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There is a special feeling you get when you close your first customer. And your second. When you start winning customers regularly, I think that’s perhaps the best feeling. But closing is not the end of the customer relationship–it’s the beginning. Many companies win up until closing and then they start the process of losing. For most tech companies today, the post-close is critically important to long-term success. 

The Closing Process: Key Aspects for Healthy Growth

Closing is when your prospect turns into a customer. That could be simply entering a credit card on a website and checking an “I agree to the TOS” box. Or it could be a long contract that has to go through several levels of corporate approvals, maybe even with wet signatures. Whatever that looks like for you, it’s both and ending and a beginning. Both are critical. 

The sales process has to come to a close. Many companies fall into the trap of the “product-market fit mirage” where they have a great pipeline that’s on the finish line but never actually get there. This is especially common in hot spaces where technology is new and unproven, such as Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, or others. 

The best close is the simplest. Whether on a webpage or on the phone or zoom, you or your salesperson should be able to ask the prospect, “What do you want to do next?” and the answer should be some version of close–maybe even as simple as ”Can I give you my credit card now?” It might be, “I am going to call procurement and send your contract over to kick off the signature process.” The simpler the better, always appropriate to your industry. Don’t expect a credit card for a $5 million annual subscription!

There are several aspects of closing that are signs of health–or concern. They are:

1. Clear next step: Ensure a straightforward, smooth process without awkwardness.

2. Reasonable ask: Make sure what you’re asking for is reasonable and stay customer- centric.

3. Appropriate contract: Use simple order forms when possible, avoiding unnecessary jargon and legalese that slow deals.

4. Self-serve where possible: Offer online purchasing options when it fits your sales process and customer expectations.

5. Set accurate expectations: Make only commitments you can fulfill to set up your company for success.

These are some of the key aspects of closing. Closing new business is a key part of successfully growing your company–and to be celebrated! What happens next is critical to continued growth.

Post-close

Many products require implementation or onboarding. Not all, but most. This is a critical part of the experience for your customer because this is their first experience with your company as a customer, and it will set the tone for the rest of your relationship. If you really botch it, you might never recover–and if you do, you’ll probably have lost pricing power and more with this customer. If you wow them, you might not only retain pricing power and avoid headaches–but also get referrals and glowing reviews. 

There are some products which don’t require onboarding, or for which onboarding and implementation is not that important. For example, insurance: someone buying insurance doesn’t usually need to be “onboarded”. They are now simply insured. They may need to do something to comply with their new policy (maybe post some signage in their office, for example) but the onus is usually on the customer and in this specific case, most customers know that. Recognize if you have such a product, and invest your capital elsewhere (unless for some reason you view this as a key differentiator). 

Most products require some onboarding or implementation. These are different motions. Onboarding is something the customer does entirely for themself. Think of Zapier or Rippling: the customer has to go in and set everything up. Your team just assists and answers questions. Implementation is where you (or a consultant) sets things up for your customer. Think of Salesforce, Netsuite, or Hubspot. Yes, some customers might set this up for themselves, but that’s rare. Usually they would hire outside help or depend on whoever sold them the product to implement it. 

Onboarding Techniques That Drive Adoption

There are many successful approaches to onboarding. To succeed, stay focused on your customer. What is best for them? It may or may not be what they tell you is best or even what they ask for. Early on, gravitate towards either your expertise or what they ask for. Later, as you have more experience with more successful customers, you can be more assertive about what has worked with customers like them. This is where building onboarding into your product, or having a foundation with playbooks, become very important. 

Key onboarding techniques worth trying include:

1. Product-led onboarding: Build guided walkthroughs into your product for asynchronous, timely customer onboarding.

2. Video or other training: Embed welcome and setup videos for an affordable, iterative onboarding solution.

3. Live onboarding call: Schedule calls with new customers for a personal touch, especially effective for enterprise deployments.

4. In-person onboarding: Consider on-site meetings for physical products, but be aware of the high costs involved.

5. Ad hoc onboarding: Avoid leaving customers to figure things out on their own, as this can be risky.

Consider various onboarding approaches, focusing on customer needs and expectations. Different segments may require different processes. Gather feedback and monitor metrics to understand what works best. Be open to adjusting your methods based on results, especially regarding retention.

Avoid assumptions in your onboarding plan. For instance, at my company selling AI dynamic pricing software, we initially assumed customers wanted one-on-one onboarding, and that’s what we did. These customers would frequently email or chat with support for even the most basic questions–questions that were more than answered on our onboarding calls.

However, when growth outpaced this approach, we switched to an on-demand video. Surprisingly, this led to fewer basic questions, as customers rewatched the video when needed. The video onboarding resulted in happier, less dependent customers and more profitable relationships.

Implementation Strategies for Customer Success

Implementation can be more complicated than onboarding. Usually implementation is required because there is no simple onboarding process possible. Sometimes, companies are able to turn a complex implementation into a seamless onboarding– MainStreet.com did this with R&D tax credits– but in most cases, implementation is a necessary part of the process. The sooner you realize this, and can work it into your GTM process, the better.

There are several keys to a successful implementation process. They are:

1. Focus on the customer: Tailor your implementation approach to customer needs, not industry norms.

2. Set reasonable expectations: Be transparent about implementation timelines to avoid churn and renewal issues.

3. Focus on quick wins: Deliver high-value features early to build trust and patience.

4. In-house implementation team: Control your destiny and create a potential profit center with internal expertise.

5. Partner with outside consultants: Leverage external expertise for effective implementation and potential customer acquisition.

6. Build playbooks & resources: Ensure consistency and scalability by creating and integrating standardized processes.

Closing is only the beginning of your relationship with a new customer. Implementation and onboarding are critical to retaining that customer. A well done implementation or onboarding can be the foundation for renewals, upsells, and referrals. A botched start can lead to negotiating from disadvantage, churn, and even lawsuits. Setting the appropriate expectations throughout the marketing and sales process, down to the closing and onboarding is critical to having happy customers that tell their friends and colleagues to trust you.

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