#19: First Impression Lasts: Perfecting Client Onboarding.

Setting the stage for a long-lasting relationship with your clients starts with the handoff up until the kick-off. Here is how Belkins is doing it.

Michael is such a nice guy, with loads of experience, charisma, and 18 fantastic episodes of this newsletter. But here's the twist, did you expect him to post the 19th?

Don’t worry, he won’t disappear from the public eye forever like Bobby Fischer (or should I say Jerome Salinger, given the nature of the craft?). After newsletters about sales come account management, so we've decided that I will step in and share some knowledge about Account Management, being the frontrunner in this topic.

Now, you might be thinking, "Why should I keep reading, and who's this guy anyway?" You have an absolute right to do so, but hold on a second. "Romans, countrymen, and lovers! Hear me for my cause, and be silent that you may hear." These are the words of Brutus in Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar." It's been more than 1500 years since the fall of the Roman Empire (and I didn’t kill Caesar), but the core message remains the same: I have something to share that I believe may be useful. So, if you have a few minutes to spare, welcome aboard.

My name is Alex Sribnyi, and I'm Michael’s partner and currently hold the title of Managing Director of Belkins. I've been with the company since the very beginning, and although I wear quite a few hats these days, my background primarily lies in Client Delivery or even more specifically, in Account Management.

From onboarding our very first clients (back when the Account Management department consisted of just me, lol) to hiring the initial team members, building frameworks, coaching, and expanding to a team of 25 fantastic individuals who now manage hundreds of clients, with a total revenue of just under 12M ARR, I've been there every step of the way.

Today, we're diving into the topic of client onboarding. This is where the journey begins, and it can either set us on a path to success or lead us down a less favorable route. So, let's explore why this stage can define our success and delve into the lessons I learned while building the AM Team.

Relationship Kick-off

Seems small to many, but it's actually a big deal. It's crucial to establish a clear structure and step-by-step framework for every new client in the onboarding stages so that every team member understands their role.

Allow me to share how this process is implemented at Belkins. While the choice of tools may be subjective, the approach itself can be beneficial to a wide range of companies:

1. Deal Moved to "Won" Stage in CRM: The Sales Executive moves the deal to the "won" stage in our CRM, which is HubSpot. Before this occurs, multiple forms and questionnaires have been filled out by the Sales Team and the BDRs. Whatever automation you set up, ensure that all the information from the SE is shared with your Delivery team.

2. Automation in CMS: Once the deal is won, automated processes in our Customer Management System, PlanHat, kick in. This automatically creates a new client in the onboarding stage and initiates the onboarding playbook.

3. Another automation triggers the creation of a Slack channel. As mentioned, all the information and materials from the Sales Team must be immediately visible, so they are automatically added here as well. Along with this, we automatically add the Heads of Departments responsible for assigning the appropriate team members. By 'appropriate team members,' I mean the squad that will be working as a single unit for this specific client.

   Typically, this would consist of 5 people: SDR, AM, Researcher, Content Strategist, and Email Deliverability Specialist. Why not add them automatically using a round-robin approach? Think of it as if you were assembling a team of survivors in a post-apocalyptic scenario. Random no longer seems like your best option, right? The logic behind this is communication between the heads of respective departments to ensure we assemble the best team that would perfectly fit this case.

4. Team Assignment: There's a myth that Dickens was paid per word, but since I'm not, and my writing skill falls short of our esteemed writer from Kent, we won't delve into the logic of how the proper people are chosen at Belkins. Just ensure you do your best to match their skillsets and experience with the type and size of the client coming in.

However, let me share a few simple tips:

• Ensure the Sales Executive passes on all nuances that may be valuable when assigning a team.

• Make sure you're not assembling a team that consists only of juniors.

• Implement a seniority system for every team so you know that for key accounts, you can assign the most skilled team members.

• If your scale allows, start building pods consisting of people with specific experience, such as industry-wise or teams that exclusively work with enterprise accounts.

5. Introduction Email: Once the team is assigned, the SE introduces the Account Manager to the client via email. The email should include:

• An introduction of the respective Account Manager (or a few team members, depending on the case).

• A reminder about any outstanding payments, questionnaires, etc.

• A description of the next steps.

Onboarding Structure

The onboarding process should have a defined deadline; there's no room for improvisation. In our case, the deadline is 8 days, which represents the most realistic scenario we've been able to achieve. I emphasize "realistic" because ensuring feasibility allows you to effectively manage the team and ensure adherence to the timeline. There are two key reasons to avoid delays:

1. It postpones the actual subscription date.

2. It reduces the time available to perform and deliver results.

Below, you'll find our Onboarding Structure. Trust me, we've tested over 20 different versions, experimenting with various approaches and tweaks, and this is the one that works best. My advice is to ensure that every step includes additional information, such as who is responsible for what, the precise steps to be taken, templates to follow, etc. If you thrive in strict frameworks, this is where you can fully leverage automation and streamline the process.

Anyone who has been in this situation knows there are two classic ways to handle the first call or your overall onboarding: you can go with a One-on-One approach or opt for a Group setup.

As you can see, we've blended both to create a hybrid that fits us just right. To sum up, the onboarding can be divided into 4 main stages:

1. Client Interview

2. Internal briefings and brainstorms

3. Onboarding call with the whole team

4. Post-call preparations & approvals (first drafts of templates, first batch of leads, etc.).

Remember, each macro and mini-stage has to have a strict deadline; you can’t play it by ear.

Let's now delve deeper into the four points above and uncover why they seem critically important to our team.

The pros of having a single Account Manager on the first interview with the client are blatantly obvious. The client receives personalized attention, establishing a better rapport and providing an opportunity for deeper understanding and analysis. How do you execute it?

