What is Product-Led Sales?
It’s the motion that starts with users finding value in the product, then sales reaching out to the right accounts to educate them that there is a better product tier for them.
The product leads because it brings in the account and shows the value first before there is any sales interaction, as opposed to sales finding the account and educating them on the value.
By leading with the product throughout an organization, product-led companies often benefit from shorter sales cycles, lower Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) and a higher Revenue Per Employee (RPE).
What Happened to MQLs?
Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) are outdated in the PLG world. Qualifying prospects based on arbitrary factors such as page views and white paper downloads just doesn’t work anymore.
What is a PQL?
A user who has completed a set of pre-defined actions within the product, fits the target persona, and has demonstrated some kind of buying intent and could get more value from a higher product tier.
Build a PQL/PQA Process
In order to build an effective PQL/PQA process, here’s a high level view of what needs to happen:
- Define what qualifies as a PQL/PQA for your product
- Build a system that identifies those leads/accounts and delivers them to sales
- Create a playbook for sales to engage with those leads/accounts
Create Sales Opptys from Self-Serve Users
Focus on product qualified accounts (PQAs) for sales assistance and for reps to understand how to prioritize accounts. It’s not so much a binary yes or no (qualified or not), but a signal of strength based on first-party product data to help them prioritize.
Split accounts into high/low fit (firmographics) and high/low product signal or intent. We want reps to prioritize based on best fit and highest signals and go down from there.
You don’t really need product qualified leads (PQLs), but you should identify all the users in an account and highlight the ones that are either a champion (top users based on actions) or an influencer or decision maker (based on titles or roles within the product).
The sales rep will decide who to reach out to, when, and with what message. All we try to do is accelerate their discovery and research by providing them with the data in a structured format.
For growth marketing, we try to engage users that are not necessarily in the product due to their seniority or just because they are not a daily user. We engage them with content and events, and then bring them to sales for them to pursue at the right time. Remember, these accounts are hot in the product, so it’s not really a top down sale, but the decision maker (or senior title) is a nice-to-have when going into later stages of the deal.
Then for PQAs, SDRs should reach out starting with the champion, showing the potential value in a higher product tier, and getting the right persona to engage.
Equip Sales with the Right Data
Provide sales with customer product data to understand which accounts were more likely to need our higher tier products. Figure out which actual data points that might correlate with a pain point — which are the best signals to use in outreach.
Data Point Brainstorm
Partner with the data product team, sales ops and sales leaders and create a model that surfaced around 10 data points. When two or more of these are triggered, there was a high likelihood for the account to upgrade.
Show this to sales and sales leaders to get their interest, then test it in a small group. Endgame.io, the product-led sales software, can help display the data at account level and user-within-account level.
What Should Sales Do With the Data?
Ok, we’ve got the model that provides the sales team with key signals. Now what? Partner with product marketing to create a message framework that, based on the data signal, would correlate with a pain point and a value prop message to leverage that signal. Reps can use that in a personalized way with their outreach.
So What Are the Benefits?
First, it gives visibility into what exactly the account is doing. Secondly, it enables new reps to have a solid starting point into product-led opportunities, all centralized in one tool and with a clear framework.
It also allows growth marketing and sales to bond over how to segment existing accounts, and which ones to prioritize, to educate on the value of Enterprise features (high fit - high signals) or to move from inactive to active (high fit - low signal).
Define the Right Plays
Look closely at different signals that might qualify a customer for a sales-assisted experience. One big qualifying factor was a simple one: did they actually expressed interest by requesting a demo? Zapier isn’t gated behind a demo; a demo is an opt-in decision that the customer makes.
If the customer doesn’t initially request a demo, Zapier now uses a few different metrics to qualify an account as a Product Qualified Lead (PQL):
- Multi-player use: Are there multiple active users on a specific domain using Zapier?
- Usage patterns: Is the account growing its usage over time? Are they seeing seasonal variability in usage?
- Use case: Does the customer’s use case for Zapier - defined based on the depth and variety of apps they’re using - indicate that they’d benefit from assistance?
- Role: Does the user’s role align with Zapier’s ideal customer profile and where Zapier sees the most success (ex: marketing and marketing operations)?
Zapier’s sales-assist reps then tailor their outreach based on the user’s context in order to add as much value as possible. For example, if an account has multiple users on a domain, the rep might suggest consolidating those users into a corporate account, which allows folks to collaborate and lets them benefit from a pooled usage allotment.
One of the key benefits of a product-led sales approach is that it allows companies to scale their sales efforts more efficiently. By creating a product that is easy to use and self-service, companies can reduce the need for salespeople to be involved in every sale. This means that sales teams can focus on higher value activities, such as building relationships with key customers or closing larger deals.
Another benefit of a product-led sales approach is that it can lead to a better customer experience. By focusing on the product itself, companies can create a more intuitive and user-friendly experience for customers. This can lead to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as increased customer retention.
In order to implement a product-led sales approach, companies need to focus on product development, user experience, and customer support. They need to invest in creating a product that is easy to use and provides real value to customers. They also need to provide excellent customer support to ensure that customers are able to get the most out of the product.
Overall, a product-led sales approach can be a powerful way for companies to scale their sales efforts and create a better customer experience. By focusing on the product itself, companies can create a self-service sales model that is more efficient and effective than traditional sales approaches.
Strategy Doc for PLS
Define & operationalize your PQLs
Ensure you are collecting the data you want (and need) to execute on PLS. This means...
- Storing product usage data in the data warehouse and/or your data platform (CDP).
- Making sure your CRM has the data you need to segment your customers by fit (i.e., size, location, geography).
Pocus
Sources:
https://kylepoyar.substack.com/p/your-guide-to-product-led-sales
https://kylepoyar.substack.com/p/your-guide-to-sales-assist
https://productled.com/the-5-steps-to-product-led-sales/
https://www.chameleon.io/blog/product-qualified-leads
https://www.endgame.io/blog/elena-verna-difference-enterprise-sales-product-led-sales
Product-Led Sales Platforms