How to Align Sales and Product-Led Growth Strategies

Take a page out of Figma’s Product-Led Sales Playbook! Kyle Poyar provides an amazing deep dive into Figma’s go-to-market motion. Here are my three takeaways on how B2B SaaS companies can use product usage data to signal a sales handoff. 1. Use product-qualified accounts (PQAs) to flag which prospects to reach out to, and when 2. Target the team leads and the power users to build momentum in the sales process 3. Equip your sales team with the right data points and messaging to increase their conversion rate --- To dig into the details, here's a summary of the takeaways: 1. Use product-qualified accounts (PQAs) to flag which prospects to reach out to, and when. In a PLG motion, the last thing you want your sales team to do is waste time chasing non-opportunities. Or worse, reach out to a user with strong messaging and scare them off. To avoid a false start, SaaS companies can use a product-qualified accounts (PQA) approach to prioritize which prospects to go after. This method uses a combination of account data and product usage data to force rank the best prospects. For example, Figma splits accounts into a two-by-two matrix: • High & low fit based on firmographic data (e.g., industry, size, capital raised) • High & low product signal or intent (e.g., # of logins) 2. Target the team leads and the power users to build momentum in the sales process Once the sales team has a list of accounts to target, the next step is to identify who to reach out to within those accounts and with what messaging. Typically, there are two main user personas to target: • The influencer or decision maker (users with specific titles or roles) • The champion (the top users based on product usage) For Figma, the sales process starts with the champion. A rep will show the champion the potential value in higher tiers and get other personas to engage in the buying journey. At the same time, marketing will engage the influencer/ decision makers with content and events (e.g., webinars), and funnel them to the sales team at the right time. 3. Equip your sales team with the right data points and messaging to increase their conversion rate Instead of your sales team taking a "spray-and-pray" approach, you can equip them with precise targets that increase their success rate. This is what Figma did. The company had its data product team, sales ops, and sales leaders collaborate together and create a model to predict when an account is more likely to upgrade. But the company didn’t stop there. Figma's product marketing team created a messaging framework to help sales reps personalize their outreach. Here's the link to the full article 👇 https://lnkd.in/dk6d7pr6 #b2b #saas #productledgrowth

Today I wrapped the Product-led Growth course with Reforge. We had a super fun and insightful panel discussion with Kelly Watkins Elena Verna and Martin Gontovnikas. We talked about everything from Activation, Product-led sales to Org design. My biggest takeaway is how to transition from pure PLG to Product-led sales and selling to Enterprises: 1) In terms of data modeling, always start with simple signals such as X number of users/ X times of actions, which indicate an increased velocity. As you become more sophisticated, you may use tools such as Madkudu to model 2 scores - Demographic Score + Behavior Score- to help you prioritize. 2) In terms of channels, you need to now think about not just user acquisition, but also buyer acquisition. If you have a champion user in the org, consider using outbound channels & tactics to target the buyer to create an "impression bias". 3) In terms of process, rather than trying to implement PLS across the entire sales org, start an "experimental sales pod" where a few salespeople can work with the product/growth team very closely and without quota pressure. Because it takes time to figure out how to utilize product usage data to sell - what to say, how/who to target, when to intervene, etc. Then you can amplify the learning into the rest of the sales org

Pleo is growing 80% YoY on the path to cross €100m ARR. Yep, even in this economy 🤯 In the first 5-6 years at Pleo, all selling was driven by sales & marketing. Most acquisition was from paid social campaigns. That worked OK in 2020/2021. But the SaaS world has changed. Folks are looking for efficiency rather than growth-at-any-cost. Pleo wanted to achieve a world-class CAC payback of ~12 months. Product-led growth (PLG) became a way to get there. I interviewed the brilliant Haresh Bajaj, VP of Product Growth, on Pleo's growth journey and how they've embraced PLG. Get the full story in today's Growth Unhinged: https://lnkd.in/e8nRZD2r -- Don't worry, we got tactical, too. Here's the TL;DR about 10 specific things that worked: 1. Ran double-digit conversion rate optimization (CRO) experiments on the website every month. These drove a 20% improvement on cost-per-lead. 2. Changed the KPI of CRO experiments from sign-up rate to pipeline impact. 3. Ran website experiments on integration pages -- a big 'aha moment' for Pleo. 4. Launched an interactive product demo with Navattic, which drove 10x better conversion compared to any other entry point on the site. 5. Productized the sign-up process so sales reps focused on higher value deals. Average quota per rep has gone up by 35%. 6. Shifted reps to 'hybrid' doing both new biz sales & expansion. 7. Didn't affect sales comp. Sales owns a book of biz & is responsible for all deals, even self-serve ones they don't touch. 8. Made sales outreach prescriptive with Product Growth guiding sales reps on who to talk to, when to talk to them, and what message to use. 9. Embraced multi-functional teams, combining traditional GTM folks with product, content & product marketing teams aimed at specific problem spaces. 10. Tackled PLG friction points at a system-level rather than at an individual-level. By creating the right systems, the friction points take care of themselves. Can't wait to hear what y'all think! #product #saas #productledgrowth #growth

