Sales professionals often spend the bulk of their time closing the sale. Once the customer signs on the dotted line, they move on to the next prospect. However, without a solid client onboarding plan in place, you risk ruining the relationship you worked so hard to establish.

Onboarding is a vital part of the client experience. It sets the tone for the relationship and lets the client know what they can expect from working with you. In this issue of Promotional Consultant Today, we introduce some client onboarding best practices from Madeleine LaPlante-Dube, a content marketer for Precision Marketing Group.

1. Establish milestones and define success. A client onboarding process should always outline what success looks like and how you plan to achieve the client’s goals. LaPlante-Dube recommends setting success milestones, or goal deadlines. Be sure you set achievable milestones, she adds.

2. Provide a personalized experience. When onboarding new clients, think about how you can welcome them into your world. Just like you would enthusiastically greet a new team member, consider your new client as a partner and make their onboarding experience as specific to their needs as possible, suggests LaPlante-Dube. This could mean providing exclusive content or offers or being prepared with answers to questions you figure they may ask.

3. Collect and track data regularly. LaPlante-Dube advises looking at data such as sales cycle length and buying tendencies as this information can help you better understand your clients’ needs. She says that having baseline data to compare progress or failure can help you define the success of your sales. Consider what data you could begin to track that could help you through the onboarding process and in the months and years that follow.

4. Create a partnership. Another client onboarding best practice is to focus on the relationship. When a client decides to work with you, they have put their trust in you. Use this opportunity to grow the relationship and show value. This could be as simple as following and liking their social media content or calling for progress check-ups, says LaPlante-Dube.

5. Frequently gauge client needs. Once your clients begin using your product or service, their needs might change. Your onboarding process should provide a helpful introduction and give them what they need to accomplish their goals, but you should also build in regular check-ins. LaPlante-Dube says that when you do this, you can pivot when necessary to create a more personalized experience.

6. Create onboarding for add-ons and account upgrades. If your clients have already completed your onboarding process and return to buy something different, it can help to have a new onboarding process, says LaPlante-Dube. Depending on the size of your team, you could have some sales reps who focus on onboarding new clients while other reps focus on helping current clients learn how to use a new product or service. Just because a customer has already been onboarded doesn’t mean they can’t complete the process again, LaPlante-Dube adds.

A solid client onboarding strategy can set you up for success. Not only will you improve the client’s experience right from the beginning, but you can also earn their loyalty for the long haul. If you don’t have a proper client onboarding process, consider applying some of the best practices above.

Compiled by Audrey Sellers

Source: Madeleine LaPlante-Dube is a content marketer for Precision Marketing Group.