TL;DR: Coordination = Speed

Sales and Legal alignment is required to close faster. You need clear handoffs and playbooks for close predictability

Let’s start at the beginning of the deal cycle, when you send the MSA to your customer

Add a Cover Page. Yes, seriously.

“Assume the person reviewing your contract has no idea what your company does, they usually don’t.”

The contact reviewing your MSA is often not the one who’s been on discovery calls with your AE, which means they may not understand your product. You’re selling AI-powered SaaS with managed services with some compliance on the side? That won’t come through in your indemnity clause.

Fix it: Add a cover sheet to your contract that includes:

  • A one-paragraph description of what your company sells.
  • Key facts that matter to legal (data hosting, data processing, service structure)

Don’t know what legal needs to know? Ask your lawyer where what the client always misunderstands.

Battle of the Forms: Win with a Call, not a Word Doc

“Sometimes they send you their paper because they have to. Sometimes it’s because they’re not serious.”

Before your legal team dives into redlines, get the lawyers on a call.

Why?

  • You’ll learn whether the customer is actually serious.
  • You’ll align early on major issues.
  • It establishes a direct line between legal teams — which is often the fastest path to close.
  • It will help sales predict timelines and clears blockers.

I’ve seen review cycles shrink from weeks to days because of a single 15-minute call.

Deals are not hot potatoes

“Contracts are a mix of legal and business terms, legal isn’t the only department required for a successful review.”

Everyone needs to know what they own, and what they don’t. Empower your sales team to understand their deals so they can close faster.

Set clear rules: Be Pragmatic.

  • What business terms can sales negotiate? (e.g. term, pricing, auto-renewal)
  • What legal terms can legal adjust? (e.g. governing law, IP, indemnity)
  • What hybrid terms need escalation? (e.g. net payment terms, liability limits)

Spend a few hours with your key cross-functional leads to build a pre-approval matrix and who needs to approve what items when they fall outside the pre-approvals. This allows your sales team to: 1. Know who to escalate things to, and 2. Push back when the customer asks for something unreasonable by blaming something else. Ex. Our CFO never approves net 60 on deals below 100k.

Example:

  • Any term > Net 45? Needs CFO approval and the CFO needs a credit check on the client before make the decision
  • Customer wants unlimited liability for data breaches? Escalate to GC.

Quarter-End Isn’t a Surprise,  Act Like It

“Quarter-end panic is not a strategy.”

Everyone should know what to do the moment a contract hits the inbox. Here’s the play-by-play:

When the redline arrives:

  • Sales rep sends it to legal, with all known business terms and context.
    • If you agreed on something with the customer, say so.
    • Nothing’s worse than a lawyer redlining a clause everyone already shook hands on.
  • Sales leader gets notified to prioritize.
    • They should rank deals by urgency and communicate this to the rep and legal.
  • Legal does a same-day triage:
    • How long will this review take?
    • What approvals are needed?
    • What’s unclear?

This lets everyone sync early, set expectations, and avoid working in the dark (or on the wrong deal).

Once legal finishes their review:

  • They sync with sales before sending anything back to the customer.
  • Expectations are aligned.
  • No one is left wondering if the deal will sneak in before the quarter ends.