As a small business (and certainly in B2B) it makes sense to have a well defined contract strategy.

But did you verify if your contract strategy is in line with your business strategy?

So the basis of your business is trust and relationships. It means you want your customers to be delighted and to come back for more delight.

Translating this into a contract strategy looks like this:

• a 🤝 handshake agreement beats fine print.
• agree on not being an asshole – it is not a legal term but covers many contract clauses and saves legal fees.
• be transparent what each wants our of the agreement – expectation management
• seal the deal with 3 key things:
  • a positive, energetic conversation over a meal to celebrate the start and get to know each personally.
  • a brief bullet point email (with both teams in cc to avoid misunderstandings)
  • announcement of the reasons for entering the agreement with your team and to the world (commitment).

 

Handshakes are about the future, about the stuff you can do together.

Fine print is about the past. The stuff that did not work out and nobody fixed.