A product-led business makes decisions based on the success of its product, rather than focusing on growth where they value the feedback of the user. At Grabee we aim for our product to be product-led and also help our customers follow a product-led strategy for their business.
Another example is a fast-growing company, Uber. It doesn't care about its growth rate but instead focuses on building a strong product that will make it successful in the long run.
What is a sales-led go-to-market strategy?
The traditional way of selling software (SaaS) is to have an outside sales team. They build up a large sales team whose job is to call on prospective customers, qualify them, and close deals.
Many successful software companies began their journey by relying on a traditional inside sales model.
Companies like Salesforce, Zendesk, and Hubspot started with an inside sales model before switching to product-led growth models when their products became mature enough for this approach.
Pros of a sales-led go-to-market strategy
The sales-led go-to-market strategy has been used by many successful companies, including Salesforce and Marketo. It focuses on creating a pipeline of potential customers and then selling to them.
Sales-led GTM is a great way to build brand awareness and establish your reputation in the market.
This strategy works best when you have substantial funding available or are working with an existing company with extensive resources (e.g., Google).
A sales-driven strategy allows you to build your brand and establish yourself as an authority in your chosen market.
It also helps with customer retention because once you have the customer locked in, they are more likely to remain loyal if they see value in what you offer them over time.
Cons of a sales-led go-to-market strategy
Sales are not scalable.
You can’t scale sales until you have a product that people want to buy and can afford to buy, which is why most SaaS businesses start with a product-led go-to-market strategy.
Sales are expensive and time-consuming.
It’s also not repeatable or predictable because every prospect has different needs and requirements for their business.
It isn't sustainable because the buyer will eventually stop buying from you (or at least stop buying as often).
And finally, your product doesn't speak for itself—you need an effective marketing team in order for people to know about what you have created—and this becomes even more important if there are any significant barriers between them (such as high price points).
SaaS businesses have opted to switch from a sales-led GTM to a product-led GTM strategy
SaaS businesses are choosing to switch from a sales-led GTM to a product-led GTM strategy. This is because it offers several benefits, such as:
Increased quality of leads and customers
Less wasted efforts on low-performing channels and activities
Improved customer retention rates through consistent user experience
What is Product-led growth?
Product-led growth is a go-to-market (GTM) strategy that prioritizes the user experience over traditional sales and marketing.
Product-led growth is a go-to-market (GTM) strategy that prioritizes the user experience over traditional sales and marketing. It’s an approach to growth that focuses on product design, user experience, customer success and retention, product marketing, pricing, and sales.
It can be applied to any business model but tends to work best for SaaS businesses as they have access to data on usage patterns and feedback from their customers that gives them customer insights into how they might improve their products at every stage of the customer journey.
Why do companies choose product-led growth?
In the past decade, SaaS companies have become hugely successful. By offering their products online and letting customers pay for them on a subscription basis, they were able to scale quickly without having to invest in physical infrastructure.
So why is it that so many of these companies are now choosing to be product-led? The answer lies in the fact that it's just as easy for SaaS businesses to grow their market share through product innovation as it is by running advertising campaigns and increasing marketing spending. In fact, being product-led can help your business grow faster while also improving its bottom line!
Benefits of product-led growth approach
The product-led growth approach is gaining popularity because it offers several advantages over the traditional way of selling SaaS:
It's cheaper and more scalable than hiring an army of salespeople who will eventually leave the company when they're not able to sell enough licenses anymore.
It eliminates points of failure - in other words, if you can't get any leads then there's no need for a large team that makes cold calls all day long (which also means less stress for everyone else involved)
Why SaaS businesses are using a product-led approach?
There has been an increase in startups that are focusing on providing great products rather than aiming for aggressive growth rates.
This trend started with Steve Jobs who said
focus means saying no to 1,000 things to achieve one thing.
The benefits of being a product-led business include:
Improved customer experience
Higher retention rates - Lower churn rates - Higher adoption rates
This is an important shift for many software companies because it can help them grow their businesses by solving customer problems. Software teams that follow the product-led model don’t spend time building features or developing parts of their products just because it’s possible to do so—they focus on creating only what customers are asking for and delivering it fast, at scale.
How to build a product-led growth business?
In a product-led business, the product itself becomes the dominant growth engine for the business. This isn’t to say that marketing and sales aren’t critical to success—they are—but they become secondary drivers of growth and user feedback becomes the primary driver of growth.
Start collecting user feedback and show your customers your product's public roadmap when done well, this shift in focus results in an organization that is laser-focused on creating a great experience for customers and delivering value through continuous innovation. In other words, it puts you on track to build products people love and use every day (which is a requirement for becoming truly successful).
Three Pillars Of Product-Led Growth
As you grow your business, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the most important thing is growth. But if you're trying to build a product-led company, you need to stop and ask yourself: what does my end user want?
The three pillars of product-led growth are:
Designing your product for the end-user. It's not just about making something that looks pretty—it's about making something that works for the people who use it. If you don't know what their needs are, how can you design a product that solves them?
Delivering value before capturing value. The best way to get people to pay for your product is to give them enough value first so they feel like they're getting a great deal. This means investing in your product early on so it has everything it needs to succeed.
Investing in the product from the very start. If you're going to be successful selling something, then you need to make sure it has everything it needs right from day one—that means having a great designer who understands what users want and working with them on every step of development until launch day!
How do you know when it's time to make the switch from sales-first to product-led?
You should switch to a product-led growth strategy if your current business model is not working for you. There are two scenarios when you might want to consider making the switch:
If your product is already good enough, but you don't have enough customers, then switching to a product-led growth model may be helpful.
If your product isn't ready yet and there aren't any potential customers who can use it, then switching to a product-led growth model may be helpful.
Conclusion
If you’re a SaaS business that has been struggling with sales-led growth, then it may be time to consider moving towards a product-led GTM strategy. This approach allows you to focus more on the user experience and less on sales, which will help position your company as an industry leader. You can't please everyone. But you can prioritize your user feedback so that it matters most to the people who matter most: your customers.
User feedback is an essential ingredient when it comes to successfully implementing product-led growth strategies. Ask your customers what your product could be doing better for them, and you'll have a leg up on the competition.
If you're not already asking users for this kind of feedback, start now with Grabee!
