What’s So Special About March?

Some of us are going to get really busy over the next three weeks.  No, it’s not tax filing deadline yet [...thankfully that’s 5 weeks away :) ] but instead it’s the last 3 weeks of the quarter - it’s closing those "make or break my quarter deals".  Generally, this is an exciting and unnerving time for sales professionals.  It’s exciting because you can knock it out of the park and have a great start to the year (and potentially get those accelerators going) and it’s unnerving as contracting bottlenecks can push your deals into the next quarter.  In a matter of just a few days, this quarter can change from being great to just average for you.  

First off, let’s accept that you have very little control, if any, over some aspects of the sales contract cycle.  For example, how fast will your customer’s procurement or legal counsel respond?  However, there are many things you can do to make sure you get the deal closed well before the March 31 deadline.  

In talking to hundreds of mid- to large-businesses, the top three reasons for contract delays are:

1. Throughput problem with inside counsel where they have to review a large number of contracts across multiple customers in a very short span of time while ensuring they don’t expose the company to higher risks by accepting less than favorable terms in contracts. In our research we’ve found that the typical ratio for sales reps to legal counsel across most mid- to large-businesses is 20:1 which compounds the issue of legal counsel becoming the proverbial “end of quarter bottleneck” as a flood of contracts hit their desk at the end of the quarter.  
2. Round-trips across key stakeholders (sales, legal, finance, and product team).  The greater the number of stakeholders involved in the sales contract cycle, the longer it takes to review and finalize the contract. In almost all cases, contract review cycle times increase exponentially for every new stakeholder who gets added to the review team.
3. Approvals that require more than one level of escalation.  In particular, those approvals that require multiple functions to weigh in take the most amount of time.  For example, the deal can get into a limbo when the General Manager, VP of Sales, and CFO all need to approve a pricing discount.   

So what are some of the things you can do today to ensure deals close inside the quarter?  

Short-term, setting up bi-weekly standing meetings with key stakeholders will reduce delays in the contract review cycle and approval process.  Having time blocked on people’s calendars will serve as a forcing function to discuss open issues.  At times when there’s no update from the client, you can always cancel the standing meeting.  Another important tactic is to ensure you remain top-of-mind with the inside counsel.  They will execute to the priority queue set forth by the VP of Sales.  Your job is to ensure your deal gets attention and the easiest way to make that happen is by creating the least amount of work for the inside counsel.  Anytime you send an updated version of the contract to the inside counsel, make sure to summarize the key changes relative to the previous version and provide a brief explanation of the customer’s new asks.   

At Doculus we are focused on providing solutions that allow you to close deals faster.  We alleviate a lot of the end of quarter bottlenecks by notifying you of the changes to the contract, automatically summarizing edits made since the last version, and enabling you to review and comment on redlines right from your mobile phone.  So if you are a sales rep, business development manager or inside counsel, give Doculus a try today - we can make you a hero this quarter!