The time from the signing of the contract to the project kickoff meeting is valuable. 

In a 2018 survey by HubSpot, almost half of companies (43%) responded that they don’t have enough time to focus on “administrative tasks,” which includes client onboarding. 

Unfortunately, preparing for the project kickoff call is something that’s often overlooked. 

Here’s how you can prepare yourself and your team for the project kickoff call. 

1. Shorten the time between the contract signing and the project kickoff meeting

At GUIDEcx, the average time between the signing of a contract and the kickoff meeting is 3.5 business days. 

It’s quite difficult to find data on this for other companies. Can you guess why? It’s simply not being measured. 

This time gap may not be important for companies to measure, but it has great potential for impressing new clients. How quickly and efficiently you start the onboarding process with a kickoff call can do the following:

• Make the customer feel like they’re important and cared about as an individual.
• Get the onboarding process started faster so you can see revenue more quickly.

2. Your sales team should be gathering information

As the ink is drying on that new contract, your sales team is preparing to hand over a new client to the onboarding team. This is actually one of the most important transitions in the entire process, and unfortunately, it’s also a time when many companies drop the ball. 

This relates to that first bullet point in the section above: making your customers feel valued and cared about. 

The last thing you want to do is make them repeat information. It tells your new customer your internal teams aren’t communicating and you’re using them as a middle man. 

3. Your customer should be getting a welcome email and overview

Many of the tasks that occur during client onboarding will be internal but it’s important that you don’t leave clients in the dark during this process. One of the biggest mistakes companies make is to have only limited contact between the onboarding team and the client. Instead of feeling valued, the client sees a black hole where they signed a contract and are paying money for something that isn’t providing a benefit. Start by introducing your team, and providing a key point of contact they can use during the entire onboarding process.

You can also solicit information with a short, simple questionnaire. This helps you create an onboarding process that shortens the time-to-value for each client.

Read more about the sales-to-delivery handoff.

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Peter Ord

Founder and CEO of GUIDEcx, Peter has revolutionized the implementation experience by providing the world's most advanced tools for creating a seamless and unforgettable onboarding experience for your customers.

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