Contracts can do more than protect your rights

they can help you close sales

We recently were looking to hire a company to provide a service to our firm. There were several that looked promising. We met. We talked. And for the ones that we liked, we asked them to send us a copy of their contract. Then the decision about which company to hire became easy.

One contract stood out. It was well written, in plain English too. (Yes, our mothers could understand it.) It revealed clear thinking and communicated that the company’s processes were based on extensive experience. We felt comfortable hiring that company based on its contract. Indeed, its contract closed the sale.

Too many businesses, particularly small and start-up businesses, don’t place enough emphasis on their contracts. They often view them as a friction-causing device, something that gets in the way of closing a sale.

That can be true for poorly written, poorly thought out contacts. But a well-written, well-thought-out, well-designed contract can be the very thing that lands the client. It communicates your expertise. It makes your prospective client comfortable hiring you. After all, if you know what you’re doing well enough to be able to communicate it clearly in your contract, you can’t help but do a good job when it comes to doing the actual work.

You could probably even charge more for your services if you have a good contract. The company we hired was competitively priced, but we would have been comfortable paying more for their services after we read their contract.