How to manage contracts in Copper CRM

Sales teams live in tools like Copper CRM, where they manage their deal flow. But when it comes to creating the contracts needed to close those deals, they often find themselves jumping between different tools and waiting on other teams. 

Fortunately, there’s a way for sales teams to create and manage contracts within Copper CRM, and they can do this in just a few clicks. Keep reading to find out how.

What is Copper CRM? 

Copper is a popular customer relationship management (CRM) tool that enables sales teams to automate admin work and manage relationships with prospects more effectively. 

Copper CRM is particularly popular due to its integration with GSuite. The CRM connects seamlessly to tools like Google Calendar, Google Drive, and Gmail, all of which are used to connect with prospects, book meetings, and store sales documents. 

But what role does CopperCRM play when it comes to managing the contracts used to close new deals and capture revenue? Let’s find out. 

How do sales teams usually manage their contracts? 

If you’re looking to turn a lead into a customer, you’ll need a contract first. 

Unfortunately, Copper CRM doesn’t offer the native functionality that legal and sales teams need to create these contracts. This means that they’re forced to jump between up to five different tools to get a sales contract over the line. 

For many Copper CRM users, the contracting process can be disjointed and time-consuming. It often looks a bit like this:

1. When a lead is ready to buy, sales reps will request a contract from the legal department. This is typically done via email or using a contract request form. 

2. The legal team then picks up the request when they’re free and uses an editor like Microsoft Word to draft a contract. This is typically done by referring to existing contract templates.

3. Next, the legal team will log into Copper CRM to find the deal data needed to populate the contract. This information is used to populate the contract template and customize the agreement. 

4. The next step is contract review. This is when the contract will be shared via email with other departments for their approval. The people you’ve shared the contract with will respond with edits or approve the contract. This usually happens via email and will continue until the contract is fully approved. 

5. The contract will then be sent out to a counterparty for negotiation. Usually, the counterparty will redline the contract in Word, send it back, and wait for their suggestions to be approved. This can happen several times before the parties eventually agree to the same terms and the contract can progress to signing. 

6. Now for the stage that sales reps look forward to most: signing the contract. Copper CRM doesn’t have a native electronic signature feature, so contracts will often be moved to a separate electronic signature tool like DocuSign or Adobe Sign. 

7. The contract owner will then save the signed contract and upload a copy of it to the deal workspace in Copper CRM. If the business tracks contracts, the contract data will usually be entered into a contract management spreadsheet of some sort too. 

Why is this inefficient?

While a workflow like this is common, it’s certainly not the most efficient way to manage your sales contracts. 

The contract drafting process is a complex one, meaning it’s left to legal teams to create contracts - not sales teams. Picking up this manual contract admin can quickly become a drain on legal’s already stretched time. It would be far easier if sales teams could self-serve on contract creation. 

The process also involves lots of tools. Even simple contracts require businesses to jump back and forth between different tools. This creates friction and slows down sales cycles. It also makes it hard to track the status of contracts as they’re spread across different systems. It would be far more efficient for sales teams to be able to create contracts without leaving Copper CRM. 

Fortunately, there’s a way that sales teams can create their own contracts without leaving the Copper CRM platform. 

Is it possible to manage contracts in Copper CRM?

Copper CRM can be used to generate contracts. But you’ll need to integrate the CRM with contract management software first.  

Connecting Copper CRM with a contract tool like Juro enables sales teams to create and manage contracts without having to leave the CRM. This workflow can be set up in minutes using Zapier, with no code required. 

Let’s cover how this integration can be used in a bit more detail now. 

How to manage contracts in Copper CRM

As we just mentioned, Juro’s integration with Copper CRM allows sales teams to generate sales agreements within Copper. This is done by setting up a trigger in Zapier whereby a contract is automatically created when an opportunity reaches a certain stage. 

This works using an automated contract template that’s built and designed in Juro. This template has smartfields that correspond with the data fields in Copper CRM, and this allows for the deal data to be pulled directly into the contract with no manual work required. 

This means that all of the important information about a deal, like contract value, discount percentages, and party details, will appear in the contract automatically. 

This enables sales reps to self-serve on contract creation with minimal contract risk.

But that’s not all. Since Juro’s integration with Copper CRM is a two-way integration, users can also set up a workflow so that the stage of an opportunity is updated in Copper CRM when a contract reaches a certain milestone. 

For example, sales reps can set up the workflow so that the status of an opportunity is automatically updated to ‘Closed won’ when a contract gets signed. This is great because it keeps everyone in the loop about the status of a contract. It also means less time spent updating these records manually. 

The integration can also be used to log activity in Copper when contracts reach certain milestones. This is useful because it records any contract updates in the same place as the opportunity is stored. Again, this keeps stakeholders in the loop about where a contract is in its lifecycle and what’s required from them. 

Benefits of managing contracts in Copper CRM

Managing your contracts in Copper CRM (and Juro) is a great way to make your contract workflow more efficient. But there are other benefits too:

• Sales teams can stay in their CRMs. Since contracts can be created within Copper CRM, sales teams no longer need to leave the tool to create them. This means they can continue working from the platforms they use daily. 

• Faster sales cycles. Automating the contract creation process means that you can reduce friction when creating sales contracts. This speeds up sales cycles and means you can get contracts over the line faster. 

• No more waiting on legal. Juro’s integration with Copper CRM makes it quick and easy for sales teams to generate their own contracts. This means they no longer need to rely on legal to draft contracts for them. Instead, they have sales contracts on demand.

• More accurate contract data. The data used to populate sales contracts is pulled directly from the records in Copper CRM. This improves data accuracy since teams no longer need to re enter this data manually. 

Learn more about CLM & CRM integrations

To find out more about Juro's integration with Copper CRM, fill in the form below to speak to a specialist. To find out about how to manage contracts in other CRMs, check out the guides below:

• How to manage contracts in Salesforce
• How to manage contracts in Hubspot
• How to manage contracts in Pipedrive
• How to manage contracts in Zoho CRM
• How to manage contracts in Microsoft Dynamics
• CLM v CRM: what's the difference?