Effective support of a company’s sales function requires striking the right balance between making it easy and efficient for the company and its customers to contract with each other, while appropriately protecting the company against key risks. Legal departments are required to do more with less, so the approach taken to supporting the sales function must be efficient. The panelists will discuss strategies for achieving these goals, including identification of different customer types and approaches for each type, clear identification of key risks and tolerances, contract simplification and the use of plain English, sales force training and self-help tools, and processes to streamline the collection of information, drafting, negotiation, authorization and tracking of contracts.