The purpose of your contracts is to help you do business. Another way of thinking of this based on success – as Jacqueline Horani said at the World Commerce and Contracting Vibe Summit 2023, contracts are tools to help ‘both sides of the agreement to achieve and fulfil their goals.’
I have always talked to my clients about how they use their contract, terms or agreements. They have such a wide impact – 25% of your staff are using your contracts, so they can’t just be about legal stuff! 
Contracting is about sales, marketing, branding, operations, procurement as well as simple legal content.
Involve more staff
Jacqueline Horani’s talk referred to her ‘wheel of interdisciplinary consulting’. This has 11 different aspects that you need to consider when improving your contracting.
Her wheel looks at:
- The customer journey ie how do clients end up hiring your company and what happens after that? [operations]
- Whether your values are reflected in your contracting or customer sales experience [culture]
- How the process affects your staff ie those who provide the scope [human resources] and everyone – both internal and external – using the contract [UX]
- Does the contract work seamlessly to communicate with customers and align with your other documents? [communications]
- Is your contract effective also for creating success and reinforcing your brand? [risk management, social impact, PR]
A more integrated approach means merging the human experience into legal documents. For example, instead of focusing on big money disputes, we should be considering the friction that damage the commercial relationships.
What should you do?
Your contract can become an asset for you to share widely, for you to get excited about, that feels amazing and different in your industry, according to Jacqueline.
What do you need to change in your contract so it is less of a legal stick, and more of a sales tool?
