A recurring theme of my conversations lately is what types of sales motions work best at a product-led company and how to set up an inside sales machine to complement product-led growth.
Many product-led companies start out purely product-led. There may be some light sales assistance, but most new customer acquisition comes from a self-service online channel.
At some point in the company’s evolution, the potential for significant growth via a sales team becomes too obvious to ignore. I think this is an important step in the product-led growth continuum, and we’ve seen it help boost infamous product-led companies like Slack, Dropbox, and Atlassian.
But there is no playbook for adding sales to a product-led company, and I think that’s because there isn’t a one-size-fits-all. When considering how to layer sales into an existing product-led company, it’s important to be thoughtful and specific about the type of sales motion that will best fit the company, the market, and the customers.
Many product-led companies reach the sales fork in the road and scratch their heads, wondering where and how to start building their sales machine. It’s entirely new for them, and the path forward isn’t always clear.
To start, it’s important to understand the types of sales motions that may or may not fit a specific product-led situation. I outline them below to help you consider which are right for you.
New Customer Self-Service
The classic product-led motion is self-service, where new users sign up (often for a free trial first or on a freemium product tier) online and begin using the product. In self-serve, the customer never interacts with a person—they discover, try, and purchase the software online on their own.
Existing Customer Expansion Self-Service
A true product-led company also has a path for users to expand (usually by adding more seats) or upsell into a higher-priced online tier. This is a natural extension of self-service.
New Customer Sales Assisted
Many product-led companies have prospects who are “ready to buy” inbound leads. These leads want to purchase, but for whatever reason, they can’t or won’t buy online. For these leads, salespeople aren’t needed because a sales or finance assistant can facilitate the purchase.
A common mistake PLG companies make is not recognizing these sales-ready leads for what they are. The company may just not be selling to them at all because it is trying to funnel all sales to an online self-service signup. Or, the company may be pushing sales-ready leads to the sales team, where they either enter a qualifying process the prospect doesn’t want or need, or the sales reps are just taking orders (and receiving commission).
Existing Customer Sales Assisted
Similar to new customer ready-to-buy leads, existing customers often self-identify that they want to expand or upgrade, and they simply need assistance to do that because they aren’t able, or don’t want, to expand online. These customers can be expanded by a customer success, sales, or finance admin who helps them complete their expansion in a sales-assisted manner.
New Customer Inbound