Getting a contract signed requires a number of coordinated steps between your company and your customer.
In the best case the default contract is accepted by your customer and signed without negotiation.
Alternatively, your customer may request changes to the contract requiring negotiation between your customer and your company's legal team.
LegalSifter Control's contract workflow manages the contract providing status visibly to all team members as it moves through negotiation.
The Salesperson role in the negotiation is to ensure that handoffs between customer and legal teams happen smoothly.
Step One: Create Contract
Create the necessary contract directly from your Customer Account or Customer Opportunity in your CRM. Choose to send directly for signature or for negotiation. This creates the contract and links it back to the CRM. See the Send a Contract article for step by step instructions. You can track the status of the contract using the My Contracts list on the LegalSifter Control Deals page.
Send for Signature
When you choose to send the contract for signature, the customer will receive a signature request and the contract status will be "Awaiting Signature". When signed by both customer and company the contract status will be updated to "Executed" and the signed contract will be available in LegalSifter Control.
Negotiating a Contract
If your customer indicates that there are changes that need to be made in order to accept the contract it is time to begin negotiating.
This may happen by the customer directly telling you, or they may just decline to sign the signature request you have sent.
You can send to the customer an editable version of the contract.
If a Signature Request has been sent.
The customer may decline to sign the contract in the signature provider interface. You will receive an email notification from the signature provider and contract status will be shifted from "Awaiting Signature" to "In Review"
If the customer tells you that they would like change to the contract, indicate to them that they should decline to sign the contract.
Provide your customer with the editable contract.
Customers can access a word version of the contract by clicking the "Download Document" link in the original signature request email.
The word version is the current version of the document that was sent for signature and has track changes enabled.
Returned Customer Redlines.
When a customer returns a redline, you can forward the email with the redline attachment to: <your-company>@mail.akorda.com. The attached redline will be automatically added as a new version of the contract in LegalSifter Control and participants will be notified.
Alternatively, when you are the current Assignee of the contract, you can add the new version using the My Contracts list "Import new version" action.
Working with Legal
New contracts will start without an Assignee.
Your company legal team will receive automated notifications whenever a contract moves into "Review" status.
Legal team members will be assigned to your contract to review any customer requests.
When the Legal team is finished with their contract review, they will re-assign the contract back to you.
Using the "Send" action on the My Contracts list, you can send the current contract version to your customer as Microsoft Word attachment. You will be CCd on the email.
If your customer replies to the email with their contract updates attached, a new version of the contract will be automatically created in LegalSifter Control and all participants will be notified.
Alternatively if your customer sends you updates directly, you can add the new version of the contract using the My Contracts list "Import new version" action.
After you have added the new version of the contract, you can reassign the document to the legal team.