If you’re running a B2B sales, partnerships, or customer success team, contracts are just part of the grind. Getting them signed shouldn’t eat up your day. That’s where tools like Contractbook come in—but not every feature is worth your attention, and not every promise pans out in the real world. This guide cuts through the noise and tells you what actually matters when evaluating Contractbook for your go-to-market (GTM) team, what to ignore, and where you might hit a wall.
Why Contract Management Even Matters
Let’s be blunt: contracts rarely make or break a deal, but they can slow things down, cause friction, or even kill momentum if they’re a mess. The right tool should help your team send, redline, sign, and store contracts with as little friction as possible. That frees you up to actually sell, partner, and serve—not chase paperwork.
1. Core Features You Should Actually Care About
There’s plenty of fluff in contract management software. Here’s what’s worth your attention for a B2B GTM team:
a. Template Management and Automation
What works:
Contract templates are a lifesaver when your team sends the same NDAs, MSAs, or order forms over and over. With Contractbook, you can create and tweak templates for different use cases. You can also automate things like filling in company names, deal sizes, or renewal terms.
What to watch:
- If your contracts get heavily negotiated or need a lot of custom language, templates only go so far.
- Automation setups can get fiddly. If your team isn’t tech-savvy, expect a learning curve.
Pro tip:
Start with just your NDAs or standard agreements. Don’t try to automate your entire legal library on day one.
b. E-signatures and Workflow
What works:
Native e-signature support is basically table stakes now. With Contractbook, recipients can sign without creating an account. You can set signing orders (so legal signs after sales, for example), get notifications, and track who’s dragging their feet.
What to watch:
- If you need “wet ink” signatures for compliance, you’re out of luck.
- Bulk sending is possible, but it’s not as slick as some dedicated e-signature tools.
Ignore:
Don’t obsess over “blockchain” or “advanced cryptographic” signature features unless your compliance team is asking for them. Most clients just want to click and get it done.
c. Collaboration and Negotiation
What works:
Contractbook lets you comment, suggest changes, and handle redlines in one place. You can invite external parties (like your client’s legal team) to collaborate, so you don’t get stuck in endless email threads.
What to watch:
- Real-time editing is nice, but don’t expect Google Docs-level smoothness.
- Permissions can get confusing. Be careful who you give editing rights—one slip and your whole template could change.
Pro tip:
Train your team to use comments instead of in-document edits when negotiating. It keeps the version history clean.
d. Centralized Repository and Search
What works:
All your signed contracts and drafts live in one place, and you can search by company, date, or contract type. No more digging through shared drives or old emails.
What to watch:
- Tagging and organizing can get messy if everyone does it their own way.
- Search is good, but not magical—if you’re expecting AI to “find that clause about auto-renewals,” you’ll be disappointed.
e. Reminders and Lifecycle Management
What works:
Set up automated reminders for renewals, expirations, or review dates. This is huge for staying ahead of churn and missed upsells.
What to watch:
- Too many reminders = ignored reminders. Be precise with what you actually need to track.
- No tool will save you from poor process. Reminders don’t help if you don’t act on them.
f. Integrations with Your Existing Stack
What works:
Contractbook plays decently with common CRMs (like HubSpot and Salesforce), Slack, and Zapier. This means you can trigger contract creation from deals, send status updates to channels, or kick off onboarding tasks.
What to watch:
- Out-of-the-box integrations are limited. Anything fancy usually needs Zapier or custom API work.
- Data mapping can get weird, especially if your fields don’t line up one-to-one.
Ignore:
If you’re not going to integrate deeply, don’t bother paying extra for API access you won’t use.
2. Security, Compliance, and Privacy: The Basics
Most B2B teams just need to check a few boxes: GDPR compliance, data encryption, and maybe audit logs. Contractbook covers the basics, but if you’re in a super-regulated industry (finance, healthcare), get your legal team to vet it.
What works:
- Contracts are stored and transmitted securely.
- Role-based permissions help with access control.
What to watch:
- Don’t assume “enterprise-grade security” means it meets your company’s specific requirements.
- Their audit logs are basic—good for tracking edits and signatures, but not for full-blown compliance reporting.
3. The User Experience: Where Bottlenecks Happen
Even the best feature set is useless if your team won’t use it.
a. Onboarding and Training
What works:
UI is fairly clean. Basic users (sales, CS) can send and sign contracts with minimal training.
What to watch:
- Power-user features (automation, integrations) take real effort to learn.
- Documentation is okay, but expect to supplement with your own cheat sheets.
Pro tip:
Pick a “contract champion” on your team who can answer questions and drive adoption.
b. Mobile and Remote Access
What works:
Web-based, so it works everywhere. Mobile browser support is decent—good enough for signing, not for heavy editing.
What to watch:
No dedicated mobile app. If your team’s always on the go, this might be a sticking point.
c. Customer Support
What works:
Support is responsive for simple issues.
What to watch:
- Don’t expect deep technical troubleshooting or custom integration help unless you’re a big customer.
- Knowledge base is fine for common questions, but thin on advanced use cases.
4. Pricing and Hidden Costs
Contractbook, like most SaaS tools, is priced per user and by feature tier.
What works:
- Transparent pricing for basic tiers.
- No big surprises for core contract management features.
What to watch:
- “Advanced” features (automation, integrations) may be locked behind pricier plans.
- Over-buying seats you won’t use is a common waste—track who actually needs access.
- If you need custom integrations or migration help, budget extra time or money.
Ignore:
Don’t let feature checklists upsell you on stuff you’ll never use (like AI analytics or legal clause libraries).
5. Red Flags and Limitations
No tool is perfect. Here’s where Contractbook might let you down:
- Heavy Negotiation Workflows: If your deals all require major back-and-forth with legal, Contractbook’s collaboration is decent but not as deep as tools like DocuSign CLM or Ironclad.
- Complex Integrations: If you want contracts to do more than just sync with your CRM (like auto-generate from proposals, trigger billing, etc.), expect extra setup.
- International/Multilingual Needs: There’s some localization, but don’t expect miracles if your contracts span multiple legal systems or languages.
- Migration Headaches: Moving from a legacy system or piles of PDFs? Importing is possible, but cleaning up data is still a slog.
- AI Features: Expect simple clause suggestions or reminders, not true contract review or risk analysis.
6. What to Ignore (For Now)
- AI Contract Analysis: The hype is ahead of reality. Don’t expect magic insights.
- “Legal Marketplace” Add-ons: Most GTM teams don’t need this. Focus on your own templates.
- Fancy Dashboard Analytics: Unless you’re running a huge legal ops team, the basics will do.
Keep It Simple and Iterate
Don’t get sucked into a months-long requirements gathering process. Start by getting your most-used contracts into Contractbook, set up a basic workflow, and see where things bottleneck. Get real feedback from the team. Improve as you go. No contract tool will fix a broken process, but the right features can save you a ton of time—if you keep it simple.
And remember: the best contract management system is the one your team actually uses. Fancy features mean nothing if everyone reverts to email and PDFs. Start small, focus on the basics, and build out only what you need.