Every B2B tech platform and SaaS solution needs to have the right team and process in place to be able to launch better go-to market plans that can capture more market share. Over the years, leaders across this niche have explored various different processes, methodologies and martech-salestech enablers to drive value here.

Understanding the Fundamentals of PLG (Product-Led Growth)

Product-led growth is a method that keeps the software/ SaaS tool at the centre of every marketing and sales initiative. A product-led growth model requires constant alignment between different customer facing teams like customer success and others to be able to build products and features that align with customer needs.

With the constant influx of newer capabilities and improved features within the B2B tech market, marketing and sales teams need to find new angles and channels or processes to drive faster impact with their target audience.

A common method in B2B tech earlier involved marketers and sales people being given a product to sell or market. A product-led growth model allows these teams to use customer insights and feedback to drive a better product roadmap while enabling more targeted marketing and sales processes to deepen customer interest in the product.

A product-led growth model is one that seeks to understand what customers are missing and what they want more of from a particular product that already exists, to enable the product teams to build upcoming features in tune with those market needs and trends. This can involve understanding what current customers need as well as tapping into what potential customers feel the current products they use don’t have.

A well-integrated product-led growth model can boost quicker go-to market outcomes and reduce typical B2B buying journeys. Several existing B2B tech companies like Airtable, Calendly, Slack and many others already boast of having a robust PLG model in place.

Many others are now considering this growth model, but for those at the borderline of enabling this strategy, what should they consider?

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A Product-Led Growth Strategy Is Not For Every Company or Business

To have a product led growth strategy, you need to have a good product in place. Besides this, a strong product development team that boasts of a quick TAT in terms of developing and integrating new features is crucial.

A PLG model ideally focuses on constantly upgrading products and their features based on what the market needs or desires. Without the ability to develop new features quickly, potential customers can easily be swayed towards competitors that already have those features in place.

Another important point to remember here is that products that are too tech-heavy or complicated to integrate and use might not fit the bill. Self-serve SaaS tools that are easy to adopt and use will benefit more from a PLG model.

The more complicated a tech product, the more will be the need to have tech support teams at the customer’s or prospect’s side listen in on demos and onboarding conversations. This might have the entire product lifecycle or buying lifecycle lengthier and ideally, to ensure the best use of such products, teams need to accordingly include this as part of their buying stages.

A product-led growth model will also require marketing and sales people to be able to go-to market with those new features and capabilities faster.

So the idea here involves having: a robust product development process as well as go-to market plan that can push those newly developed capabilities into the market a lot faster, to stay ahead of the competition.

Having the Right Back up And Resources to Realign

Since a PLG model requires a product team to build capabilities according to market needs, both, the company and its customer facing teams need to align to fill the gaps or lags in conversions and sales until those new features are built out.

This involves: having a better understanding of how to push conversions once the product is updated, as well as understanding what can retain customers until new features are being added (discounts, special offers, more credits, etc). The B2B tech market is extremely dynamic today with every provider jostling to bag the same prospect and existing customer of another vendor.

The lack of features, lack of real-time customer support and even a poor customer experience can all add to churn. A PLG model allows tech brands to focus on all three areas with a stronger focus on the first criteria: building products that align to current and near-term market needs. Once that’s done, realigning customer support teams to enable users to know about and use those features while enhancing the customer experience with automated prompts and updates about those newly launched features can all add to a better customer journey on the whole.

Having all Teams on Board

A product-led growth model can’t work for a brand if only one team is following its basic processes. If the product team, for instance, is building new product capabilities but the marketing team isn’t able to quickly run marketing campaigns broadcasting those new capabilities on time, it won’t serve the end purpose.

Similarly, the sales team has to upgrade how it typically runs product demos, the hiring team needs to fuel teams with the right skills, in some cases a new product development head or Chief Product Officer will be needed to drive the process at its core.

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End Note

Product-led growth strategies can help a product-based company stand out. Because it addresses dynamic market needs and expectations. Building for the customer and keeping product road maps flexible can enable better B2B tech journeys. But for this to lead to overall growth and success, the right internal systems and alignment needs to set the pace for a robust ROI driven plan.