It’s the last two weeks of the quarter. You’re in the war room. Deals are coming fast, and contracts are flying. But without automated contract review software, legal delays could cost you big. One wrong redline or one slow reply, and a deal slips through the cracks.

Then one of the biggest deals comes back with customer changes to the terms and conditions. Slight changes. Nothing unusual — just the usual dance around payment terms, liability, and indemnity. The kind of stuff every deal has. You forward it to your VP of Sales. He’s swamped but flags it to legal. Legal is juggling a dozen other things.

The clock keeps ticking.

The Delay That Cost a Quarter

I was working on a deal like this once. We got the final changes back to the customer two days before the end of the quarter. That should’ve been enough. But it wasn’t.

The customer needed one more business day for internal approval. Their team didn’t move fast enough. The deal missed the close. We missed our number.

If we’d gotten it back one day earlier, the deal would have closed. That’s all it would’ve taken.

What It Feels Like From Inside

If you’re the CFO, you’re wondering:

  • Are these redlines okay under our risk policy?
  • Who’s even reviewing this? AI?
  • Can I sign off on this without calling a lawyer?

If you’re the CRO, you’re trying to figure out:

  • Which deals are going to make it?
  • Which reps do I need to prep for disappointment?
  • Will external counsel get back to us in time?

It’s brutal. The deal might be good. The customer wants to sign. Your team has done everything right. But the process can’t keep up.

Here’s the “Optimized” Version of This Process

  • 10:00 AM: Sales rep gets customer redlines.
  • 10:05 AM: Forwards them to VP of Sales.
  • 2:00 PM: VP of Sales glances through them and sends to legal.
  • Next Day: Lawyer picks it up (if you’re lucky).
  • Day After: Response goes to the customer.

That’s two days gone, and that’s assuming everything goes smoothly. In reality, it’s often longer. You’re already inside the ten-day countdown. Can you afford to lose two of them?

Legal Is a Revenue Risk — Let’s Treat It Like One

Sales teams are built to move fast. But legal review? That’s still stuck in email threads and PDF redlines.

Most contracts negotiate the same 6–7 terms over and over again. Yet each time, we slow down the process and hope it doesn’t cost us.

It does.

According to World Commerce & Contracting, companies lose up to 9% of annual revenue due to poor contract management. That’s not a minor detail — that’s your margin.

And 70% of deals close at the end of the quarter. If legal becomes a bottleneck, you’re risking not just individual deals — but entire revenue targets.

So What’s the Fix?

At CFS, we’re building Breeze — a tool that helps sales teams get legal review done faster, with transparency and control. No more guessing. No more “did legal look at this?” No more end-of-quarter panic.

We’re trying to help you close.