1/ As a marketing department head who is also a lawyer, I have some thoughts I'd like to share with those who have signing authority for their businesses.

These are my personal rules regarding contracts with new vendors.

A thread...

2/ First, never, ever sign a contract for a longer time frame than you're comfortable with. If you're not 150% confident a service will add value to the business, you need an out clause built in that does to commit you to some duration.

3/ Every SAAS wants a one-year commitment from clients.

But, everything is negotiable, always.

Hold your ground and walk away, if necessary.

I've had 100% success getting a shorter-term commitment to ensure they are demonstrating value prior to committing long term.

4/ Second, always ask for a longer-term commitment to whatever price concessions the SAAS is willing to include in the contract.

I typically ask for 3 years worth of price protection to protect us from price increases in the future.

5/ If they're willing to provide the service for that price in year 1, they should be willing to do so in years 2 or 3.

6/ Third, never accept a contract that auto-renews for additional years.

Auto-renewal is complete bullshit designed so that if you miss your notification/cancellation window, you feel obligated to stay for another year.

7/ I've never had a problem negotiating that clause out of the contract.

This way you have to agree annually that you want to STAY in that relationship, and not feel tricked into staying for another year because you missed your window.

8/ Fourth, try to negotiate a month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter renewal window after that initial time frame.

Admittedly, this one is harder to get SAAS companies to bend on, but it's always worth a try.

9/ Fifth, and possibly most important... never sign a contract with an unreasonable cancellation clause.

We just went through a messy divorce with a display network over a contract my predecessor signed.

10/ The cancellation clause in that contract indicated we owed 25% of the ORIGINAL contracted spend amount, regardless of what had been spent leading up to the cancellation request.

Utterly ridiculous in every way.

NEVER sign something like that.

Just walk away.