Stakeholders in contract automation: who they are and what they want

You want to invest in your contracting process, but to get it approved, you need to demonstrate the value to other stakeholders in the business. 

One problem, though - you’re not sure how to convince your colleagues to support your investment. And without their support, you won’t be able to buy a solution that will help the business to grow sustainably.

This guide will help you to understand your colleagues’ roles, must-haves and red flags when you’re buying contract software.

Bringing your colleagues on board

For legal teams, getting your colleagues on side before you take your proposal for signoff can be super helpful for two main reasons: 

1. Getting signoff to buy it is much less daunting when there’s a group of individuals who understand the value of the solution you’re pitching. If you have the support of other colleagues who also want to use the solution, you’ll find it easier to get approval 
2. You can split the risk if you have colleagues vouching for the same solution. If several people advocate for a platform, it’ll be easier to implement, and lead to faster adoption

Juro is rated #1 in G2’s contract management category for fastest implementation and highest user adoption. Find out more here.

Who needs to be included in this conversation?

It’s useful to understand the various roles involved when advocating for a solution internally. This will help you include the right people in the conversation, at the right time. 

The decision-maker

The decision-maker is the person who ultimately decides on the solution - in this case, you, as the legal leader. Sometimes several people in the business may hold decision-making authority, in which case you should try and get as many of them on a call with your vendor as possible, so they understand the value of the service.

The budget holder

The budget holder is usually a finance leader, and may be the person who is responsible for company-wide budgets, especially in the current economic climate. Budgets might still sit with the CEO, depending on the size of the company.

The executive sponsor

The executive sponsor is particularly relevant in enterprise businesses - this person is empowered to give ultimate signoff on a solution. In enterprise businesses this may be an IT director - in smaller companies this could be the CEO. Having an executive sponsor might be critical to getting this over the line.

The end user

The end users’ feedback on the platform is invaluable, as they will be the ones who will adopt and use the system on a daily basis. It’s important to consult them once you have signoff on the solution you want to buy.

You may also need to consult your IT team to assess the security of the platform. Their questions about encryption, data hosting and so on can usually be resolved by sharing resources like this security summary.

Which teams might be relevant to contract automation?

Which teams should you involve in the procurement process? When should you involve them? What do they care about when it comes to purchasing a new contracts platform? What are the red flags that would make them reject a solution? 

Sales

• Involve them: as early as possible, especially if they're a key end user 
• Cares about: frictionless contract processes that don't’ create additional admin work
• Turned off by: change management, and clunky processes that could slow down the closing of deals, particularly at the end of the month

Sales teams send contracts out for signing regularly, so can be power-users of a contracts platform. 

The high-pressure, high-stakes nature of their work means they can be unforgiving of new technology that doesn’t make their lives easier when month-end rolls around. It’s important to make sure your chosen solution can live up to their expectations. 

Before, it would take sales 30 minutes to prepare and send a contract - now sales can generate contracts and send them for signing in just two
- Sales team, Paddle | Case study

Finance

• Involve them: during commercial discussions with the vendor
• Cares about: numbers - they want to know the ROI from implementing this platform and the cost of inaction. If legal headcount is frozen, how are you going to facilitate legal processes at a greater scale? What will happen if you don’t?
• Turned off by: a product or service that falls outside of the budget or doesn’t prove to be value for money; a vendor who is commercially inflexible

Finance is a key stakeholder when it comes to approving software spend - now more so than ever, in this difficult economic climate.

Make sure you highlight the importance of having a contracts platform in place, and show how this one process change can help the business grow more efficiently and sustainably. 

How many contracts do we have that go through Juro? How much is it going to impact the business if you take it out? It would mean the legal team is doing manual work, and they don't have enough bandwidth
- Debbie Chandler, CFO, RVU | Full interview

HR (people and talent teams)

• Involve them: as early as possible if they’re the key users of this platform
• Cares about: keeping pace with the business as it continues to hire - ideally, something that reduces the number of manual steps taken in a contract process, or removes the need to hire additional headcount
• Turned off by: a platform that doesn’t integrate with other systems

HR, or people and talent teams, are responsible for sending employment offer letters to candidates.

The last thing they want is to block the business from growth with a manual contract process, so make sure the contracts platform you’re implementing helps them meet the company’s hiring goals.

Procurement

• Involve them: in the negotiation stage, as they can add a different perspective to the process
• Cares about: pricing, the rollout process, and nuance of contract terms - for example, length of contract, billing frequency, inflation caps and so on
• Turned off by: overlap between your chosen solution and existing tools in the business they may be hesitant to approve spend

Procurement can offer a fresh perspective to your process, so make sure you involve them sooner rather than later, and provide them with all the information they need to make a decision. It’s their job to purchase software, so if you’re both involved and working towards a positive outcome, then it’s a good sign. 

IT

• Involve them: early - the earlier the better. When you’ve settled on a solution it’s useful to get IT’s input on security, compliance, and so on 
• Cares about: data security, particularly if the vendor is a B2B SaaS business. API documentation is also important 

Security is understandably priority #1 when it comes to implementing software. Make sure that IT is up to speed with the platform you’ve chosen sooner rather than later. Resources like a security summary can help with this.

Getting support from your vendor

If you don’t have that much experience convincing stakeholders to invest in technology, then this can feel like a daunting task. Not to worry, though - your vendor of choice should be able to back you up with the information you need.

At Juro, our commercial team can help you:

• Build a solid business case for contract automation
• Summarise the impact of contract automation by answering three questions: why do anything; why Juro; and why now
• Personalise your case, and ensure all your information is accurate - your Juro specialist can provide ROI calculations based on your requirements to help you emphasize the impact of contract automation

On top of that, your chances of success will be even higher if you’re able to get your stakeholders in front of the vendor - so they can see the value for themselves. 

Tying this investment back to a company-wide objective can also be powerful - and again, your vendor of choice should be able to assist you with this. 

You’ve understood the needs of each of your key stakeholders, so by making sure you involve them at the right time, and listen to their requirements, you can demonstrate the value of contract automation internally, and get them on board. 

Ready to invest in all-in-one contract automation? Find out how Juro can help you with your contracts - get in touch below.