The biggest RevOps challenge = lack of clear ownership. In some organizations, RevOps owns the tech stack, processes, and operations for revenue growth across the funnel. But, more often than not, this ownership is distributed across various teams. This distribution can lead to lack of clarity around who is responsible for each stage of the customer journey. So, RevOps doesn’t have control, or full visibility into pipeline. Lack of visibility leads to misalignment on what is actually needed to run a Product-Led Sales motion in terms of tooling, data, and process. So what can RevOps leaders do to better optimize growth levers and promote alignment? Here are three tips from Peter Ikladious (Unlocking Growth) and Eugene Berson (Miro). 1️⃣ Get leadership on your side and secure exec buy-in. Seems obvious, but as Peter stressed this is the most important step and worth reiterating. Get leadership buy-in from the CMO, CRO, or both. How? Validate your motion through small-scale experiments that focus on just one area of the funnel. The process of experimenting will help you figure out what teams you’ll need to negotiate with and where to make compromises along the journey to validating your hypothesis. Use the results to build trust with leadership first. Leadership will give you the leeway needed to align cross-functional teams, set up new workflows, systems, and roll out. 2️⃣ Choose high impact areas to get quick wins. As Eugene advised, there are certain industry standards you shouldn’t veer too far from. Don’t spend energy reinventing the wheel on processes that are working. Instead, focus on low-hanging fruit. For example, could adding a sales touchpoint to the self-serve journey noticeably increase account penetration? You’ll have time to make small tweaks and optimizations to the rest later! Right now, it’s about making a noticeable impact. 3️⃣ Bring sales into your planning early and often. RevOps measures everything. But, to understand how those numbers play out in the real world sales cycle, you need to bring in the reps on the frontlines talking to customers and prospects day in and day out. Rely on sales leadership to help you draft playbooks with rep feedback on PQL definitions and signals. Otherwise, you’ll struggle to get rep adoption. PS. Can’t get enough RevOps tips? We’re hosting a RevOps panel with Eugene Berson (Miro), Will Waggenspack (Loom), Amy Q Lin (ngrok), and Alexandria Riggs (Stealth) later this month! Details and registration 👇

We reached $150M ARR through product-led growth, but our sales org isn’t where it should be at this scale. The opportunity now is to build a modern sales motion that works with the product, not against it. That’s what excites me. I get to take what worked (and what didn’t) from Miro and do it again — smarter this time. When I joined Miro, it was fully product-led with a very small but mighty sales team. By the time I left, we’d built a 300+ person org and grown the company to $500M+ ARR. We didn’t do it by flipping a switch; we built it in phases. We figured out where sales added leverage and where it didn’t. And that’s the mindset I’m bringing to Apollo. I’ve seen what happens when companies try to rip out one motion and drop in another. It doesn’t just stall growth — it breaks the instinct that made the product work in the first place. So we’re not doing that. The goal isn’t to force-fit a traditional sales engine. It’s to scale what we already have, with more structure, more consistency, and the right kind of support. That means reps who act more like GTM Architects: - Deeply fluent in our product - Trained to understand GTM systems to a high level - Focused on solving root problems, not pitching shiny tools Because when every rep operates like a GTM Architect — someone who maps workflows, not just runs sequences — sales stops feeling like a separate function.

It's not impossible to run both PLG and SLG simultaneously but it requires careful planning, a clear understanding of your target audience, and the ability to adapt as circumstances change. Let's start with benchmarking our understanding: 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁-𝗟𝗲𝗱 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 (𝗣𝗟𝗚): → Focuses on the product driving growth → Often offers free or low-cost versions → Users self-navigate the product → Value is experienced upfront → Relies on user advocacy → Close collaboration between marketing & product teams PLG common KPIs → Activation rates and onboarding → User engagement and activity → Conversion rates to paying customers 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀-𝗟𝗲𝗱 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 (𝗦𝗟𝗚): → Growth relies on a dedicated sales team → Products may need demos or consultations → Sales reps actively engage with customers → Marketing supports sales efforts SLG common KPIs → Sales conversion rates from lead to customer → Average deal sizes and revenue per sale → Sales velocity and cycle lengths → CAC efficiencies over time ------------- Despite both aimed at growth objectives their GTM and execution strategies are vastly different. You shouldn't assume one size fits all. Here's what I've experienced: 1. 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: Balancing resources can strain budgets and team alignment. 2. 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙗𝙟𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨: PLG aims for self-service, while SLG seeks personalized sales, causing internal conflicts 3. 𝘾𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣: Mixed signals can lead to customer confusion of product features, benefits and value. 4. 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙭𝙞𝙩𝙮: Managing both strategies requires aligning marketing, messaging, and customer journeys. 5. 𝘾𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙗𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙠: One strategy's success may undermine the other, impacting roles and effectiveness. 6. 𝘿𝙖𝙩𝙖 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: Gathering and analyzing data from both strategies can be challenging for informed decision-making. 7. 𝙎𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙨: Expanding both strategies as your company grows is tough! How are you successfully executing both PLG and SLG to scale customer acquisition, drive revenue, and mitigate churn? #marketing #plg #slg