How General Counsels Can Speed Up Deal Closures With CLM Software

Too often, sales and legal find themselves at odds, one chasing speed, the other ensuring compliance. The truth is, both are right. Deals are often won or lost not just on the strength of your product or service, but on how quickly you can move from negotiation to signature. Yet many organizations remain tangled in a web of lengthy reviews, endless email chains and missed deadlines.

For General Counsels (GCs), this creates a constant balancing act of manage risk without slowing down the business. Go too slow, and sales teams complain about lost opportunities. Move too fast, and compliance issues may slip through the cracks. The truth is, you don’t have to pick one over the other. With the right processes and contract lifecycle management (CLM) software, GCs can enable faster, smarter deal closures while protecting the business.

This guide breaks down the most common sales-legal challenges and practical ways to fix them.

Why Speed Matters in Deal Closures

• Revenue acceleration → Faster contract cycles mean faster cash flow and more accurate forecasts.
• Competitive edge → In high-stakes industries, quick turnarounds can make the difference between winning and losing a client.
• Stronger relationships → Sales stops seeing legal as a blocker and starts seeing it as a partner.
• Risk balance → With the right CLM system, moving faster means more control and visibility.

Common Challenges That Slow Deals Down

1. Contract Drafting Delays

Sales often reuses outdated templates or pulls terms from old contracts. Legal then spends days fixing mistakes and ensuring compliance.

Impact: What should take hours drags into a week-long review cycle.

Solution with Contractzy:

• Sales can self-draft contracts using pre-approved templates.
• AI redlining flags risky clauses and suggests fallback options.
• Automated workflows route approvals instantly to the right stakeholders.

Results:

• Drafting time reduced by 60%.
• Approval delays cut in half.
• Deal closure time dropped from 45 days to 27 days (40% faster).

2. Manual Redlining & Version Confusion

Dozens of drafts fly back and forth in email. By the time both parties align, nobody is sure which version is the latest.

Impact: Negotiations stretch unnecessarily, frustrating clients and sales teams alike.

Solution with Contractzy:

• Centralized repository ensures one source of truth for every contract.
• Real-time collaboration lets sales, legal, and clients negotiate on a single platform.
• Automated alerts ensure renewals are never missed.

Results:

• Contracts signed in days, not weeks.
• Missed renewals dropped to zero.
• Higher client satisfaction, leading to repeat business.

3. Approval Back-and-Forths

Every contract needs input from finance, procurement, compliance, or risk teams. Without a clear workflow, approvals sit in inboxes.

Impact: Delays pile up, sometimes costing businesses their quarter-end targets.

Solution with Contractzy:

• Automated workflows route contracts to multiple stakeholders simultaneously.
• Real-time tracking shows exactly where contracts are stuck.
• Approval hierarchies ensure the right people sign off without unnecessary escalations.

Results:

• Approval turnaround time cut by 50%.
• Quarter-end contract closures accelerated.
• Sales teams stopped chasing approvals and focused on closing deals.

4. Missed Deadlines & Renewal Risks

Without alerts or dashboards, important obligations or renewals slip through the cracks.

Impact: Revenue leakage and strained customer relationships.

Solution with Contractzy:

• Smart reminders notify teams of upcoming deadlines.
• Renewal dashboards give full visibility into active contracts.
• Automated tracking ensures no renewal or compliance obligation is overlooked.

Results:

• Smart reminders notify teams of upcoming deadlines.
• Renewal dashboards give full visibility into active contracts.
• Automated tracking ensures no renewal or compliance obligation is overlooked.

5. Foreign Jurisdiction Clauses

For cross-border deals, clauses around governing law, liability, or data protection often trigger long debates.

Impact: Weeks of negotiation wasted on terms that could have been pre-approved.

Solution with Contractzy:

• AI-powered clause libraries provide fallback positions for jurisdictional issues.
• Playbooks guide sales teams on flexible vs. non-negotiable terms.
• Risk scoring highlights high-risk clauses early.

Results:

• Jurisdiction-related negotiations cut by 40%.
• Faster alignment with international clients.
• Legal teams spend less time firefighting, more time on strategy.

Old Process Vs. With Contractzy

KPIs Every GC Should Track

To prove impact and find new areas for improvement, track these contract management KPIs:

• Average contract cycle time (from draft to signature)
• Number of contracts closed per quarter
• Redlining turnaround time
• Approval turnaround time per department
• Template adoption rate
• Revenue leakage avoided through timely renewals

The GC’s New Role

The GC’s role has shifted from slowing deals down to clearing the path for them to move forward. Faster drafting, smarter redlining, and seamless approvals mean General Counsels now help shape how quickly revenue can be realized. With Contractzy, compliance and speed go hand in hand, turning legal from a challenge into a true enabler of growth.

Final Takeaway

Faster deal closures don’t happen by chance. They require standardization, automation, and collaboration between sales and legal. With the right systems in place, GCs can protect the business while helping it grow faster than ever. The result? Stronger sales, happier clients, and accelerated revenue.

Ready to see how Contractzy can help your legal team close deals 40% faster? (Book a Demo)