What is a sales contract and why should they be signed?

The general purpose of contracts is to define the rights and obligations of the parties in a new customer relationship. With a sales contract, one party agrees to provide the other with a product or service on certain terms and the customer agrees to pay for it. Correctly signed sales contracts ensure smooth customer relations and help to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts. Unfortunately, in practise it often happens that sales contracts or confidentiality agreements aren't signed for various reasons and the sale is made on the basis of an invoice. In the case of retail customers, this approach is justified, but in the case of B2B sales, it would make sense to sign a proper sales contract.

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Why are sales contracts not signed?

Some of the reasons why sales contracts aren't signed on time, are certainly related to the complexity of administration. Both parties are interested in signing a sales contract, but nobody wants to spend too much time on it. The contract preparer has to find the contract template, update it, fill it with client information and send it to the right people for signing. Signing the contract can also be quite troublesome for the client, because it requires them to sit down at the computer and commit to the task of getting a document digitally signed. At this point, it may be decided to proceed without a valid sales contract. Even if everything goes smoothly without a contract, neither party is protected from unforeseen circumstances. Therefore, it's worth thinking about how to make the signing of sales contracts more convenient for both parties.

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How does your company benefit from signing sales contracts?

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1. A common understanding of the agreement

The rights and obligations between the contracting parties are clearly set out in the contract and the risk of misunderstandings is reduced. The sales contract contains all the important terms and conditions that you may not always inform the client about through a verbal agreement or an email exchange. Based on the sales contract, the whole team can work smoothly and review the terms of the contract when needed without having to communicate again with all parties and search for answers.

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2. The risk of transaction failure decreases

It's important that the salesman closes the transaction as soon as possible. Verbal offers and agreements made at the meeting must be made watertight. If the signing process is too complicated, the deal may still fall through. Therefore, it's important to think about the customer experience and move the entire transaction closure to, for example, a convenient signing platform.

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3. You leave a more professional impression

Proper and transparent documentation and considering it important, leaves a more professional impression of your business to your cooperation partners and customers. Signing a proper sales or framework agreement also shows that you respect your client and the agreements between you. Using an environment designed for signing contracts helps to create a professional impression. As a result, it is more likely that a long-term and profitable client relationship will come out of it.

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4. Long-term sales contracts add value to the company

In the case of B2B sales, long-term framework or credit agreements help to determine the value of the company. They can give you an idea of how well the company is able to meet its obligations and retain customers. It's also possible to prove the origin of the company's turnover with the help of correct sales contracts to avoid confusion and questions. All this is useful, for example, when you sell a business.

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How to make the process of signing sales contracts as convenient as possible?

A tedious transaction can be much easier if you use the right tool. One such tool is the Agrello platform, which allows you to conveniently manage and sign contracts. Agrello doesn't do the sales work for you, but once the sales work is done, Agrello helps to organise all the accompanying paperwork.

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Automate contract preparation

If the basis of the sales contract is mostly the same and only the customer details and terms in it change, then it's worth converting it into a resuable contract template. On the Agrello platform it's possible to use your existing sales contract created in Microsoft Word and create a reusable contract basis with fillable fields from it. In the text of the document, the positions of the fields must be marked with curly brackets, which can later be filled in on the Agrello platform. Once you've prepared the contract basis, all contracts can be started and prepared without leaving the Agrello platform. If necessary, you can also connect Agrello to your CRM tool, e.g. Pipedrive, and automatically create contracts based on the data there.

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Control the signing process

After you've prepared the contract, it can be made available for signing on the Agrello platform with just a few clicks. The client receives an invitation to sign and doesn't need to download the document to their computer to sign, but can do so conveniently in the Agrello environment using Agrello Signature, Smart- ID or Mobile- ID. Using a signature platform helps to provide a convenient experience for customers, which is an important part of building strong customer relationships. At the same time, you have an instant overview of the signing process, as you receive notifications about when the customer has received, accepted and signed the document. As a new feature, you can now set custom reminders for yourself to remind your clients to sign on time if they haven't already done so.

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Organise your sales contracts

As the preparation and signing of contracts takes place in one environment, there's no chance that the documents will be left in someone's personal mailbox or computer. To keep the paperwork in order, all sales contracts on the Agrello platform can be organised in spaces by client or project. Some contracts need to be updated from time to time. You can set reminders for yourself so that you don't forget to check the contracts in time. Depending on your needs, you can also give your colleagues access to the spaces.

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