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What 30 Years Taught Me About Scaling Right
Why Contract Standardization Is Essential to Sustainable Growth
Todd Steiner
April 03, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
Over the last 30 years, I've watched many businesses attempt to scale. Some pulled it off. Others didn’t. It rarely came down to funding or market demand. The deciding factor was nearly always clear, consistent internal systems, especially around handling contracts.
I recently reviewed Tom Dunlop’s four-stage expansion approach for Summize, another CLM provider. His framework is thoughtful and practical, especially for companies trying to scale internationally or across regions. The stages include:
Cultural Alignment – Choose expansion locations that align with your company’s culture to minimize friction.
Team Development – Build new teams with experienced talent while embedding your core values.
Customer Prospecting Base – Identify the types of customers who align with your product and processes.
Market Education & Maturity – Understand how mature the new market is in your category and adjust your approach accordingly.
These stages work better when backed by one foundational element: operational discipline. Contracts drive valuation. If every branch improvises how they’re handled, you lose time, visibility, trust.
Cultural Fit Doesn’t Guarantee Cohesion
Similar values between locations help, but I've seen many expansions falter because each office used different workflows. Minneapolis and Phoenix might share goals, but if one uses spreadsheets and the other uses a portal, confusion sets in fast. |  |
At Trident, we ask a simple question: "Have you unified your contract processes?" That answer often tells us how ready a company is to grow. One mid-sized software firm jumped from 100 to 300 employees in under a year without putting a consistent system in place. Within months, they ran into compliance gaps and angry internal teams. Deals stalled overnight. They built silos instead of scale.
Experience Doesn’t Fix Disjointed Tools
 | You can send your best staff into new markets, but if their tools don’t match, progress stalls. One client had regions using different intake forms, naming conventions, and review methods. Teams lost hours chasing data, correcting errors, and resolving contradictions. |
We moved them to a single platform with clearly defined workflows. Overnight, bottlenecks cleared up. Approvals moved faster. Leaders had accurate data. They didn’t just fix problems—they finally had the space to grow.
Prospecting Works Better With Structure
Dunlop stresses the need to know your target customer. Agreed. But the winning companies don’t create custom processes for every client. They attract those who already fit their system.
One client had a thriving Chicago office and a struggling Denver branch. Chicago followed a shared process. Intake forms fed approvals. Sales, finance, and legal stayed aligned. Denver? Everyone improvised. Some used Word docs, some forwarded emails. Nothing tracked. Delays and escalations followed.
We replicated Chicago’s process in Denver. Same forms. Same automation. Same alerts. Within a quarter, turnaround time dropped by nearly 40%. Errors disappeared.
Teach the Market, Don’t Reinvent Internally
Market maturity affects how you sell. Some regions understand CLM. Others don’t. Your external messaging should adjust. Your internal systems should not.
A strong contract system should be flexible enough for both advanced and emerging markets. Businesses that keep their process steady spend less time on internal cleanup and more time delivering value.
The Bottom Line
Experience has proven that the right contract management process provides more than just operational efficiency. A repeatable CLM system is the foundation for:
Ensure compliance across all regions
Quickly onboard new team members
Close deals faster
Avoid operational confusion
Expand without proportional headcount increases
We’ve seen clients cut turnaround time by more than half just by putting structure in place before they expanded. Dunlop’s strategy is useful. But none of it works without infrastructure to back it up. It starts with contract discipline.
Want to grow without growing your problems? Start by locking down your process.