New Contracts?

Janet Schijns said her consultancy has advised partners on whether they should accept new contracts that consolidated suppliers put in front of them. Instances of vendors implementing new contracts post-merger have increased, she said.

“A few years ago, it was less frequent. It was about 30-40% of the time. Now it’s 60-70% of the time, so it’s trending toward more frequently. And the reason it’s trending toward more frequently is that people overpaid and then the economy went in a tough direction,” she said. “And you can lay people off. You can reduce marketing expenses, and you can reduce compensation.”

In one instance, the vendor sought to remove monthly recurring commissions. Schijns recommended that the partner check with a lawyer to see if they needed to adopt the new agreement. It turns out they didn’t need to.

“You might have signed an agreement that says, ‘We agree that you can change this at any time,’ but you might not have,” she said.