Contracts Are Cultural.

Translating a contract from one language to another illustrates a lot about how contracts work.

First, there’s the language. In a B2B context, even the most modern, reader-friendly, English-language contract will use English in a form that is different to standard, written English.

Then there’s the legal system in which the contract exists. Yes, some parts of the contract are legal-agnostic (e.g. price) but a lot of the contract reflects the legal system it operates within and attempts to adjust it, either to get advantage, or to increase (and sometimes decrease) certainty.

And then there’s the cultural element. This is often the most important part. If you are a seller in a B2B world, then you want your contract to go through – as much as possible – on the nod. You want to create a contract that the buyer finds unthreatening and familiar. Anything which jars or unsettles the buyer represents a potential increase in the friction which you are trying to avoid.

And this includes not just the legal content, but the way the legal content is presented: the overall structure of the contract, the ordering of the clauses, the formatting, and so on.

Less drama equals less friction.

Less friction increases speed to cash.

Anything which jars or unsettles the buyer represents a potential increase in the friction which you are trying to avoid.