I’ve said it before, and it’s worth repeating… until they sign on the dotted line they are not a client, they are a prospect. So your contract is part of your marketing resources – a seamless set of resources, on-line and off-line collateral and actions, that reflect your brand.
What resources should you gather (or should your contract writer request) to create a seamless transition?
Building consistency
Your contracts should build brand awareness and be entirely consistent with the remainder of your company branding or resources:
- Any brand or tone of voice guidelines for your business
- Your company’s strategy (mission, vision, values) – this should be woven into your contracts and the promises you make
- Your existing contract resources eg proposals, quotes, emails and legal content – this helps us to understand how you interact with clients and suppliers
- An explanation of your contract process – how you currently make contracts (not how you think you make them), from 2-second phonecalls to 2-year negotiations!
Reducing friction
Your contracts should also make life easier for those members of your organisation who use them on a daily basis. You’ll need to investigate:
- The contracting process by asking all your staff as well as key customers and suppliers about your current process and what their biggest issue is
- How your contracts perform in practice – what are they like to use (are they ever used?)
- Any admin issues, process friction or business risks you want your contracts to prevent, minimise, manage or respond to
- Where things currently don’t go smoothly (or actually go wrong) – commercial, legal, technical and operational issues you have faced and want to use your contract to resolve or avoid.
What should you do?
Easy: use this data to create a clear contract strategy.
Middling: develop contract and content strategies, including simplifying the content.
Harder: at the same time as simplifying the content, adopt the other corners of better contracts.
Star performer: with your excellent contracts, take them to the next level with automation, playbooks or digital platforms.
