Why, When, and How to add Sales to your Product-Led Growth motion.

Most do it for the wrong reasons, too soon, and create dreaded internal channel conflict.

Product-led Growth (PLG) is a new norm in B2B land (yay!). It’s understandable—PLG self-serve products do have a magical feel. They can:

• Scale endlessly - 100 or 100,000 users, no problem (well, except for your AWS bill, I suppose) 

• Collect a ton of usage data, which unlocks true data-driven, scientific decision-making, which inevitably improves both the product and marketing.

• Disrupt established enterprises by attracting unsatisfied end users, entering and growing inside the company to slowly emerge as a dominant player, leveraging high usage as a final kill shot.

• Offer customers a simpler, self-serve experience, because “I love talking on the phone!” said no Gen Z-er, ever.

• Quickly adapt to any market changes. With a push of the release button, boom, all of your customers are reaping the benefits. 

In short, this approach is usually a win-win for both the company and its customers, which is why most new B2B products nowadays are self-serve from the start. 

But PLG is not enough in B2B

Sooner or later, most PLG companies will need to enter enterprise sales land.

This happens because to build a predictable, sustainable, and competitively defensible growth model, you need to fire across all growth motions: Product-led and Sales-led. Otherwise, you either miss out on capturing a portion of the enterprise market that is not well served by PLG or open up an opportunity for a competitor to disrupt you from top-down.

There is another unfortunate reason: public markets still don't understand PLG B2B dynamics and they look for those lofty enterprise contracts to assess B2B performance. 

So the million (or perhaps billion?) dollar question is… When should you overlay sales on top of your thriving PLG?  Most do it too soon and for the wrong reasons, destroying their company from the inside.

The story goes something like this:

Shiny young company crushes PMF with PLG. End-users rave about it. Fast growth follows. The company gets pressured to close their first  $100K enterprise deal. They do it beautifully by leveraging their end-user champions. And then… They all of the sudden have an amnesia about where those first deals came from and begin questioning the need for PLG. What if they can accelerate revenue growth with those shiny 6-digit sales contracts? Their investors are thrilled. They turn their back on PLG and chase after sales. End-users take note and leave them. The sales pipeline dries up (it was, after all, built on top of PLG). They realize it and try to reignite their PLG engine, but it’s too late… by this time, a competitor has usually entered to capture the opportunity.

The once-promising company sinks or implodes. It’s been torn apart from the inside.   

Let’s not have this story repeat itself… 

In this article, we will cover:

1. Why you should add sales.

2. When to add sales. 

3. How to avoid internal channel conflict from the start.

But first, let’s clarify something:

Does self-serve = PLG?

Nope. Although all PLG is self-serve, not all self-serve is PLG. In other words, you can have a sales-led motion with some self-serve experiences, but that does not make a company have PLG. For example, if your product is distributed and monetized through a sales team, but the onboarding is automated and completed in the product, you’ve got a self-serve component… but you’re not doing PLG. On the other hand, PLG is not possible without self-serve, as by definition it solves activation, engagement, monetization, and even acquisition via self-serve product experiences.

Now, back to the agenda. 

Why you should add sales

First of all, we are talking about adding sales. Not switching to sales. Not pivoting to sales. You should never ever ever let go of the PLG goodness you built. The goal is to always layer additional motions, channels, and strategies. So take switching or pivoting language out of your vocabulary. That’s not to say that pivoting shouldn’t ever happen—but only consider that in extreme cases, like a major PMF disruption or market shift.

Second of all, let’s be clear when PLG may be enough (for now). PLG is a fantastic end-to-end growth model for low complexity, straightforward, end-user=buyer, low Average Order Value (AOV) products. 

Sales, on the other hand, add value when:

1. AOVs start to go above $10K: These usually trigger higher complexity buying processes (hello, dreaded buying committees) that require assistance from a sales team.

2. The product offering is high-complexity: Sales are fantastic at showcasing end results to increase the perceived value, which would otherwise take weeks, months, or even years for the customer to understand. 

3. End-users lack permission or ability: If you are going after companies with 1,000+ employees, many end-users will lack permission to even try any ‘rogue’ tools. Security reviews and audits are often necessary before end-usage can begin. So going through an enterprise buyer might be the only way to get in. 

4. The product category is not well known: If you are inventing something in a brand new space that needs explanation, sales might be a good way in. 

So unless one of the above speaks to your heart, think twice about your motivations to start building your sales engine. And if PLG suffices all your customer needs - be happy and ignore your obnoxious VC. 

When to add sales