Every Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) sales-led got-to-market driver has potential deal killers. Whenever there is a change in a process or provider, the prospect’s mind races with emotions. While they may not be happy with the current situation or provider, they are reminded that things could get worse, resulting in buyer paralysis. Therefore, a business needs a documented new client onboarding process to assuage a prospect’s negative emotions.
When it comes to selling your product or service, it is always a good idea to consider what is most important to the other party. This is especially true when dealing with a large company run by a guardian CEO. For example, most employees high up in the food chain of a large company, make pretty good money. With that money, they have assumed a particular lifestyle. They own a big house, drive nice new cars, have a country club membership, and have many successful friends. The last thing they want is to get fired and lose their lifestyle or admit they made a mistake. If buying your product or service is likely to make the company more money or save it money 90% of the time but has a 10% chance of failing, many managers will choose to do nothing rather than risk losing their job over a bad decision. Their logic is nobody will know about a missed opportunity, but everyone will know about a bad decision.
“Better the devil you know than the devil that you don’t”
Anthony Trollope
Too many buyers have been lied to and duped by salespeople in the past. As a result, even when you have a great discovery meeting with a new prospect after you leave, they begin to remember all those situations and feel that you and your solution may be too good to be true, causing them to take pause.
To overcome this hesitation, consider developing a documented new client onboarding process. Sharing with the client that you have defined and documented an onboarding process designed to help clients move from their current circumstances to working with your business gives the client structure and assures them that you have thought through the onboarding process. Having a specific, structured strategy to guide the transaction significantly alleviates the prospect’s fears related to risk, time, and pain, which are often deal-killers.
13-Step Client Onboarding Process:
Lee B. Salz, in his book, Sell Different! included a 13-step new client onboarding process that your business should adopt if you do B2B or B2C sales.
1. Expectations
What do you expect your client to know, do and use? “Know” is related to information and includes things such as the products and services that are available to them as your customer or how to contact tech support. “Do” are actions and include things like placing an order or scheduling a service. “Use” is related to systems and includes things such as how to use the features of your website.
2. Process
Based on the expectations from above, define a list of what will happen, the responsible party, and when it will happen. For example, if you use a portal to communicate with clients, identify in your onboarding process the person responsible for setting up the account and describing how to navigate the portal, as well as when this will occur after the contract is signed.
3. Planning
To accelerate the process, make a list of everything the client needs to prepare before the transition. For example, provide a list of all the people that will have access to your portal and their role.
4. Collaboration
Assign a single point of contact for the onboarding process and develop a RASCI chart to ensure smooth communication between your company and the prospects.
5. Setup
Identify the behind-the-scenes setup processes that are necessary for your back-office systems. For example, contact information, passwords, and ordering rules.
6. Originations
Since every prospect comes to you with a variety of experiences, you should assess their starting point. Some may be in the process of changing providers and know how some things are supposed to work, while others may be outsourcing for the first time and have no clue how to work with a business like yours.
7. Communication
Define the communication strategy that will be used between your company and the prospect. Will you communicate regular project updates and status? Will you use email, Zoom, phone/voicemails, text messaging, or a dedicated tool such as Slack?
8. Training
Define the levels of training that will be provided to different levels of users and define how that training will be delivered, such as in-person or online, and what training is appropriate for each type of user.
9. Duration
Define the time interval between contract signing and full customer transition, and identify tasks that could accelerate or decelerate the time to fully onboard the client. For example, if the client fails to provide the required information by the stated due date, it will delay the onboarding process.
10. Timeline
Define the timeline with key milestones. Show the actions that can accelerate or decelerate the timeline. When clients know how to help themselves, the process runs much smoother.
11. Transition
Define the role of the salesperson in the onboarding process. In some companies, the salesperson hands over to an onboarding specialist and leaves the process at a certain point. In others, the salesperson is involved and remains the point person throughout the entire process. The goal is to provide clarity for the salesperson and the client about the roles of everyone involved in the onboarding process.
12. Kick-Off
Successful onboarding involves two types of kick-off meetings. One is internal to your company and includes all the people affected by the onboarding process. The other is with the client to go over the process, phases, timelines, and dependencies. At the client’s kick-off meeting, it is a good idea to get the client’s definition of what a successful onboarding process would look like so you know how you will be measured.
13. Feedback
At the end of the client onboarding process, get feedback by surveying the process from all the stakeholders in the onboarding process. If negative feedback is provided, take steps to understand the causes and remedy the situation to solidify the relationship with the client.
How to Leverage Your Onboarding Process
All prospects have a fear of change. However, creating a customer-facing document of the onboarding process allows you to share your expertise and neutralizes their fears. The onboarding document should not only act as a project plan but become a marketing tool. As such, it should be colorful and include your logo and contact information.
Don’t just email the new client onboarding process document to the prospect and ask them to read it on their own. Be sure to let them know how your other clients have valued the onboarding process, present it to them in person and go through it line by line.
To create instant credibility and differentiate your business from competitors, don’t just tell prospects you have an onboarding process; give it a name. Make sure the prospect knows that your documented client onboarding process is just one more thing that makes working with your business unique and that it was designed to alleviate the prospect’s fear of change. The best thing about giving your onboarding process a name is that it costs you nothing. When you apply a label to your solution, especially if your prospect has never heard of the name before, it introduces a level of curiosity to make them want to know more. It also establishes that you have a unique solution to a common problem in the consumer’s mind.
However, before you settle on a name, check out this post on trademarks to see if you can use and protect the name you chose.
Think of your onboarding process as a product.
Do you have a documented new client onboarding process?
