compliant contracts with Salesforce contract management.  

Why is Salesforce contract management vital for businesses? 

Salesforce is one of the best tools for salespeople to manage customer relationships. Businesses use the Salesforce platform to communicate with existing and potential clients, handle deals, and collect opportunity data. However, the CRM system cannot produce sales contracts. Because of this, the salespeople lack knowledge of how the sales contract lifecycle is currently progressing.  

The sales teams can move through the contracting process more quickly and effectively with Salesforce contract management, lowering compliance risks and increasing business revenue. The integrated system enables salespeople and the CRM platform to contribute to the contract lifecycle without stepping on the legal’s toes. It eliminates the troubles of disorganized workflows and scattered sales contracts.  

How to facilitate efficient Salesforce contract management? 

Integrating Salesforce with contract management software enables organizations to utilize the features of both systems to streamline the sales contract lifecycle. It provides a common platform for the legal and sales departments to effectively work together on developing sales agreements. The data stored within Salesforce helps to draft accurate contracts once a customer is ready to buy. Let us discuss how businesses can efficiently use Salesforce contract management to initiate the sales contract lifecycle.   

 1. Define clear contract processes 

Overcrowding can adversely affect the contracting process. It is also challenging to keep track of both the sales and legal teams when they are involved in the sales contract lifecycle. That is why the contract lifecycle management process must clearly define the stages and the roles and responsibilities of team members involved in each phase. They can designate workflows and tasks to particular stakeholders to guarantee accountability for every action taken during the contracting process.  

Organizations can set up authorized access for contract workflows and customizable dashboards to ensure the sales and legal departments do not step on each other’s toes. The sales team can initiate the sales contract request and oversee it as it progresses through the lifecycle without harboring into legal’s territory. Salesforce contract management will be made more dependable and effective as a result. 

 2. Utilize automation 

Organizations can utilize automation tools provided by Salesforce contract management to streamline the contracting process, such as automated contract creation and approval workflows. Through the integrated platform, the sales team can initiate and oversee workflows for contract creation, negotiation, approval, and execution. They can also set automated notifications for contract milestones like review, renewal, and expiry deadlines.  

When salespeople participate in post-contract management, it is much simpler to establish contract compliance. Milestone alerts through Salesforce contract management can enhance visibility for the sales team. Even without legal counsel, the salespeople can ensure the sales contracts get to the finish line without much delay or roadblocks. It contributes to reducing errors, increasing productivity, and timely processing of contracts. 

 3. Maintain accurate contract data 

Salesforce contract management enables organizations to accumulate sales and contract data on a single platform to make it accessible for both sales and legal departments. Businesses can use customer information to generate effective sales contracts by auto-filling forms. When you have countless sales contracts, copying information from one platform to another can be tiring. The integrated system eliminates the need for manual data entry and human error in the contracting process.   

Salesforce contract management empowers users to live sync data to ensure any change made in one platform reflects in the other in real time. All parties will benefit from having access to the most recent and accurate contract information. Moreover, the integrated platform enables the sales team to ensure that contract data is up to date by leveraging Salesforce's customer data for regular reviews.   

 4. Establish clear communication channels 

Businesses must create effective communication channels between the sales and contract management teams to guarantee that contract management bottlenecks are quickly identified and fixed. From real-time data access to shared dashboards and reports, clear lines of communication between team members ensure that everyone involved in the contracting process is on the same page. It accelerates the entire sales contract lifecycle and helps them to get agreements signed faster.  

The sales and legal teams can communicate, discuss priorities, confirm alignment, and overcome obstacles thanks to the centralized platform provided by Salesforce contract management. Effective collaboration also gives legal a better understanding of the problems faced by sales leading to better solutions. 

 5. Monitor contract performance 

Businesses can gain insight into future contract generation by identifying and documenting KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). Salesforce contract management enables the sales team to monitor contract performance by tracking key metrics, such as contract renewals, expirations, and revenue generated. It can assist in locating problem areas and guarantee that contracts fulfill business objectives.  

The sales team can use contract performance to create a sales process that consistently closes deals. They can make informed decisions for the critical stages of the sales cycle: research, prospecting, sales call and close, and relationship-building. By monitoring these metrics, you can assess the efficiency with which sales and legal work together and the company's progress toward its goal. 

What are the benefits of Salesforce contract management? 

For scaling organizations with expanding contract portfolios, depending on multiple platforms to manage contract lifecycle can cause friction among the departments. Salesforce contract management provides a centralized platform that makes it simple for the legal and sales teams to manage the contracting process. It enables the salespeople to self-serve contracts with legal counsel. Thus, integrating Salesforce CRM with contract management software is beneficial for both legal and sales departments, as well as the whole business operation.   

• Improved efficiency

By integrating Salesforce with contract management software, organizations can automate manual processes, freeing time for the sales and legal teams to focus on higher-level tasks. The contract lifecycle, from creation to management, involves both departments, which increases the sales process efficiency. In addition, it frees up the legal department so they can concentrate on high-value work rather than getting bogged down in low-value contract admin procedures.  

• Increased accuracy 

Salesforce contract management live sync to ensure that data is consistent and accurate across both systems, reducing the risk of errors and ensuring that all parties have the most up-to-date information. Moreover, organizations can utilize customer data to auto-populate contract forms to eliminate manual data entry and human errors. 

• Enhanced collaboration 

Integrating contract management software with Salesforce can improve collaboration between the sales and legal departments. Teams across the organization can share data and collaborate more easily on the integrated platform. They can effectively communicate using shared dashboards and workflows to streamline the sales process. 

• Better visibility 

Salesforce contract management provides greater visibility into the status of contracts, allowing the sales team to track contract stages, renewals, and expirations more easily. The salespeople can ensure the sales contracts get to the final stage without unnecessary roadblocks.  

• Streamlined sales processes

By integrating Salesforce with contract management software, organizations can create a seamless sales process that includes automated contract creation and signature collection, reducing the time it takes to close deals. They can utilize pre-approved templates and customer data to ensure only competent contracts get to the customers.   

• Boost compliance  

Salesforce contract management can assist in ensuring that contracts adhere to rules and corporate policies, lowering the risk of fines and other consequences. The integrated platform means that salespeople create agreements using terms and language pre-approved by the legal team. Moreover, the sales team can oversee contract milestones, obligations, and more to establish compliance with sales contracts. 

• Seamless customer experience  

The Salesforce contract management enables teams to provide a more personalized and streamlined customer experience, from the initial sales pitch to contract signing and renewal. Sales representatives can access completed contracts and data to meet customer needs. The availability of CRM information means organizations are better equipped to generate customer-centric contracts.  

Conclusion 

Businesses can build a more scalable contract lifecycle by integrating Salesforce with contract management software. The integrated system enables sales teams to generate contracts in seconds without leaving the CRM platform. Salesforce contract management paves way for improved collaboration among sales and legal departments with access to shared dashboards and workflows.  

The salespeople can self-serve competent sales agreements using pre-approved templates and clauses under the guidance of the legal team. They can auto-populate customer data to generate contractual agreements without the need for manual processes or human error. In the end, Salesforce contract management improves the customer experience by reducing the sales cycle and associated risks.