Unlocking the Legalities: How Separation Agreements Can Impact Your Revenue Strategies
As marketers, we need every advantage possible when interacting with leads and clients. There is a wide range of tips and tricks to mastering client negotiation and managing contracts – keeping things in-house, bringing on a lawyer, accommodating for special circumstances and having clear understanding of your final ranked prospects. But how can these strategies integrate with separation agreements? A separation agreement legally binding is a complex subject covered in-depth by the invited (and hired) discussion with Chalkie And The Chippy author Heath Choi. If you’re managing a team of marketers who don’t know their pitch from their pitch fork, this article is a great starting point for understanding the nuances and potential pitfalls of a separation agreement. Here, I’m going to look at a separation agreement in terms of the digital marketer and revenue operations.
What Is A Separation Agreement? A separation agreement legally binding is, as you’d probably guess, an agreement between a company and an individual or organization that separates one group from the other. It’s almost always created during a period when a party is no longer contributing to a shared venture – or is about to stop contributing. For instance, you may have an employee who you want to release from their contract because they haven’t been performing at the level necessary for the company to thrive. It can also be used to remove a partner from a company, to fill out business paperwork or to get out of a joint venture. In legal terms, it’s both a conciliatory gesture and a form of record-keeping.
Why Should Marketers Care About Whether A Separation Agreement Is Legally Binding? Marketers need to be aware of a separation agreement legally binding because it has an impact on the company’s relationship with its clients. The scenario I provided above (employee separation) is a good example for our purposes. In that scenario a company separates from an employee because that employee has not performed properly, i.e. doesn’t fit their role and therefore has not been a value-adding team member. This is however not always the case. The employer might have hired someone who they thought would be a good candidate but due to circumstances has found that they are struggling to adjust. A separation agreement allows both parties a chance to remove themselves from the partnership without dragging things through legal litigation. That’s all well and good from a business perspective. But what happens if your AdWords campaign has been run by an employee on their last legs who submits a billing request at the last minute? What if a campaign has been mishandled in other ways? Or an entire sales department has completely failed to connect with prospects? By separating the necessary details into an agreement you can arguably protect yourself against a lost contract – unless of course the language dictates otherwise.
What Happens To Client Retention And Contracts When Agreements Aren’t Illegally Binding? The answer here isn’t pretty – you lose your client and your contract. When your lead program is functioning well, you can only afford to lose one or two deals per quarter. You know, like that one client who never reads the fine print. But when your lead funnel is busted, can you really afford to lose the client you’ve spent the better part of a year attracting? That’s why it’s so important to take every precaution to keep clients happy. A binding separation agreement means you can still keep that contract valuable and worth pursuing.
How Can Automation Tools Track Agreement Statuses And Ensure Compliance? A separation agreement legally binding is just one more thing you need to manage in an agreement. But you also have to consider when, how and why a contract can be broken. As a result, in order to be able to manage your leads effectively, you have to be able to track agreement statuses. That’s where marketing automation tools come in. You can track each stage of the contract, create a timeline of agreement and engagement and track changes in status when existing clients request a change. You don’t want a client backing out of a deal because they were offered a couple extra percentage points off their price, do you? If you have to go to court later, all the documentation of changes in agreement is there in one place. You have a total history of the deal and all their requests. So if a lawsuit comes down the line, you can prove you were acting in good faith.
How To Identify When A Separation Agreement Is Needed There are many times a separation agreement will be needed, but you need to pay close attention to the environment in which you work. For instance, in most partnerships, partners are expected to churn in and out as it’s needed – that’s why they’re called ‘partners’ and not ’employees.’ If an agreement is requested, it may be because it’s time for a partner to go. Likewise, in an employee relationship, if productivity is dropping (or worse, accidents have been had), it’s time for an agreement. The solution may even be quite easy to implement – if your company uses fixed contracts for a defined period of time.
What Are Some Examples Of Marketing Situations Where Including Binding Agreements Is Important? In short, a separation agreement is a requirement in the following situations: Again, this is not everything under the sun, but it encompasses most of the reasons a separation agreement is required. Be prepared to face a situation where you need to suspend or dissolve a work pact.
What Are Some Best Practices For Negotiation That Will Help Keep Us Out Of Trouble? Practically, you’ll want to stick to defining a period where an agreement is needed. If you’re working with a client and things aren’t going well – it may be time to suspend the contract. If you have a partnership that you’re not sure will function well together, a temporary trial period might be the answer. In all cases, being clear and upfront about the stipulations of the agreement is key to keeping things civil.
How Do We Create Clear Contracts That Are Delivered To Our Clients So They Aren’t Taken Off Guard? As always, coming back to the fine print does wonders for keeping everyone happy in the long run. You can start an agreement off with a preface explaining what the document is and how it works. Copywriting is a powerful tool for creating better contracts. Consider using a sales letter approach to your agreements. In the end, a separation agreement is a simple document, but the ramifications of clarification and communication are far-reaching. You’ll want to be sure to consult an attorney to ensure you have the right clauses set up for your needs; however, if you find yourself left high and dry without a contract, you can be prepared to face some of the more common pitfalls a marketer will encounter.
For more information on separation agreements, you can visit Nolo.
