The Kickoff Call
It’s time to begin the implementation. The customer is enthusiastic and excitement is in the air. Read on to learn what makes this event so special and what you, as the vendor, can do to maximize this opportunity.
Before Covid, kickoff calls were in-person kickoff meetings. The vendor travelled to the customer site and brought all kinds of fanfare in tow. These meetings cost the customer around $8-$10K in T&E, and when Covid forced everyone to stay home, customers learned they could save money by having kickoff calls instead.
The kickoff call is the moment in which your customer will be the most excited during the entire project. They purchased a solution from you to fix one of their problems, and the customer looks forward to the relief you will supposedly provide.
The kickoff call is the one meeting where you will have more customer leadership present than at any other time in the project, so it’s crucial to leave a good first impression. If you fail to do this, you can expect disengaged customer resources for the duration of the project, and this will likely prolong your engagement. Not making a good impression will also take the wind out of the project champion’s sails. This makes it harder for him or her to convince others the project is a good idea and you start the project with apathy instead of momentum.
Did you know that there is a strong correlation between employee tenure and the quality of onboarding that individual receives? Companies with high turnover or lack of engagement have terrible to no onboarding among other things (are you getting the picture yet?). Think of the kickoff call as the customer’s onboarding for your project. It’s mostly within your control whether or not you have sustained momentum throughout the project or if things constantly fizzle out.
Remember when I said that customer leadership will be present at your kickoff? Not only will they be present but they are also paying attention. Executives tend not to multi-task during kickoff calls which means you are gifted their attention for a whole hour. Below is a typical agenda I use for kickoffs, and let’s go over these items to ensure a successful kickoff for your project.
Introductions
Every kickoff begins with introductions. When introducing yourself to the customer for the first time you should turn your camera on, so the customer puts a face to the name. This starts the relationship building. You don’t want introductions to drag on forever so simply say your name, your role within the project, and a fun fact. I always have my team members mention what their favorite cereal is.
Only have the customer team introduce themselves if they really want to. Their team will be larger than yours and it takes up a lot of time. Work with the customer project manager in advance to get a list of their team members. Have their team listed on a slide and just ask if you have everyone captured. This is all you have to do for introductions.
Testimonials
Including testimonials in your kickoff is optional but can be powerful if you have them. Besides, getting a testimonial never was easier - just pull out your phone and tap record. If you are doing a kickoff for an existing customer but at a new site, then getting a testimonial from a location that is already live is easy. A testimonial from someone within the same company is golden for two reasons. First, it carries more weight because the person is one of them. Second, it can begin to move those who are against your project into the neutral column on your people map (more on those in a later post).
If your kickoff is for a brand new customer, try and include a testimonial if you can. Showing one is always better than not having one at all, because a testimonial instantly gives the customer confidence in your product. Here are some guidelines for testimonials:
Keep it 30 seconds or less
Get permission (two types may be needed)
For internal use within the customer company
For external use with any customer
Hand out swag to those who will give you a testimonial
The “Why” and What Success Looks Like
Start this section by listing the most common reasons why customers buy your product. Then ask the customer three questions.
Are there additional reasons why they made the purchase?
What does success look like?
What does done look like?
Document their answers in the project charter. Doing so can help keep the customer inbounds later in the project.
Project Scope
There are different approaches to reviewing project scope, and this depends on whether your kickoff is for a brand new customer or an existing one. For new customers spend time reviewing the project scope and describing what it means. Ask if this covers everything that they thought they were getting or promised from the sales team. This is a good way to upsell.
For existing customers, especially enterprise customers with multiple locations, just tell them what is in scope and forego any questions. The home office has already decided what everyone will get, and asking the different sites if they want more will just irritate executive leadership.
Operational Impact Decisions
Every project will have decisions that need made, and some decisions are more important / take longer to make than others. These more important decisions are the ones with operational impact. Let me explain.
Every implementation brings changes, and we’ll categorize these changes into two buckets:
Will continue to perform the same duties but in a different way
Will take on new duties or responsibilities
The changes that fall into bucket #2 are your operational impact ones. Decisions for these items take longer to make which mean you need to give your customers ample time to work through them. Now, these changes also fall into two categories:
Work is being transferred between roles or different departments
The work is brand new to the organization (this is often driven by regulation)
Now that you know what operational impact changes are, you can talk about these decisions on the kickoff call where your customer decision makers will be present. This is important because decision makers tend to be very busy people. They always have a lot of apps open in their brain which means it can be hard to get things on their radar.
Project Phases
Next, talk about the different phases in the project without discussing project methodology. No one needs an overview of what waterfall or agile is, and yet, a surprisingly amount of kickoff decks have slides that cover project methodology from the Project Management Institute (PMI) - what a snooze fest.
When reviewing the different phases of the project, go over the high level activities that occur in each phase, what the customer needs to provide you, and the type of resources - including hours per week - that will need to work on the project. If you are able to outline these items, it gives the customer confidence that you know what you’re doing.
Training
This is a topic that stresses customers out, so the sooner you can start discussing it the better. Customer leadership knows that if adequate training isn’t performed before go-live, their staff will fail to adopt the product, find ways to work around it, and pandemonium will ensue. When discussing training, talk about how it supports their change management efforts and that you’re there to help every step of the way.
Also outline your training approach and when it will occur during the implementation. Will you provide end-user training or will you utilize the train-the-trainer model? Will training be in-person, virtual, or both? Reviewing these items will begin to ease the customer’s anxiety.
Communication
Improper escalation is a quick way to cause chaos and stress. Have a slide that outlines what the escalation path is so anyone can bring up concerns / issues without setting the building on fire. Also let your customer know how often the project team will be meeting and other communication touchpoints that they can expect from you.
Keys to a Successful Go-Live
This section is important because customer leadership will be judged by how well the go-live goes. It is not uncommon for leaders to lose their job when a go-live is disastrous, so they have a lot riding on this. When you review these items up front, you give customer leadership the opportunity to be proactive in removing any barriers to these items.
Next Steps
When you’ve made it to this point, the hard part is over. All you have to do is let the customer know what is happening next and ask if they have any questions. It’s very likely that someone had a question during the presentation but forgot it shortly afterwards. A tactic you can use to help folks remember their questions is to have a summary slide at the very end. Below is an example and this is very common in the startup world as young companies pitch to investors.
Remember to be excited during your kickoff. Excitement is contagious, sustains momentum, and can get you places you previously thought were unreachable.