This is your Team’s first contact with the clients, so it’s better to adhere to certain steps to run an interview call. You can easily find resources online for handling introductions and summarizing discussions, so I'll focus on the client interview questionnaire. Your goal is to clearly define what has to be achieved and what useful information has to be gathered.

Given Belkins’ role as the client’s lead generation partner with a primary focus on aiding their business growth, we prioritize these:

1. Gain a comprehensive understanding of the client’s business model.

2. Explore the client’s sales process, including:

• The duration of their sales cycle.

• The CRM system they use.

• The size of their sales team.

• Other sources of leads utilized and their success rates.

3. Clarify expectations, such as:

• Determining the number of deals required to achieve a positive ROI.

• Identifying the current conversion rates from call to deal for both the best and worst-performing channels.

• Collaborating with the client to calculate the number of calls needed considering an average conversion rate.

4. Explore competitors and unique product features.

The client’s sales journey may have occurred months ago, so it never hurts to refresh the client's memory and guide them through the process and next steps with some visuals (a concise presentation would do the trick). If you feel that the client already understands the gist of the process, you can focus more on the next steps. However, whenever it seems that their understanding of your services is vague, ensure you fully cover the basics.

Try to make it a dialogue rather than a monologue. As mentioned above, talking while showing a presentation is better than without any supporting materials. Another important aspect is asking if everything is clear, allowing them to talk, and ensuring that everyone on the call is on the same page with you.

Internal Briefing and Brainstorming

This one is fairly straightforward; a few things you must do:

1. Ensure your team absorbs all the knowledge from the questionnaires, the interview call, and any materials the client has shared previously. Moreover, your AM has to gather information on the client's industry and business aside from what was initially shared with you.

2. Arrange internal meetings with a clear agenda where the team may brainstorm, exchange ideas, and prepare a preliminary strategy that you can run by the client.

3. This call should have a moderator (AM), a clear outcome, and a recap.

Why? Well, remember when the Roman Emperor Caligula once declared war on Neptune, the god of the sea, and demanded his army collect seashells? Seems crazy and like the worst possible use of time, doesn’t it? It's pretty much the same as having 5+ individuals in our business gather for numerous internal brainstorming sessions without a clear plan about the next steps.

Onboarding Call

Steps before the call:

1. During the interview call, ensure to schedule an onboarding call with the client.

2. Be sure to record the call. We use Fireflies.ai because it also helps with transcribing.

3. In the invite, include an agenda for the call in the description. It will help the client understand the scope and what they need to be prepared to discuss.

4. Invite all team members to the call.

5. And as mentioned, make sure to have a solid action plan and strategy for the project.

The structure of the call itself:

1. Begin with greetings, small talk, introduce the teams, and set the tone for the call.

2. Review the agenda for the call so that clients know what to expect. Typical agenda for Belkins’ calls includes: Strategy discussion, Ideal Customer Profile discussion, Value Proposition discussion, our POCs, deliverability, calendars, lead handoff process, next steps, deadlines, and target launch.

3. Present your strategy.

4. Ask questions that you and your team have about the forms, questionnaires, and materials received from the client.

5. Discuss organizational details (e.g., on whose behalf we’ll conduct outreach, POC, calendars, lead handoff process, etc.).

6. Discuss any technical nuances if applicable.

7. Figure out where and how the communication between you and the client will take place (reporting, approvals, questions, etc.).

8. Conclude the call with a recap and outline future steps, including when and what to expect next.

9. Ensure that all bases are covered and ask if there are any remaining questions from both the client's and our team's sides.

Set the tone of partnership and friendship on the call. Begin by building rapport and credibility, showcasing the professionalism of you and your team. It's crucial to understand the type of client, how they think and communicate, and what's important to them.

Interestingly, let's revisit Caligula once again, who, as you already know, was rather infamous. He enjoyed watching people get tortured and is reported to have said, “Make them feel that they are dying.” So, my advice is the opposite - make them feel like they're not 🙂. Don't be robotic; ensure you have a good internet connection, have your whole team turn on cameras, and make it feel like a conversation where you can relate to what they say. It's a dialogue, not a monologue.

Post-call Preparations & Approvals

What comes next? The most intriguing part - keeping up with your promise and actually delivering everything on time. Whether you have a single role of Account Manager who handles both the client-facing part and oversees operations & execution, or if these are two different titles, there should be someone orchestrating the process. So, after the second call, make sure that something like this is happening:

1. Every next step has a clear deadline and a task assigned to a responsible team member. Test tools that work for different aspects of your process and different assignments, write algorithms and templates, and keep your finger on the pulse. The entire process itself has to be managed via your CMS. Here’s one of ours:

2. On a scale of a hundred-plus clients, having an operations assistant who tracks delays, playbooks, and maintains your client-related information in the CMS and beyond is almost a necessity. Before you have this person, ensure your Head of Department or Team Leader receives notifications on delays and consistently checks the quality and speed of onboarding.

"The Metamorphosis" by Kafka begins with this line: "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." Believe it or not, waking up and suddenly realizing that 80% of your onboardings are critically delayed is even worse, so don’t let it happen ;)

3. Maintain constant communication with the client, send different pieces for their approval, and keep them informed should any delays occur. Make this process as smooth as possible. You need to ensure they know what’s happening, what stage we are at, and what will happen next.

4. When everything is ready, notify the client, get a final green light, and get the ball rolling!

Thinking about how to conclude, my initial intention was to ask if you expected some reference at the end, and I was planning on not meeting your expectations by simply closing up and promising to see you in a week. Then, I recalled "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger, which ends with this sentence: "It's funny. Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." And you know what? I already start missing you :)

So, thank you for reading, and until next week!