Here are three very sound reasons you should sound out a legal professional about your Terms and Conditions before you turn the ignition on your sales drive.
Liability
Let’s state it simply: off-the-shelf Terms and Conditions are not adequate to manage your liability.
In a recent case the High court found that an exclusion clause contained within the standard Terms and Conditions of an IT supplier was unenforceable. The award of damages was £110,000 because there was a clear disconnect between the supplier’s standard Terms and Conditions and the way they actually sold their software.
Off-the-shelf legal documents may not be relevant to your sector or business practices and, as a result, may end up costing you much more than you think you are saving.
Reputation
It is in the area of reputation that poorly written Terms and Conditions can hurt you the hardest.
Your website has done the tough work of finding a prospect, your sales team have answered objections and now its decision time. They glance at your online Ts and Cs – and what do they see?
Something that is barely readable or comprehensible, that looks unprofessional and that, at best, knocks their confidence and, at worst, makes them think that perhaps you aren’t the sort of people they want to do business with.
Bespoke Terms and Conditions not only protect you – they also present you in your best light. They can get across your company ethos and values and highlight guarantees you offer that other competitors may not.
They are a sales tool as well as a legal document.
Duplication
If you have downloaded some standard Terms and Conditions how many others do you think may have done exactly the same?
In effect you will be serving up duplicate content on your website – which not only presents you as indistinguishable from all the other businesses in your sector but it also will do you no favours in the search engine rankings either.
