If you’re a B2B model business, then the odds are when you make a sale, your business customer is expecting to receive a contract which they can sign to seal the deal.
From your perspective as the supplier, you want to ensure that every time a customer is ready to receive that contract, called the Master Service Agreement, you have it ready to send to them almost instantly in order to efficiently close the deal. And you want to ensure it is a strong, reliable contract which properly and consistently protects your business across all of your customer accounts.
You also want to have a standard form which changes as little as possible to allow for consistency.
If you want 10, 100, or 1000 or 10,000+ customers, then we really do recommend putting a very solid Master Services Agreement in place. If you don’t have a solid and sensible one in place, it can cause problems in the long term, and ultimately many customers will end up disputing it with you before signing and that can really slow down your sales conversion times and business overall.
So how can you ensure you have a solid contract that is always ready?
You need to create your customised business Master Service Agreement, which is your standard terms of business for all your customers. Whoever the customer is, and whatever they are buying or paying, you should insert their name at the top, and send them this document.
The Master Services Agreement covers any basic deal that you have with any customer in a manner which is bespoke to your business. This means that it will be specified that you are the supplier, they are the customer, they will pay you and you will provide them what you agree to provide in a reasonable manner, and that each party will comply with a selection of obligations.
You can create your customised Master Services Agreement here using Legal Sidekick, and afterwards one of our legal team can review it and ensure it fully covers all the unique aspects of your business.
How do you cover variations across customers?
In the Legal Sidekick version of the agreement, there is a Schedule (aka an Appendix) at the back, which is referred to throughout the agreement, where you can insert all the specific details of the particular customer. For example:
Length of agreement
Price and payment schedule
Details of the service/products to be provided
Any early termination rights
Any other agreements relating to your specific arrangement.
The agreement also includes that if you want to add further services/products later, then you can just prepare another Schedule to be signed at the relevant time and then inserted at the back of the agreement.
Conclusion: A worthwhile investment
We recommend putting one of these in place, either using the Legal Sidekick Master Services Agreement if you want your sales conversion times and business overall to boost.
This article was written by Legal Sidekick. Legal Sidekick is the legal platform for startups. We offer automated contracts and loads of startup legal resources and guides. For queries on master service agreement, please contact us at hey@legalsidekick.com.