Sales to Service Handoff Process

Sales is all about closing the deal. Whatever it takes (within reason), just get the contract signed. But this laser-focused mentality also results in a number of obstacles that must be overcome once a prospect moves into the customer phase.

Having a robust process in place to manage the sales to service handoff is critical to ensuring that you are doing everything you can to satisfy your customers and build fruitful, long-term relationships.

This checklist will guide you through the process of completing an effective sales to service handoff so you can focus on growing the account and not get bogged down with easily avoidable issues stemming from poor communication.

Let’s get started.

Enter the contact details of the account executive who brought in the customer. 

You can automatically populate all AE info through our integrations with various CRM systems, including Salesforce and Close.io.

Enter the contact details of the account manager who will be responsible for managing and growing the account. 

You can automatically populate all customer and deal information through our integrations with various CRM systems including Salesforce and Close.io.

Deal details

Customer contact details

As you handoff the account to an account manager, you need to provide them with as much information as possible to get them up to speed as quickly as possible. 

Links and files that provide the manager with access to relevant calls, emails, and notes from the sales process are incredibly useful for understanding how the sale developed and what the customer is looking to get out of the product. 

If all of this information is contained within the account’s CRM page, it can be accessed from the link below. Just ensure that everything is accessible and well-organized.

CRM link: {{form.Link_to_customer_page_in_CRM}} 

What is the current tool/process the new customer has been using and will need to transition from as they integrate your product or service?

Describe it below so that the customer success manager can fully understand what steps need to be taken to help their customer complete the transition in an efficient way. 

Clarify the current pain points/challenges that the customer is facing. 

The AE who closed the deal should be able to clearly outline the reason(s) why the customer decided to go ahead and purchase your product or service. 

The reason(s) will most likely have a strong connection to their current pain points that were clarified in the previous task and are displayed below for your convenience.

Customer’s current pain points/challenges: {{form.Customer’s_current_pain_points/challenges}}

Try to come up with at least 2 or 3 clear reasons why the customer chose to work with you.  

This is a critical component of the sales to service handoff process. You must be able to clearly define what success means for the customer as this will guide the onboarding process and shape the growth strategy for the relationship moving forward. 

If the customer knows that you understand what they want to achieve through working with you, it instills a sense of confidence within them that you are working towards achieving their goals. 

In addition to defining what success means for them, it’s important to clarify how you plan on measuring success along the way and what failure would look like.

Ideally, break up what success means for the customer into short-term and long-term success.

At this point, the AE should send an email to the client champion, informing them that an account manager will be working with them moving forward. 

You can use the email template below to notify the client of this transition. 

Following the email sent by the SDR in the previous task, the account manager can use the email template below to introduce themselves and begin what will hopefully be a long and fruitful relationship. 

Determine whether or not the customer needs your assistance in integrating your product with other tools they use. 

If you haven’t already, contact a solutions engineer or someone in a similar role within your organization to assist the customer with their integration needs.

You can use the email template below to contact someone immediately. 

It’s absolutely essential that all information gathered on the customer can be found on their profile in your CRM system. 

Ideally, this step will be automated by integrating your checklists with your CRM. Process Street integrates with a number of CRM systems including Salesforce and Close.io.

Link to customer’s CRM page: {{form.Link_to_customer_page_in_CRM}}

By doing so, you ensure that all members of the team involved in the deal (sales rep, account executive, customer success manager etc.) can easily access, review and update information as the relationship continues to evolve. 

Below is an example of a Salesforce account page containing rich and valuable information. 

Aside from the fact that salespeople enjoy hearing about the success of a customer they brought in, it’s important to update the sales team and specific Account Executive to confirm that the handoff was successful. 

Holding weekly meetings provides an opportunity to discuss problems as well as successes, and brainstorm ideas of how you should move forward. It also prevents any finger pointing that could happen down the line if and when things go wrong. 

• Amaan Nathoo – How To Get Frictionless Handoffs Between Sales and Customer Success
• Robert Hartline – How to Improve Your Sales-to-Service Handoff Process
• Blake Toder – 5 Ways to Improve the Sales to Service Handoff
• Chirag Ahuja – 3 Tips to Improve the Sales-to-Account-Team Handoff
• Ganesh Swami – The Required Post-Sales Process Checklist
• Emily Hackeling – How to Master the Sales to Customer Success Handoff
• GainSight – Sales to Customer Success Handoffs: Processes for Scale

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