How to manage Salesforce contracts efficiently

Effective contract management is crucial for nurturing strong customer relationships and streamlining operations. Salesforce, being a leader in customer relationship management (CRM), offers foundational tools for contract management. But to truly optimize these processes, integrating advanced contract lifecycle management (CLM) solutions with Salesforce can significantly enhance efficiency and control. In this blog, we explore how Agiloft elevates Salesforce contract management, the key features of this integration, best practices, and solutions to overcoming common challenges.

Introduction to Salesforce contract management

When exploring contract management software, Salesforce often comes up. It’s a top-rated CRM system, but its in-app contract management features don’t compare to a dedicated CLM platform. And, if you’re looking for basic Salesforce contract management functionalities, you may be in luck.

But if you need something more robust that leverages automation and is customized to your unique business needs without extra costs, you need to look beyond CRM. While Salesforce excels in streamlining sales and customer service, it falls short in areas like compliance and contract visibility. Salesforce’s basic contract management features may not suffice for businesses that require more advanced functionalities.

Advanced CLM solutions provide a robust framework for managing the entire contract lifecycle, ensuring compliance, accelerating approval cycles, and expanding contract visibility — all seamlessly integrated with Salesforce. Think about it: a customized CLM solution can decrease revenue leakage, boost compliance, improve information sharing, and speed up procurement processes — likely all at a fraction of the cost. 

Key CLM software features needed for efficient Salesforce contract management

Here are some essential features to optimize Salesforce, transforming contract management capabilities:

• Advanced automation: Automation significantly reduces manual errors and delays by streamlining contract creation and approval processes. Automated workflows ensure contracts are routed accurately and timely to the right stakeholders.
• Extensive customization: CLM providers like Agiloft offers customizable contract templates and workflows, ensuring consistency and compliance while adapting to specific business needs, all at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.
• Comprehensive analytics: With sophisticated analytics, businesses can track contract performance metrics, gain insights for strategic decisions, and optimize outcomes, providing a competitive edge.
• Enhanced security: Choosing a CLM solution vendor that prioritizes security is of upmost importance in today’s business climate. Agiloft maintain rigorous security protocols to protect sensitive contract data, ensuring confidentiality and integrity within Salesforce.
• Seamless integration: As with all new solutions, it is important to determine whether Salesforce CPQ can be integrated with the other software that you have in place. A robust CLM platform should have ample integration capabilities. For example, Agiloft’s Integration Hub integrates with more than 1,000 integrations with well-known applications such as Slack, Teams, and Workday. The first of its kind to be embedded within a CLM platform, Integration Hubs allows data to flow into other areas of the business structure where it is deemed useful and removes the friction of sourcing and onboarding a new platform among many other use cases.    

Best practices for managing Salesforce contracts

1. Automate routine tasks

Leverage CLM automation to handle routine tasks like renewals and notifications. This reduces administrative burdens and accelerates contract cycles, allowing teams to focus on strategic tasks

2. Implement version control

Agiloft’s CLM version control features enable tracking of all changes, maintaining a clear audit trail essential for resolving disputes and preserving contract history integrity.

3. Enhance visibility and monitoring

Utilize robust CLM reporting capabilities to monitor contract status, milestones, and deadlines. This visibility enables proactive management and timely interventions when necessary.

4. Ensure compliance and standardization

Customizable templates and approval workflows in Agiloft ensure compliance with legal and regulatory standards, reducing risks associated with contract deviations.

5. Empower teams with training

Regular training on a CLM solution’s features empowers your team to utilize the platform effectively, ensuring they can adapt to new tools and functionalities with ease — meaning that the ideal CLM solution provider offers these services.

Conclusion

Working with the world’s most efficient CRM is great, but boosting its power with a top-tier CLM platform is even better. Enhance your business operations and capitalize on the capabilities of Salesforce with unparalleled automation and customization, with the stability of robust data security. With Agiloft’s advanced features at your disposal, your sales team can concentrate on what truly matters: building strong client relationships and maximizing profitability.

Talk to us today to learn more about our CLM solutions.