Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus - VI

 Excerpt from my upcoming book at amazon.com - "Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus - Elements of Nature Meet B2B Sales" 

How a Legal Service Counsel will engage with others 
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Legal Services
Legal services are a corporate function where a legal counsel provides support in enabling or executing a business operation. In the case of business to business (B2B) sales, a legal counsel works closely with the buyers' legal team, internal sales, product engineering teams and other stakeholders to assist in quantifying, negotiating and closing a deal. The key responsibilities of a legal counsel are following: 

● preparing, modifying and negotiating a legal framework for contractually engaging with buyers like the master service agreement (MSA), statement of work (SOW) and purchase order 
● do due diligence, provide assessment and guidance on the following risks: 
o business
▪ lock-in commitment and its implications
▪ probability of damages arising and the magnitude of the impact from such damages 
▪ service continuity plans for events arising from insolvency or government actions or regulatory requirement
▪ exit options and handovers 
▪ syncing or adapting the agreement with the current situation, an example in today's world like adapting force majeure to include a pandemic 
o finance
▪ the right balance of warranties offered and excluded
▪ managing cost spillover arising from certain clauses
▪ additional cost or taxes, usage charges like overage charges
▪ insurance expectations to cover the risk
o legal
▪ legal compliances like sanction, privacy, data privacy and anti-bribery
▪ licensing issues, if any
▪ reasonable exclusions and limits on indemnities and liabilities
● managing the risk matrix and governance approvals 
● ensuring the deal is closed and signed off

So, let us explore how a seller's side legal counsel engages with buyers through the lens of the elemental attributes learned in the previous sections.

Legal Counsel for Earth Element – Calm & Stable

● Risk Assessment 
o driven by a minimal risk appetite and fear of failure means these natives are pedantic across exposure to any business, financial and legal risk 
● Contractual Agreement 
o slow in drafting and preparing and sharing with stakeholders, semantically strong, their attention to detail is good, and they prefer long term agreements 
o they are driven by relentless effort and status quo; the emphasis is on using the standard terms and conditions, ringfencing the scope with a maximum tolerance
o they are not open to any financial penalties or liabilities in case there is a failure or delay in delivery  
o they are slow and sluggish in following up with the customer for closure   
● Negotiation Style
o they have a lot of patience and are good listeners, hide information, 
o they lack transparency and principles, can often be deceptive or employ pressure tactics
o they are accommodative and let others take control and respond only when necessary
● Communication
o they speak slowly with a deep voice, sluggish in response and react at their own pace
o they are good listeners and are structured and semantically driven

Next: Coming up 

  • Cheat Sheet for Sales Planning and Execution using Five Elements   
  • How a Procurement Executive will Engage
  • How B2B Sales are different in Service vs Product 
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Previous articles can be read here
  • Part 5 on How a Marketing Manager will engage can be read here
  • Part 4 on How a Sponsoring Executive will engage can be read here
  • Part 3 on Negotiation Styles in B2B Sales can be read here 
  • Part 2 on Persona Mapping in B2B Sales can be read here 
  • Part 1 on Marrying Elements of Nature with B2B Sales can be read here 

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