Contract management

Retaining, sustaining and growing customers

The contract is won and delivery begins. It’s now absolutely critical that all the hard work and investment that went into winning the contract is capitalised on, through successful contract management and a flourishing relationship with the customer.

	Pre-2020	Post-2020
Audience	Typically quarterly customer review meetings Meetings get bogged down with technical issues Customers no longer clear on the value and start to focus on price	The rise of customer success Focus is shifting onto continually proving value and delivery excellence Greater alignment to customer’s business goals rather than just KPI’s When contracts are managed effectively: A different conversation – shared strategic goals Trusted engagement – true partners, not suppliers Reporting formats under greater scrutiny More eyes on them (known and hidden stakeholders)
Content	Sales hand over to account management and move on to the next opportunity Delivery starts well then urgency and innovation tails off into business-as-usual The running of the contract becomes an exercise in KPI management Not helped by standard, boring reports designed purely to tick boxes	Needs to communicate more than just historical data: Intentions and shared objectives Alignment of delivery to strategic goals Continual improvement and innovation
Technology	Limited to standard Word and Excel docs, PowerPoint slides for quarterly reviews	New ways to demonstrate continual value being brought to contract Moving beyond standard docs into rich media Analytics to understand where customer focus lies for different stakeholders

Eyeful-Sales Engine Alliance Customer projects

1. Nutrition products provider (£25bn)

Creation of online and hardcopy newsletters to keep NHS customers updated during the pandemic.

1. Global health insurer (£350m division of £100bn organisation) ContractIQ

Implementation of ContractIQ to transform approach to major contract management. Initial phase has £100m of contracts under new process, with 2021 expanding to rest of portfolio and complete reporting suite for management team.