How to avoid Product-Led Growth (PLG) Initiatives from Crash and Burn
There’s a buzz in the tech world about Product-Led Growth (PLG) initiatives. They’re supposed to revolutionize the way products are built, marketed, and sold, pushing companies to unparalleled heights of success. Yet, despite the hype, PLG initiatives are more often failing than flourishing.
Why? Because companies are missing the mark on fundamental aspects.
We built a Learn and Try series to make it easy or the SaaS builders to understand, enable their multi-disciplinary organization. Of course this is our opinionated approach in order to simplify the whole process.
1. The Shocking Truth: Buyers Don’t Want Sales Pitches
100% Users don't want to talk to Sales. And, only 3% of Buyers prefer speaking to sales, while a staggering 97% want to try before buying, according to Wes Bush.
This overwhelming preference for a self-serve experience should signal to companies that traditional sales tactics are becoming increasingly obsolete.
2. PLG is a Multidisciplinary Challenge
PLG is not just a marketing or sales initiative; it requires a company-wide commitment to align product, marketing, sales, and customer success teams - David Yockelson , https://resources.thrivestack.ai/p/27-plg-trends-gartner
In reality, it requires a multidisciplinary approach involving building, marketing, and selling products seamlessly. Ignoring any one of these pillars can lead to the initiative’s failure. It’s like trying to build a skyscraper without a solid foundation—destined to crumble.
3. PLG needs Sales, albeit a tad different
The pareto principle still applies
80% of a SaaS company's revenue would come from ~20% of Customers
Product-Led Sales combines the best of innovative, bottom-up (PLG) and top-down (SLG) techniques to maximize conversion and value at each stage of the customer journey - Mckinsey, Beyond the PLG Hype
4. Data is the Unsung Hero of PLG
In a product-led environment, data from user interactions becomes invaluable for qualifying leads and guiding sales conversations - Ben Williams
Data plays an essential role in enabling PLG initiatives. Yet, so many companies plunge into PLG without a robust data strategy. They fly blind, guessing at what might work, instead of leveraging data to make informed decisions. It's like trying to reach a goal without a map.
5. The road is long and winded. Seek help to shorten it
Building a PLG product isn’t a quick sprint; it’s a marathon. Can we shorten it?
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12+ months to Build:
For most startups, it’s a 12+ month journey that can cost $1M+ if begun early, and a staggering $4M+ if you start when your SLG growth motions hit a Growth-At-All-Costs (a term I first heard couple years back from Dave Boyce .
Building such products takes a SaaS builder stitching together 6-10 point-solutions and figuring out all on their own. The misconception that PLG is an easy or cheap fix leads many to financial ruin before they even reach the first milestone.
6-12+ months to start operating:
a lineup of capabilities like CRM, Product Analytics, PLG CRM, Account Signals etc. takes another 5-10 tools, $500k+ to get going. Market is going through a consolidation phase.
We at ThriveStack.ai took the approach of collapsing many of these capabilities into a single Orchestrated service.
Announcing a Learn and Try series
To tackle these challenges, here’s our open-to-public learning series to streamline building, launching, analyzing performance, and start catching whales (Product-led sales).
Our goal are to simplify the following
Includes
Tell us what you think
Demand Generation B2B | SaaS
4 个月I’ve seen firsthand how challenging it is to transition from self-serve to product-led sales. Automating growth analytics and enabling quick iterations would have been a game-changer in my past projects, making scaling much more manageable.
Product-Led Growth | Data-Informed Decisions | Unconventional Thinking | Entrepreneurial
4 个月Love the catch phrase "Start with Self-Serve. Grow with Product-Led Sales." I'm skeptical of the short turnaround times. I've begun to rename it Product-Led Grind because most of the top PLG companies have spent many years on their self-serve + PLS motion. https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/randall-gibson-75900046_product-led-grind-is-the-real-journey-to-activity-7247724683905671169-QnKe?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop