Your Customer Onboarding Process Doesn’t Need to be a Cost Center
Onboarding has long been viewed as an operational cost for B2B SaaS companies—something that needs to happen but doesn’t directly contribute to revenue. But what if onboarding wasn’t just a necessary expense? What if it could be a source of profit and drive stronger customer loyalty at the same time?
Martin Evans, who led data and analytics at Enerflo, uncovered a major revenue opportunity hidden in plain sight that wasn’t simply minimizing churn. By analyzing how his company approached onboarding fees for new customers, he discovered that they had been leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table simply by failing to standardize charges.
More importantly, he found that new customers who paid for onboarding were more engaged, completed implementation faster, and ultimately became better long-term partners.
Why Most Companies Get Implementation Fees Wrong
Take a look at how most SaaS companies handle implementation fees:
- Some don’t charge at all.
- Others charge whatever feels right that day.
- Many use implementation fees as bargaining chips in negotiations.
This scattered approach to the customer onboarding experience ignores something crucial: the real value being delivered and the resources invested. As Evans puts it, “Unless you build our value into the sales conversation or get really serious about maintaining the value on a line item as an implementation fee, then don’t come knocking on my door trying to take my people away.”
Could Free Onboarding Actually be a Churn Risk?
Many early-stage SaaS companies hesitate to charge for onboarding. They assume customers won’t pay or that sales will become more difficult. But that approach comes with consequences that can lead to customer churn:
- Customers who don’t pay for client onboarding often take it less seriously. When something is free, it’s easier to push it to the bottom of the to-do list.
- Scope creep becomes a real problem. Without a clear agreement in place, teams often end up doing extra work without extra compensation.
- The effort required to implement a customer isn’t properly accounted for, which makes onboarding teams vulnerable to budget cuts.
Enerflo saw all of this firsthand. Before they put a structured fee in place, onboarding was inconsistent. Some new users paid an implementation fee; some didn’t. The result? Up to half a million dollars in revenue they could have capitalized on. That’s money that could have gone toward improving customer retention, hiring additional resources, and reinvesting in customer experience.
Finding Gold in the Data
When Evans’ team dug in, they found each implementation ate up about 85.6 hours across 100 different tasks. Project Managers spent 36.6 hours, while Implementation Specialists clocked 49 hours. This data made a clear case for structured onboarding fees. Without them, they were giving away valuable work for free.
Finding the Right Price for Successful Customer Onboarding
Charging new customers for onboarding doesn’t mean arbitrarily slapping a fee onto contracts. It means understanding the true effort required for strong customer satisfaction and making sure that effort is part and parcel with the value of your product.
Enerflo started by breaking down the work. Project managers handled strategic oversight, ensuring onboarding stayed on track and met customer needs. Onboarding specialists tackled the actual implementation, including configurations, automation and integrations, and training to improve product adoption.
They then analyzed how long each task took, how much effort team members contributed, and what it cost them to deliver a successful onboarding experience. With real data in hand, they were able to categorize effective onboarding projects into a “t-shirt sizing” model based on complexity and effort. An example of a similar model would look like this:
- Small Implementation: $3,100 (Break-even)
- Medium Implementation: $3,600 (10% margin)
- Large Implementation: $4,000 (15% margin)
Pro Tip: Size classifications should be based on implementation complexity, not customer revenue. A high-paying customer might need a “small” implementation, while a lower-tier customer might require a complex setup. Find more tips in our Customer Onboarding Checklist and Template Kit.
Proof of Concept
In B2B, many companies charge onboarding fees to help new clients integrate their services effectively, particularly with more complex implementations.
One common example: HubSpot. HubSpot offers various onboarding services to assist businesses across use cases in setting up their marketing, CRM, and service tools. These services come with fees that vary based on the chosen package. For instance, Marketing Hub Professional onboarding is priced at $3,000, while the enterprise level is $7,000.
When you consider HubSpot’s product, it makes sense. Getting it up and running isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. If a company tries to go it alone, they often run into a common problem: they set up only the basics, leaving powerful functionality untouched.
Without proper onboarding, first-time users might create campaigns without solid workflows, fail to track or optimize attribution correctly, or misconfigure lead scoring, resulting in messy data and missed opportunities. The platform ends up feeling underwhelming, not because it lacks capabilities, but because it was never fully implemented in a way that matches the company’s goals.
HubSpot’s onboarding works well because it combines expert-led guidance with a well-maintained knowledge base. Paid onboarding helps companies set up the platform correctly in the first place, configure automation, and align workflows with their goals. But a one-time setup isn’t enough. Teams need ongoing support as they scale and refine their marketing engine. That’s where HubSpot’s knowledge base comes in to help with questions around automation, reporting, and more, without requiring an inquiry to their support team.
As Jay Nathan, CEO at Balboa Solutions, puts it, “Most SaaS companies should have an abundance of free resources and materials available for their customers. A rich knowledge base full of articles documenting how your product works and the best practices for implementing and using it. This is not an area to skimp on. It needs to be written well and maniacally maintained.”
The Impact of Paid Onboarding on Customer Success
Once onboarding became a defined service with a set price, things changed for Enerflo. The Customer Success team found that customers who paid for onboarding were more engaged after the kick off call because they had invested in the process. Instead of dragging on for months, time-to-value shot up with implementation times dropping from six months to an average of just 31 days.
For the business, this also meant onboarding could no longer be written off as an expense. It was generating revenue and boosting lifetime value. More importantly, it was reinforcing its own value.
Step-by-Step Guide of How to Shift to Paid Onboarding in Your Customer Journeys
1. Get Sales on Board
Sales teams need to understand why onboarding fees exist and how to position them. If they treat it as an arbitrary add-on, customers will push back. If they explain the clear value—faster time to value, dedicated implementation resources, structured processes—it becomes part of the solution, not a roadblock.
2. Define Your Pricing Model
Whether it’s a flat fee, a tiered package, or a bucket of hours, consistency is king. Customers should know upfront what onboarding entails for the user experience and what it costs, including tutorials, walkthroughs, templates, check-ins, and customer support options.
3. Use Data to Validate Pricing
If you don’t already track onboarding effort as metrics, start now. Document touchpoints, how long tasks take, what resources are required to reach milestones, and what common blockers exist. This not only helps with pricing but also identifies areas for improvement.
4. Consider Incentives for Speed
One idea Enerflo tested was offering a partial refund if customers completed their onboarding journey within a set timeframe. This encouraged engagement, self-service, and quick wins and ensured customers were just as invested in implementation as the team helping them.
5. Reevaluate Annually
The needs of your onboarding team and customers will evolve. Make sure pricing keeps up. Reassess costs, streamline effort, and capture customer feedback every year to ensure your model remains fair and effective.
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