Contract management skills you need in 2026

The 7 best contract management skills for 2026

1. Attention to detail ‍

Attention to detail is an important contract management skill. This is because, when it comes to contracts, the devil is in the details. 

Seemingly small edits to a contract can have a significant impact on what that means for your business. While it can be easy to overlook these small details, having a keen eye for them is one of the best ways to reduce contract risk and ensure contract compliance. 

2. Negotiation

Negotiation skills are hugely important as a contract manager as negotiation is a significant stage of the contract lifecycle.

It’s how parties agree what the contract says and who is responsible for what. The better you are at negotiating, the more likely you are to receive more value from your contracts.

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But, this contract management skill doesn’t always come naturally. It’s all about learning how to leverage contract negotiations strategies and knowing how to best prepare for contract negotiations.

If you’re interested in improving your negotiation skills, check out the best contract negotiation courses in 2026.

3. Effective communication

Another important contract management skill is effective communication. This is because business contracts typically require collaboration between different departments. 

To make this collaboration as fast and frictionless as possible, contract managers need to communicate clearly with the contract stakeholders. This could be about a wide range of things, such as: 

• Which terms to include in a contract (and which contract templates to use)
• How long a contract will take to review 
• Who needs to approve an agreement (and when) 
• Where a contract is in its lifecycle 
• How to mitigate risk within a contract 

Without effective communication, contract managers can quickly become a blocker for contracts, rather than an enabler. 

But it's important not to lose the human aspect along the way. As Laura Fredericks, contract negotiation specialist, puts it:

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4. Legal and financial acumen  

The ability to pick up legal knowledge and keep on top of changes in the law is a valuable contract management skill. 

Contract managers don’t necessarily need to be lawyers or attorneys. But they do need to understand what the law says and how it applies to their contracts in the jurisdictions in which they operate. This is necessary to ensure that the business closes deals in a way that’s fully compliant with laws and regulations. 

But it isn’t just the law that they need to understand. Contract managers also need to understand the language used within contracts. This skill is particularly important when reviewing contracts and agreements and creating contract templates. 

The same goes for financial knowledge, as contracts often involve a transaction where money is exchanged for a good or service. The more knowledgeable contract management teams are about the commercials, the smoother these transactions will be in practice.  

To learn more about the legal and financial implications of contracts, check out these contract management courses.

5. Organization 

Organization is another useful contract management skill. Contract managers are typically tasked with managing large contract volumes, so it can often be difficult to monitor contracts and track their progress. Being organized with how you store and organize your contracts can make this far easier.

Lots of businesses also use contract management software like Juro to make it easier to manage large contract volumes. This is because Juro’s an all-in-one contract platform, meaning contracts can be managed from end-to-end in one secure system. 

In our experience, this proves to be helpful for businesses that don’t yet have a designated contract manager but need the safety and predictability that robust contract management brings to the contracting process and wider business. 

If you're not sure where to start, consider your email inbox. We've got some great email management tips for lawyers to share.

6. Data analysis

Data probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of contracts. But data analysis is an important contract management skill. This is because contract analysis enables you to better understand your contracts and how they perform. 

In fact, contract data can give businesses a wealth of information. It enables them to understand important commercial metrics, like a contract’s value and duration. 

The data can also be used to provide insights into the efficiency of your contract workflow, with data on time to sign, contract volumes and more. All of this is useful for tracking progress against your legal department’s KPIs.

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7. Technological literacy

As we mentioned earlier in this post, contract tools are a great way to streamline your contract processes and automate routine contract admin. But to implement and adopt these tools effectively, contract managers need to be able to use this technology confidently. 

Although, it’s worth noting that this is a bigger challenge with certain tools than others. While some CLM software is renowned for being clunky and having a lengthy implementation period, other contracting solutions are far easier to use. 

You can get started with Juro, the #1-rated contract tool for speed of implementation and quality of support, according to independent G2 reviews.

Its clean and intuitive user interface makes it easy for all teams to manage contracts in the platform - not just contract managers. 

To find out more about how Juro can streamline your contract management process and see the platform for yourself, fill in the form below.