Backstory: I sold a result and delivered access to software. The gap became churn.
Mistake #7: I thought the signature was the finish line.
The contract came back signed.
Account got activated.
Customer handed over to CS for onboarding.
Everybody moved on to the next deal.
I believed the hard part was the close and onboard.
Everything after that was the client's job.
What it produced:
Good: The deal closed.
Good: Customer got onboarded.
Bad: Nobody had defined what success looked like. Not them, not us.
Bad: After onboarding, engagement dropped on both sides.
Bad: The customer felt the gap in the first months, and the gap became churn.
Here's what I missed:
Closing the deal is not the finish line. The customer seeing the result is.
If you sell a result and deliver "access to software," the buyer feels the gap fast.
The steps toward the result is the proof.
Proof you know how to get there.
Proof you can deliver day one and for the years to come.
The faster they see the first result, the less time doubt has to creep in.
Solution: We presented the success implementation plan during the sales process.
We documented exactly how we would implement everything.
What the results are.
How long it takes.
What effort it takes, who is the owner.
When each milestone will land.
The tool was an Excel spreadsheet. Simple, familiar and easy to follow:
Task: what needs to get done
Date: when
Owner: who does it, on their side or ours
Priority: what can't slip
SOP: how it gets done, step by step
The customer could see the whole rollout, 3 weeks or 3 months, before signing. Day one, they already knew what month 1, month 3, and year 1 looked like.
Then we mapped every touchpoint from signup to the first result.
Upload the logo, set the colors, the email address, the DNS, testing, go live, monitoring.
We scored each one green, yellow, or red for how we did it.
We automated and removed as much friction as possible, where it was possible.
For example, we scraped and imported their website logo and colors, so that styling the frontend was seamless.
We imported their store locations, address, phone number and working hours.
Each customer interaction was mapped, assigned and documented.
A multi-billion-dollar retailer, basically the CVS of Canada.
They came to us right before Black Friday, desperate.
They had gone to every competitor and didn't trust any of them to deliver in time.
We were a small company with a dev team in Eastern Europe and me in the US.
We showed them exactly what needed to happen, step by step.
And we delivered. 2 weeks before Black Friday, they were live.
Later, during a client visit in Vancouver, their CEO came up to me and thanked me for the help. The CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company.
Pinch me!
That's what the steps do.
Why this works:
Most companies put the most effort into sales. After payment, engagement drops.
The better ones stay engaged through onboarding, then drop off once everything works. Very few stay engaged and deliver success proactively.
A plan shown before signing defines success before the money moves.
Makes the promise tangible and the delivery clear.
There is no gap between what sales said and what the team does.
The results:
Go-live went from months to weeks.
The success implementation plan became part of the pitch. It closed deals.
It differentiated us from the competition.
It was proof that we know how to deliver success.
Renewals stopped being conversations, because the results were continuously delivered.
So map your customer's steps from signature to the first result.
Put a date, an owner, and a priority on each one. Score each step for how you handle it today.
Then show the plan before they sign.
You're done when a new customer can tell you, on day one, what month 1, month 3, and year 1 look like.
A rep who shows the plan doesn't have to promise anything. The plan promises, and the team delivers the same steps every time.
Secret Sauce: Time to value is the number.
Define success before they sign. Then deliver it step by step.
Best,
Virgil
PS: Mistake #8: I assumed they knew what we were worth.