Integrating sales into a PLG company can feel like trying to mix oil and water. The two don’t immediately seem compatible. PLG organizations tend to have a very specific kind of culture, one that is, at best, reservedly cautious about sales and, at worst, aggressively suspicious. When searching for a sales leader, it’s important that PLG organizations think about sales as an extension of the company’s brand.
You spent hours, days, months (maybe even years) creating something awesome. Something you’re beyond proud of and excited to share with the world. Something that could completely change (or kickstart) your business. And finally… You hit publish—it’s go time! But you’re met with… 🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗 (crickets… if you couldn’t tell.) No downloads. No sales. No clicks. No visits. No comments. Nothing at all. What’s the deal with that?
It’s no secret that the podcast industry has been exploding over the last decade, with plenty of us tuning into podcasts for news, advice and entertainment. Brands are following consumers into the space, figuring out how best to leverage this relatively new platform. Typically, they enter the space as an advertiser — think, “This episode is brought to you by... some brand.” What if instead of a 60-second scripted ad read that costs $10,000, you did a 60-minute ad read that deeply educates your target audience on the problem you’re solving, that costs $0?
The team has a clear roadmap with well-defined projects and deadlines. Maybe you even have OKRs, and the team has enough folks to do the work. But despite knowing what needs to get done, something isn’t clicking. It’s time to get clearer on what everyone’s role is. You can define that together, through a more empowering approach, or you take a more directive angle. You’ve already identified the destination. Now it’s time to clarify what people are supposed to be doing to get us there.
Moving from free trial to freemium can feel daunting, with many wondering, “is it worth it?”. For those of you not familiar with Tettra, it’s a B2B Knowledge Management software. The reality is with many knowledge-based products; a free trial requires a lot of setup and time. For many Tettra users, a trial from 15-30 days isn’t long enough. Tettra found users were scared to start a 15-day trial because it felt too short to pick a knowledge management system.
I published a compilation of mental models that entrepreneurs and investors leverage to develop new startup ideas & venture theses. At the heart of these models were a range of input insights, which I also refer to as ‘inputs’, that fuel the presented models and drive new ideas. As I’ve used these models further, I’ve found that the inputs I laid out in the initial post can be grouped into a few key buckets. The frameworks below should be helpful to both entrepreneurs ideating as well as investors who take a thesis-driven approach.
Many product-led companies hit a bumpy spot in their growth path when they start selling to larger companies and enterprises. What used to work well — monetizing through the product and marketing to active product users — becomes less effective as they try to scale. To understand how to get around this and keep scaling upmarket, you need to know your hand-raisers, which at large companies tend to be different people than your product users.
Freemium is like a Samurai sword: unless you’re a master at using it, you can cut your arm off. Easier said than done. Since the rise of product-led growth, more companies than ever before are launching a freemium model. Whether you call it freemium, free trial, or some sort of hybrid, for the purposes of this article, it doesn’t matter. They’re all a way of being product-led and give your users an easy way to try before you buy. I’m going to debunk what environments your free plan will absolutely thrive in and where it might flop.
For a piece of content to be successful, it must avoid trying to fulfill multiple objectives for its audience. Instead, that piece of content should focus on enabling its target audience to do one thing—not two things or many things. Content adds value to the reader by enabling that reader to do something or to think something; it can add tactical value (do something) or strategic value (think something). Generally, the more strategic value a piece of content adds, the less likely it is to add tactical value, and vice versa.
Let’s talk about that trickiest of subjects: Product Judgment. This is the idea that you can use your own judgment to (1) accurately predict what your customers need, want and value, and (2) design and ship the right solution for them. No one starts out with strong Product Judgment. It is not innate. It takes years to build, and therefore ranges from very weak to very strong.
Prior to going public, Freshworks doubled its overall organic traffic, going from 140k sessions to over 280k–in just 3 months. Yes, you read that correctly. DOUBLED organic traffic in just 3 months. How did they do it? Hint: almost any brand can copy their tactics.
Twitter. Uber. Tinder. Spotify. Coursera. These seemingly unrelated companies all share one common feature: they exist as a layer on top of a marketplace. About 90% of successful “tech” companies are a layer on a marketplace, and the ed-tech category is no exception. In this bazaar of shopfronts, one company does something interestingly unique: Duolingo. They generate their own content, they define their own platform and they are responsible for their own growth/marketing end-to-end.
Most fast-growing startups have something in common: Product-led growth (PLG) I define it as when existing users drive your growth. PLG only works for these startups: ones that leverage Invitations (This is where the use of your product naturally encourages users to invite friends/colleagues because they both get more value from the product), and Billboarding (This is when the use of your product creates a public advertisement).
It’s never been easier to start a company. It’s never been harder to build one. To get people’s attention, you need to do something special. Something remarkable. And that’s where today’s post comes in. I’ve collected 60 examples of successful Turbo Boosts—one-off events that temporarily accelerate growth for companies large and small—to inspire you to come up with something special of your own.
To differentiate between how B2C and B2B define growth, we focus on two specific elements: goals and where the growth function lives within an organization. B2B growth, on the other hand, tends to focus more on revenue. Within a B2C organization, growth is usually pretty closely aligned with the marketing team. In a B2B company, growth is applied much more broadly, taking a cross-functional, multidisciplinary approach that includes sales, marketing, customer success, product, and others.