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After signing a contract there are lots of things running through a customer’s mind. Things like:

 

“Did I just make a big financial mistake?”

“Should I have signed up with a different vendor?”

 

The list goes on. Fear, remorse, and regret are some of the most common feelings new clients experience post-signature. This is a totally natural thing that humans experience. It’s a mental process called, “prospection.” Your brain conjures up best case and worst-case scenarios of what your life will be like with the new product/service. The longer time goes by without a kickoff call scheduled, the worse those worst-case scenarios become.

The best way to stop that post-purchase anxiety is to provide a clear ending of the buyer journey and a clear beginning of the customer journey. You can do this by scheduling and conducting a kick off call.

I recommend measuring and reducing that TTKO (Time to Kick Off). The worst onboarding experiences (low CSAT scores) will have a high TTKO. It’s common that the best onboarding experiences (again measured with CSAT) have a low TTKO. 

I’ve even seen some companies have their sales team schedule the KO call prior to signature. This accomplishes a couple of things:

  1. Subconsciously persuades the buyer into buying sooner
  2. Makes it so the customer barely dwells in that buyer’s remorse phase.

Long story short:

  • Start measuring your TTKO if you haven’t already
  • Have a process where TTKO can be reduced as much as possible!
  • Doing that will put you on the right foot and your new customers will be delighted that they didn’t have time to experience buyers remorse!

Just saw a post by Greg Daines on this same topic! Great insights worth sharing: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gregdaines_23-ways-to-reduce-churn-11-schedule-the-activity-7087098574240440320-G0Qt?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

I agree @emaynez. Even if the KO call isn’t in the short term, schedule it. Once it is on the calendar the stickyness starts. Ideally you’d have a closed/won opportunity and then the KO within a few days but if there are reasons (i.e. client internal delays) don’t wait for them to be ready but schedule the KO for a future date so it is locked in. They can still move it but now they have to take a step to do that.

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