By Jake Filloramo
The livelihood of any business is driving growth and increasing revenue by maintaining current customers and pursuing new. When the potential for a relationship with a new client arises, the most important process is nurturing that lead and moving the deal through the contract process as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, this process eats up a lot of precious time as the contract is created, makes its way to the recipient, back for review, through potential revisions, and to an eventual client signature – creating a substantial paper trail and plenty of headaches. For small businesses in particular, efficient selling is critical in driving growth.
According to Docurated’s State of Sales Productivity Study, only one third of a sales representative’s time is actually spent selling – with 20% of their time wasted on administrative-related tasks like sending emails and managing CRM records. How can we pull sales reps away from trivial tasks and back to selling? The answer is contract automation. Through the use of a workflow automation solution, sales departments can automate the contract signing process – providing a way to move contracts through the appropriate channels and towards closing, both efficiently and effectively.
How, you ask? Here are four surefire ways contract automation can save your business money:
1. Time is Money (So, Speed up the Process)
A stagnant contract may lead to a missed opportunity. As a contract travels through turbulent email chains waiting for a final signature, time that could be allocated to building new business leads is wasted. According to a recent study conducted by Email Stat Center, an average of $1,800, per employee, is spent each year on unnecessary emails. Contract automation eliminates the clogged inbox, expediting the contract signing process and allowing sales teams to focus on sealing the deal with potential clients.
The automated process is simple: employees determine who the contract should be delivered to, adjust the prebuilt form with relevant information and send it on its way. Automation tools even allow users to set due dates and recipient reminders so all parties are in the know on where the contract is in the pipeline. Automated reminders like these allow small businesses with less employees to put these tedious tasks on autopilot and focus on more pertinent initiatives.
2. Silly Mistakes Are Expensive (So, Reduce Human Error)
Everyone makes mistakes – but contract errors shouldn’t be one of them. Human error leads to contract oversight, which can cost a company a business opportunity. Such mistakes, including incomplete and inconsistent documents and inaccurate pricing, are avoidable errors that leave a company vulnerable to significant risk. Manually drafting and managing a contract means it could be easily misplaced or written in hard to read handwriting, an issue reported by more than 50% of sales managers. For small businesses operating with less resources, forgone business relationships have the potential to make or break business growth.
Contract automation eliminates these unfortunate occurrences, offering a digital copy that can be updated and accessed by users at their convenience. With a digital contract moving seamlessly from contractual point to attainment, companies can worry less about silly mistakes and spend more time selling.
3. Less is Sometimes More (So, Use Fewer Resources)
Companies spend a lot in order to maintain their day-to-day business processes. 1 billion photocopies are made every day – and they aren’t cheap. Oftentimes, businesses forget to consider the extent of their resources, such as paper and software, when it comes to cutting costs. Contract automation promotes cloud capabilities, reducing money spent on office supplies and eliminating excessive paper trails.
Additionally, contract automation reduces the need to purchase add-on modules – a particularly important benefit to smaller companies. While large organizations may have the revenue to buy add-on modules to complement existing systems, smaller companies oftentimes do not. Working with a contract automation solution gives companies an all in one solution to their software needs – providing a form builder, workflow manager and a digital signature vendor all in one. By eliminating resources, companies can save where it matters.
Contract automation helps small businesses grow to where they want to be. Such workflow automation software accelerates the contract signing process, reduces the risk of human error and eliminates the need for costly resources, thereby saving companies money and allowing them to focus on what matters – their future.
Jake Filloramo is responsible for business and customer development at OnTask. In this role he helps shape the go to market strategy, drive customer adoption and grow demand.
