For every 50 leads that enter your pipeline, how many get stuck or get out entirely due to friction in the onboarding process? Chances are, quite a few. 

Nearly two-thirds of customers say that onboarding – the level of support they’re likely to receive post-sale – is a big part of their decision-making process. Yet at the same time, Over 90% of customers feel that the companies they buy from ‘could do better’ when it comes to onboarding. 

That discrepancy might be where your sales team could use a little help. So, in this article we’ll guide you through the importance of onboarding in the sales process, with actionable steps to make your onboarding process the best it’s ever been/ 

The true costs of poor onboarding to sales

How does onboarding friction directly impact sales metrics? One might think that since onboarding happens after the fact – the closing of the deal – it might not be all that important. But there are two issues with that mindset.

1. Great onboarding starts way before you’ve asked a customer for a signature or payment. It starts in the first conversation. A great product at a great price might outrun the red flags that customers see for a while, but if your initial contact with a potential customer is already wobbly, you’ll have to work a lot harder to get them to sign up in the first place.
2. Sales opportunities aren’t a one-time thing. There’s potential for cross-selling and upselling, as well as turning (new) customers into brand advocates that bring in new leads. Poor onboarding definitely impacts your chances for that for the worst. The long term impact therefore is a significantly decreased customer lifetime value, just because things were off to a rocky start. 

But it’s not just the loss of revenue, it’s also a waste of resources. Your marketing team has already spent their budget acquiring the leads, sales have invested time nurturing those leads, and then it all falls down during onboarding. 

Not to mention that in B2B, word travels fast about poor onboarding experiences, so your reputation is also on the line.

Where Sales Pipelines (often) Leak

If you suspect that your onboarding process has something to do with your disappointing sales results and leads slipping through the cracks, it’s time to take a closer look. To understand where and why customers drop off, you need to experience the process through their eyes and take all their feedback at heart (no matter how small it might seem!). Because the journey from signed contract to the active user is often filled with more obstacles than businesses realize, especially if they are more focused on the product.

Here are some common friction points that you should investigate – but also keep an open mind for anything else your customers indicate:

• Documentation requirements: many organizations fall into the trap of frontloading their onboarding with excessive paperwork and verification requirements. Of course, it helps to get everything sorted so customers can hit the ground running, but it can also be overwhelming and kill their initial enthusiasm. Part of the solution is reviewing what documentation you really need, and when the best time to ask for it is. 
• Verification processes: these often create bottlenecks that bring onboarding to a crawl. Again, the ‘why’ behind it makes sense – you want to create a secure and fraud-proof environment. However traditional verification methods can often take too much time and make the process feel less safe. You’ll want to invest in tools that both speed things up, and up your level of security.
• Communication gaps: last but not least, slow or confusing communication. Nothing kills momentum quite like silence or uncertainty. While businesses know what’s happening behind the scenes, customers aren’t always kept in the loop, which gives them time to question their decisions. Visibility and clear communication are absolutely key here. 

Building a Sales-Optimized Onboarding Process

Creating an onboarding process that effectively drives sales requires a shift in thinking. You’re going to be the co-pilot to your customers, not handing them the manual and wishing them good luck.

Bridging the speed-security gap

To build effective onboarding processes, you need to take a risk-based approach to security. Instead of applying the same level of scrutiny to every customer, you can also choose to adjust verification requirements based on actual risk factors. Low-risk customers swiftly move through a streamlined process, while the higher-risk ones get more attention and checks. 

The key to achieving this lies in intelligent automation. Today’s verification systems use features like this to analyze multiple risk signals simultaneously, enabling real-time decision-making without creating friction in the customer journey. This means businesses can verify identity, assess risk levels, and flag potential fraud – all while maintaining the momentum of the sales process.

Give customers the tools to be in control

If you want to build trust, you have to start with transparency. One way to do that is to give your customers tools that enable them to check in on their progress whenever they want. This means:

• Clear progress indications
• Contextual and personal help at potential friction points
• Automated setups where possible 
• And proactive support before issues even arise

Empower your sales teams

It’s not just the customers who deserve extra support during the onboarding process. Enabling your sales team to do the best they can is also key. And they need more than just visibility, they also need the tools and authority to help customers navigate common roadblocks. That could look like:

• Direct access to verification status and progress
• Ability to expedite certain processes when necessary
• Resources to help customers through hurdles 
• Clear escalation paths for complex cases

Measure and optimize your onboarding performance

It’s crucial to measure what matters. There are plenty of key performance indicators related to onboarding and sales, but you need to find where they overlap to find actionable feedback. Here’s where to look:

• Total time to complete: don’t approach this as just a single metric. If you really want to improve your onboarding process, break it down into specific stages to find the real bottlenecks. This means paying special attention to specific moments, such as the time between a customer submitting verification documents and receiving approval. 
• Drop-off rates: zoom in here as well to find the specific trigger points. For instance, what percentage of customers abandon ship when asked for additional documentation? Or how many leave when the automated checks take too long? Look for patterns and try to understand what is causing these drop-offs. 
• Security incident rates: it’s absolutely crucial to monitor these in relation to your verification adjustments. As you work on streamlining the process, keep an eye out for any correlating changes in fraud attempts or even successful breaches. The goal is to find the sweet spot where security measures are robust enough to protect your business and customers, but not so stringent that they drive legitimate customers away.
• Customer satisfaction scores: check in on the customer satisfaction levels early on, during the onboarding process. Don’t just look at the numbers, but go deep on the qualitative feedback that comes with the scores. Often small irritations or mishaps can lead to bigger feelings of frustration, especially once customers have already decided to work with you – the stakes are higher then, because they don’t want to feel like they’ve made the wrong call. 

Check-in on your sales team’s feedback

Last but not least: listen to your sales team. The feedback they get is particularly valuable because they first hand see what makes or breaks a deal during onboarding. If you don’t want to miss a thing, set up regular check-ins with your team and focus on these areas:

• Which security requirements most often cause hesitation 
• What competitive advantages/disadvantages do they see in your onboarding setup
• Which types of customers struggle the most with specific steps
• What tools or resources would help them better support customers throughout the entire process

The important thing is to keep learning as you go. The world of onboarding and sales keeps changing, as do the expectations of customers. Make sure that this feedback loop becomes a built-in part of your processes to always stay one step ahead. 

Make the onboarding process a superpower

The onboarding process is where all the best elements of your organization should come together and shine. Sales, security, and onboarding aren’t separate issues anymore. For forward-thinking businesses, it’s all integrated, which benefits both their bottom line, and their customers’ happiness. 

Keeping a close eye on your onboarding process and constantly updating it, can also help prepare your organization for upcoming challenges, such as changing privacy regulations and evolving customer expectations around data protection. Happy onboarding!