Building a 10/10 Next Steps Page

This article outlines best practices for architecting the customer journey through the Next Steps page.

Overview

• Step 1: Start with Stages – Overview of how to map out your Stages (with suggestions!)
• Step 2: Then move on to Steps – How to build Steps to live under those Stages (examples provided)
• Step 3: Fill out your Steps – Add important details to your Steps, making them clear and easily digestible for your customer.

Step 1: Start with Stages

The Next Steps page breaks up the customer journey into Stages and Steps. Stages are the highest order in terms of organization. Steps are grouped under each Stage.

Typically, we recommend keeping it simple: stick to 3-5 Stages for your Playbook and add/subtract as necessary.

Pre-Sales Examples

Keep in mind this example is based on a typical pre-sales use case. Each organization is different, so don’t be afraid of getting creative!

1. Exploration – This is where you’ll outline the Steps required to complete the Discovery Stage of the Evaluation. We call it Exploration in order to sound as client-friendly as possible. Always try to avoid using “sales lingo” like “Discovery.”
2. Formalize Partnership – Where you’ll have Steps needed to finalize the deal. This can include review / signing NDAs, any legal work, redlining of contracts, and of course signing a contract. 
3. Implementation & Onboarding – The Stage where you lay out how the customer will adopt/implement your solution. List any IT calls, resources to help set up integrations, kickoff calls, data migration, and if suitable, check-in meetings with your customer.

Step 2: Add Relevant Steps to the Stages

Example: Partnership Exploration (Stage)

• Intro Meeting – Intros, discuss pain points, agree on next steps
• Deep Dive – Tie client objectives to pain points, and explain how your solution will solve the pain points
• Proposal Alignment – This is where you’re gaining up front permission to hand them a contract, negotiate terms/pricing, and set a date for signing/launch (if you haven’t already)

Feeling stuck? To get started, here are some questions to ask yourself:

• What happens during the early days of your typical selling process, once you’ve gotten past the initial qualification of the lead? Is it a demo or an introductory meeting with more stakeholders for further discovery?
• What happens after the demo? Are you sharing collateral? Is the client providing you with a data set or information that you require to move the process forward?

Example: Formalize Partnership (Stage)

• Security / Compliance Review – Each side will likely have some form of security/IT review. It’s extremely important that this gets done before handing them the final version of your contract.
• Legal Review – Same as Security Review. Getting this out of the way early makes getting signatures a smooth process
• Complete Contract – All your ducks are in a row. All that’s left is signatures and celebrations.

Example: Implementation (Stage)

• Kick Off Call – Outline the steps required to implement and launch your solution successfully. If there are specific people who hold specific responsibilities required to complete the implementation, make sure you identify them on this call and set timelines for completion of all tasks. Write the Steps out in the Implementation Stage and assign appropriate Step Owners.
• Migration – Who owns migration? What are the sub-tasks involved? Make sure you clearly lay those out, and assign an appropriate Step Owner.
• 1-Month Check-in – Where you’ll discuss the success metrics you agreed upon earlier in the partnership exploration: are we tracking well to those goals? If not, what can we do to get there
  

Step 3: Add Details to Steps

Now that you’ve created the skeleton of your customer journey, it's time to add context to each Step. Your goal here should be to offer a light overview of each Step, and share any necessary resources. Remember, keep it short and concise. 

Step Description – Adding a description to each Step is essential to your client understanding what needs to be done. This is usually only a few sentences.

Resources – Add relevant resources directly to Steps. By adding a Resource to a Step vs sharing it via email, it retains the context of the Step and the why behind you sharing that resource at that specific time. As a cherry on top, you’ll be notified via email when a customer clicks on a Resource.

Step Types – You have the option of three types: Task, Meeting, and Approval. All three have their own unique traits, so select the one that makes the most sense for the Step in question. Having a Deep Dive call? That’s a meeting. Asking the customer to give sign-off on a plan? That’s an approval. Have a list of onboarding to-dos? That's a Task. 

Assigning Placeholders – Placeholders will save you a ton of time down the road. Create Placeholders on the Team Tab, then assign them as Step Owners or Stakeholders throughout the Playbook. When you go to create the Accord, you’ll then be able to assign real people to those Placeholder slots, automatically assigning them to the Steps the Placeholders originally occupied.

Internal vs External – Internal Steps and Stages  can be used as quick reminders to do something (schedule a meeting with a Solutions Engineer, as an example) or used as light project management for your company. We recommend using internal Steps and Stages sparingly.