Guide: How to Use Salesforce for Contract Management

We all had moments in which we had to search through emails, old versions of contracts, and other documents to find the information we needed to complete a contract lifecycle management (CLM). It’s not fun – especially when we can't find the missing pieces.

We all had to manage contracts manually – and we all know how frustrating this can be. And contract lifecycle management is a critical part of any business, so we can’t afford to make a mistake. 

As we create our documents, it’s essential to be entirely sure that the data is accurate and up-to-date. But this can be a painful experience since this is time-consuming and might cause us a lot of unnecessary stress. Even more so, with manual contract lifecycle management, we are prone to making errors that can lead to missing an opportunity. 

So if we’re manually doing contract management, it is possible that:

• We’ll lose track of contracts or the necessary documents.
• We might forget who has signed which contracts.
• Our team members may take longer to create new contracts since they might have other responsibilities. 

For this reason, closing our deals might take longer – and no one wants that. 

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So what can we do? We need a CLM tool. That’s why contract management for Salesforce is a fantastic tool for our businesses since it can automate many aspects of managing and creating contracts.

We can save time because instead of searching for documents all over our email, those documents are just one click away in the contract lifecycle management Salesforce. But it’s not always easy to get started! 

Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM platform that helps businesses connect with their customers and potential customers. But did you know that you can use salesforce as a contract automation platform? It’s like a toolbox for managing and creating contracts in the sales process. 

In fact, contract management salesforce allows us to track all of our leads, contracts, accounts, and more in one place. It combines an intuitive interface with solid functionality to centralize our essential data. So, when the time comes, we can easily find what we’re looking for when we reach out to our customers or collaborators. 

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Automating Contract Management with Salesforce

Let me ask you this question – what could be better than a contract automation platform? The integration of a CRM system with it. Because Salesforce helps the legal and sales teams manage contracts easier, it allows them to focus on other parts of the contract lifecycle management. However, both teams can operate simultaneously because Salesforce ensures that our data is secure and synchronized. 

And in the end, it helps ensure that the contract signing process moves faster and we can close our deals much more effortlessly.

Salesforce realized that storing our documents in one place is crucial. This way, we can avoid having our teams working with disconnected systems with no visibility and different contract information. This can provide consistency because we have all the necessary information in a central and easily accessible place. 

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What are the benefits of using Salesforce Contracts Management?

An automated contract management system can be a lot more beneficial than manually managing our contracts. But why should we use salesforce contracts management?

• Salesforce is the most popular CRM platform in today’s age of technology. It has many features explicitly made for sales, marketing, and customer service teams. We can easily integrate our contract management system with existing tools.
•  Salesforce is a powerful tool, and it’s easy to use. We don’t need to spend hours learning how to use it because the platform does all the heavy lifting for us.
• Salesforce also has built-in templates, which are very helpful when we’re trying to get started with our new contract management system. So we won’t have to spend time putting together forms from scratch. 
• Salesforce provides a single view into every aspect of our businesses’ sales process. From seeing how each deal progresses to seeing our opportunities to seeing who is signing contracts. We always know what’s going on with each deal.
• We can automate the whole process of contract management. This allows us to define triggers for different stages of a contract lifecycle, such as approval or renewal, so they automatically take place when they’re due. 

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So, how do I manage contracts in Salesforce?

Contracts go through various stages – from creating the contract to negotiating the contract to implementing the contract and even renewing the contract. The contract automation process should follow a similar approach without us doing the work. So here’s how to get started: 

1. The most important step is setting up your account and familiarizing yourself with the platform. 
2. Integrate your CRM system with Salesforce. You should include all the relevant information, including the start date, end date, customer name, pricing, deal stage, and other essential details.
3. Next, focus on the pre-signature stage of the contract lifecycle – Sales teams can quickly create contracts, negotiate smoothly, and get through legal approval to electronic signature.
4. Track your contract status – Salesforce contracts management allows you to easily track the status of each contract, such as signed, reviewed, or expired.  
5. After the contract has been signed, focus on contract management post-signature. Salesforce allows you to easily track renewals, analyze data, and store all contract information in one place. 
6. Integrate Salesforce with other systems you use for contract management, such as an invoicing system. 

Note: While having an automated workflow for our contract management system gives salespeople the ability to self-serve, it’s vital to involve our legal team in the process. Legal teams may not traditionally use Salesforce, but it’s still necessary for them to have control over our contracts.

You know what they say: “time is money”. And one thing none of us want is for our legal team to be slowed down. And this can’t happen if they have to manually enter every piece of your information from our CRM when creating the contracts in Salesforce. 

But that’s where integrating our documents with a CRM platform like Salesforce contracts management comes in handy! It’s like having the best of both worlds – you get the speed of managing your contracts and your legal team’s attention to detail.