Are contracts a sales-prevention tool?

In the last few weeks we've been dealing with several new clients who never previously used contracts in their businesses at all. Some were used to preparing proposals for new sales, and usually included a few words about invoicing and payment terms. A couple even used reference to 'our terms and conditions apply' - without actually having any!!

When pushed, these companies (any many others - maybe you too?) say that they've avoided contracts because they can put off potential clients. They're worried that by showing a customer their terms of business, they're putting barriers in between them and the sale. And that, as we all know, is the last thing that sales people want to do!

Another variation on this theme is the company that does a fantastic sales job and has the client biting their hand off, and then slips their terms and conditions across the table with a mumbled 'So if you could just sign here...' at the last minute. Ideally, for these guys, the client wouldn't actually read the document before signing ('It's all the usual legal stuff...just standard, really...').

So why do we do this? Is giving a client your Ts & Cs before a sale really as off-putting as making a teenage boy take his prospective mother-in-law out for dinner before he can date your daughter?

I guess there are many reasons, but they fall into a few main categories:
- the sales person doesn't understand the Ts & Cs (and doesn't think the client will either)
- the Ts & Cs bear no relation to how the business works
- there is no clear benefit to the sales person (or, in their eyes, the company) to having the client sign these terms
- the Ts & Cs are so one-sided that the sales person is worried they will put off any potential client who actually reads them
- the deal size is so small that the company is happy to bear the risk of everything going wrong

If you have thoughts on this subject, I'd be really glad to receive them - you can either post online, or email me at tiffany.kemp@devant.co.uk. Needless to say, I don't share this reluctance to use Ts & Cs, but I do think that we should work hard to ensure the perceived negatives are addressed. Because we can't expect our professional sales people to do anything that they think is detrimental to the sale - and it's up to us to show them how contracts can be a margin delivery tool rather than sales prevention!

Power to the People

Those of you who didn't come to the B2B show may not be aware that our first 'public' training workshop is going to be on Thursday 19th October, at Soane Point in central Reading. Although we've been providing in-house training workshops for clients and for select groups of associates, this will be the first time that Devant has advertised open training events that anyone may attend. So why are we 'going public'?

The objective of our 'Foundations of Commercial Contracts' workshop is to put contracts back in the heart of the business, where they belong. When I founded Devant, over three years ago, I had not realised just how reluctant most small and medium sized companies were to deal with lawyers. The general perception was that lawyers fees outstripped their value - to such an extent that a surprising number of companies would sign something they didn't understand rather than pay a lawyer to review it for them.

While I'm no fan of overpriced legal services, I'm equally unhappy about the way that smaller companies are put at a disadvantage by their lack of access to decent legal support. Hence the training. While we're not promising to make anyone into a contract law expert, we do promise that delegates will leave our workshops understanding what the legal stuff means to them - in practical, commercial business terms. And that they'll be able to work out when they really do need professional support. And how to ask for it! After all, there's a world of difference between handing over a 25 page contract to a lawyer and asking 'What does this mean to my business?', and asking your lawyer (or us!) 'What does this clause mean?'.

If you're able to read and understand most of the contract yourself then you can ask for specific advice and assistance - which not only saves you money, it also ensures that YOU are in control of your commercial relationships, rather than the lawyers (or the other party, which is even worse!).

So if you're not among those who have reserved their places on the first workshops (19th Oct in central Reading, 26th Oct just South of J11 M4 at Wyvols Court) then drop us an email (or call on 0118 9889672) quickly to benefit from the 10% discount that applies to these first two workshops only. There are only a small number of places left on each October session, but we will be running further workshops in November and December in case you miss these.