Standard terms vs customer's MSA

We sell a SaaS platform that can benefit organizations of all sizes. Because of this our deal sizes can be well below or above $100k ARR. A challenge I'm running into is when a deal is below $100K ARR our policy is to use our standard T's and C's. However, many times the customer has a requirement to use their MSA no matter the scope (deal size). Often times this leads to a stalemate. Wondering if this is typical or if my company needs to be more flexible with our MSA requirements? Can anyone confirm this "hard MSA requirement" some customers say they have, or could it be BS and their procurement doesn't want to jump through additional hoops? Beyond frustrated with this and looking to hear of others can relate.

📃 Procurement
8
CuriousFox
WR Officer
4
🦊
Kinda need more details friend
braintank
Politicker
3
Enterprise Account Executive
This is often the rule, but rules are meant to be broken. All depends on what the client is asking for.
TennisandSales
Politicker
2
Head Of Sales
yeah it is really important in these situations to really understand WHAT the prospect has an issue with. if you can get specifics you can normally find work arounds/
jefe
Arsonist
1
🍁
^^^
MeowMeow
Politicker
1
Senior Enterprise Account Executive
Sub 20k we don’t play with MSA’s. Once you get over that threshold it’s redline ass kissing time. Working deals through channel sucks for us but that’s been a work around since they handle that BS.
Corpslovechild
Politicker
1
Inbound Sales Manager
We have that rule as well
TennisandSales
Politicker
0
Head Of Sales
yes I worked at a public company where this was a 100% deal breaker. the rumor was they had a massive $20MM deal at one point that they almost threw out because the prospect wouldn't start with our paper.....they eventually understood and took our paper and the deal closed.

it happened directly to me as well. one of the bigger opportunities of my career and the prospect was up front saying they HAVE to use their MSA.....i brought it up to my team and they told me " you better hope they are bluffing because we wont"

it SUPER frustrating from my stand point but legal is legal and it always sucks.
Corpslovechild
Politicker
0
Inbound Sales Manager
You always want standard terms but sometimes you need to do use the customers MSA.
Pachacuti
Politicker
0
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
“Who’s paper do we use?”

Always tough. Usually whichever org is bigger wins. Same with NDAs. But then it becomes a redline-fest. Not fun for the sales guy, especially on a smaller deal.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
0
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Company I used to work for was big enough that it was our paper 99% of the time. And we'd use standard T&Cs only (no redline) for the sub $100K deals.

Working for a smaller company now, we take the MSA from larger companies from time to time. We've pushed back when we are given one that is totally inappropriate (we're SaaS, so why are you giving us an MSA written for onprem deployment?) but I've found our legal to be somewhat flexible, within reason. The deal has to make sense, though.
4

Are there any SalePeeps who dabble in customer retention? If yes, what are your retention strategies?

Question
6
6
Members only

Flat Organization VS Hierarchy

Question
36
Which one do you prefer?
34% Flat
60% Hierarchical
5% Others (Comments)
58 people voted
5

Quarterly Brawl!! You vs a Customer

Question
12