Will Product Led Growth Make Your Sales Department Obsolete?

A few months ago, I stumbled upon a video depicting floods in India. Amidst the deluge, an image caught my attention - a liquor shop standing resolute amidst waist-deep waters. Customers braved the inundation, using makeshift boats made from bathtubs and even swimming, to reach that shop. It was a striking example of how the allure of a product, in this case, liquor, could drive customers to purchase it against all odds, rendering the need for sales personnel almost unnecessary.

Transitioning to a more serious note, the concept of #productledgrowth is rapidly gaining traction. It's emerging as a key survival strategy for the long haul. Gone are the days when sales were solely reliant on personal relationships. Product-led growth fosters a win-win scenario for both vendors and customers. The integration of #ai and #generativeai into the process is poised to make the entire product-led selling process exceptionally efficient. Allow me to illustrate this through a few examples:

Product Introduction: In the traditional model, marketing generates leads from various channels and hands them over to the sales teams. Salespeople then follow up, introducing the product and persistently pursuing the lead until the customer makes a decision. While the quality and effectiveness of the product are crucial, the finesse of the sales team often makes the decisive difference.

Conversely, in a product-led scenario, the product can be introduced during the lead generation process itself, diminishing the need for an extensive sales team. As the user base reaches a critical mass, word of mouth takes over the lead generation process as well. Typically, products are initially introduced as freemium, converting to revenue generators if the customers find value.

Feedback Collection: Traditionally, it falls to #productmanagers to gather feedback from customers. However, practical limitations hinder them from engaging with every customer directly. So the responsibility to get the feedback is on sales teams’ shoulders. Practically, feedback from customers channeled through the sales team can be sluggish and distorted. Meetings, travel, and communication delays elongate the process.

The Product Led Growth approach establishes mechanisms to collect real-time feedback. User behavior is captured continuously based on how users are using the product, so users don’t have to participate in any boring surveys. Users can express their reactions to the product in the text format as well. AI-powered tools can analyze this data, yielding actionable insights and even suggesting roadmaps based on various data points, such as feature popularity, user struggles, revenue potential and competitive landscape.

Rapid, direct feedback from users in a product-led approach transforms this completely. Swiftly applying user feedback can keep your product ahead of competitors and deliver an exceptional customer experience.

Upselling: Upselling becomes notably simpler with a product-led growth model, as vendors can provide enticing previews, prompting buyers to make value-based decisions.

Value-Centric Selling: The era of salespeople relying solely on personal relationships to push products without genuine use cases is a familiar narrative. Product-led growth shifts the focus, emphasizing value and utility, which ultimately reduces churn and bolsters brand value.

It's essential to acknowledge that the most significant expense in many organizations is allocated to sales efforts, including salaries, commissions, and travel expenses. Redirecting these resources towards product enhancement could yield considerable benefits.

While I hold no bias against sales professionals, my conviction in the ascendancy of product-led growth remains steadfast. This approach has the potential to eclipse the role of traditional sales teams in the future.

One might argue that product-led growth pertains primarily to the realm of #saas . Undeniably, there's truth to that, but ignoring this trend could be akin to burying one's head in the sand. The trajectory of software indicates an accelerated shift towards SaaS, with a significant portion already having embraced this model.

For the time being, sales organizations need not panic, as the transition to product-led growth is a gradual process. Unless you're a nascent SaaS company, adopting product-led growth typically occurs as an afterthought or retrofit. Even if your business has embraced this approach from the outset, it requires time to fully mature. In the initial stages, a degree of sales momentum is often necessary, akin to the role of web-based advertisements in bridging the gap while organic traffic builds for a website.

To sales professionals, I offer a singular piece of advice: embrace a data-driven approach rather than relying solely on relationships. This shift could propel your journey significantly farther.