If reminding clients to sign their engagement letter makes you feel like a dentist scheduling root canals, it may be time to rethink how you are selling the task.
There should be nothing painful about signing your engagement letter – and when presented in the right way, your clients will be excited to do it.
Understanding the Hold Up
There are many reasons why clients delay the signing of their engagement letter.
Maybe they are procrastinating? Too busy? Confused about the contents or purpose of the document? Price shopping other firms? Waiting on approval from stakeholders? Any number of other reasonable-sounding excuses.
But forget all that. What’s really happening is this: They don’t see the value.
If they saw the value, they’d find the time. It takes just a few minutes to log into Ignition or DocuSign and knock it out.
If they saw the value, there would be no need to shop around.
If they saw the value, it would be a quick sell to their business partners.
They need to see the value. Not just of your services but of the document itself. And it’s your responsibility to see to it that they do.
Stop Treating Engagement Letters as a Formality
When you treat the engagement letter like it’s no big deal, it’s only natural that your clients will do the same.
I like to position engagement letters as “our promise to you.” I explain that signing is important because it allows us to officially set aside the time and resources required to perform the work scoped out in the agreement.
Clients often feel that the engagement letter only exists to benefit the firm. You must communicate that the purpose is to protect both parties and your relationship.
Don’t Let the Engagement Letter Do All the Talking
As a legal document, engagement letters naturally contain a certain amount of jargon. And the larger your engagement, the longer the document.
Don’t expect clients to read every page to understand what’s in there. Always provide an easy-to-read summary or even a short explainer video for your bigger clients.
Do suggest that clients read the document in its entirety before signing, just as you should with any contract – but make sure they understand exactly what’s in there before you send over the file. That way, they won’t be overwhelmed or succumb to analysis paralysis.
Stick to Your Guns on Pausing Work
Pausing work on a client you “know” is going to sign but hasn’t got around to it is incredibly frustrating. To the point that it can be tempting to continue working with your fingers crossed.
But this is a dangerous tightrope to walk. Even if you never get burned.When you educate clients on the importance of engagement letters and then complete work without one, what you’re really telling them is that engagement letters aren’t important at all.
It can be challenging to change this culture if you’ve been lax on this issue for years, but you’ll never teach your clients to see the value in engagement letters if they receive the benefits of your services without one.
Quick Recap
Shifting the engagement letter paradigm is as simple as following this 3-step process:
Reframe engagement letters as your promise to the client (as opposed to their commitment to pay)
Provide a simple explanation of what’s inside the engagement letter before you send the document over for signature
Stop work on any account that does not have a signed engagement letter
When clients see an engagement letter as the only guarantee they will receive the services they need, they’ll be excited to sign and keep the benefits flowing.
