Any business that offers a product or service must execute sales contracts delineating the rights and duties of the buyer and seller. These days, few companies can get by with a standard template. While there may be boilerplate warranties and return policies, each relationship is governed by its unique terms and conditions.

Sales contracts must generally: 

• Identify the contracting parties
• Describe what is being bought or sold
• Dictate the price, taxes, fees, price adjustments, dates, and amounts
• Include the buyer and seller rights and obligations in fulfilling the contract
• Limit liability as best as possible and provide for a remedy if there is a breach of contract

Best practices from the Uniform Commercial Code and export control laws must also be included for certain aspects of a sales contract, following state consumer protection laws. Reviewing and negotiating a sales agreement can be a dull but necessary part of conducting business. Depending on the contract’s complexity, a legal team may take days, weeks, or even months to complete a single agreement. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms that provide sales contract automation for review and negotiation processes can expedite contract approval and significantly increase a legal team’s efficiency and productivity.

Sales Contract Pain Points

Many potential issues can derail a contract’s success:

• Overworked legal staff reviewing more agreements than they can handle.
• Staff unable to locate necessary information to inform agreement decisions. 
• Unanswered inquiries between parties.
• Unanswered organizational approvals.
• Negotiating non-standard elements.
• Failure of the counterparty to sign or offer information on time.

Manual contract review and negotiation processes are inefficient. Finding and comparing current contracts to old agreements is cumbersome because contract management system components used to be developed in silos to perform specific tasks. Leading-edge sales contract automation solutions overcome siloed processes by streamlining contract markup and negotiations.

Sales Contract Automation with AI

AI has evolved over the past decade, moving beyond search and spell-check functions to incorporate AI solutions that enable the technology to review contracts like an experienced attorney. LexCheck provides a sales contract automation solution that can help legal teams with the following:

• Redlining - After uploading the company playbook and a set of sample contracts, the AI will checks contracts for adherence and clarity, highlighting areas of risk for closer review.
• Negotiation - LexCheck not only reviews sales contracts but offers contextual suggestions for improving contract terms based on past results and best practices.
• Automation - Leveraging an AI-powered contract review and negotiation platform for sales contracts enables legal teams to focus on high-value, strategic tasks while ensuring that all their agreements strictly adhere to playbook guidelines.
• Risk Analysis - When the AI completes its review of an agreement, it can provide a color-coded contract risk analysis relative to the standard positions enumerated in the AI Digital Playbook. “Red” issues can escalate automatically for a senior-level attorney review. “Yellow” issues can be assessed and self-negotiated with situationally correct guidance.  “Green” issues can be automatically accepted.
• Lifecycle Management - The AI can recognize potential contract bottlenecks and provide suggestions for revision to streamline negotiations. 

Notably, the AI can complete the processes described above in a matter of minutes, allowing legal departments to handle more deals and close them faster. LexCheck reduces the learning curve by integrating with cloud-based technologies you already use. 

To start a new sales contract review, users simply upload or email an agreement to the platform. A few minutes later, the AI returns a fully-redlined, reviewed, and revised smart contract.

Unless escalation is required due to unacceptable risk conditions, the AI can provide a fully automated solution for sales contract review and negotiation. Each time the playbook is updated, the AI adapts to the changes. As a result, contract review and negotiation performed by the AI becomes smarter, and your agreements become stronger.