You have a set of terms and conditions but are you actually contracting on them or someone else's?
Many businesses make the important investment in ensuring that they have a set of robust terms and conditions upon which they conduct sales and purchase transactions. Many fail, however, to ensure that:
- the correct processes are in place to ensure that the terms and conditions are actually incorporated into the contracts that they make; and
- their staff have a full understanding of what is contained in the terms and conditions and what they should and should not do when entering into transactions with suppliers/customers.
Ensuring that you are contracting on your terms and conditions
This is predominantly about ensuring that your terms are referred to in, and/or contained on, the correct contractual documentation. Many businesses put their terms and conditions on the back of their invoices. By the time you have submitted your invoice, however, it is too late because the contract has already been created and performed.
It is also about ensuring that your staff have training on the correct contracting process to follow and what to do if, during commercial negotiations, they receive documentation from your supplier/customer with their terms and conditions referenced. Staff will, otherwise, risk committing your business to the supplier's/customer's terms and conditions
Ensuring that your staff have an understanding of what your terms and conditions say
It is important that staff whom are negotiating deals with suppliers/customers have a full understanding of your terms and conditions. This minimises the risk of your staff committing to something during negotiations which conflicts with the position in your terms (for example by making extravagant representations about your products in an email to a potential customer in order to close a sale). It also helps your staff to have more confidence in dealing with customers who query your terms.
How we can help
We have considerable experience in training both purchasing and sales teams to assist them with:
- ensuring that terms and conditions are incorporated into contracts; and
- understanding the terms that they are using.
The training can be provided online so that staff can complete it at their convenience. Onsite, in-person training sessions are also available.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
