While there is no specific formula to launch PLS — the motion varies widely across products and markets — we’ve narrowed down the ideal launch plan into five key steps that will help you define and implement your PLS motion.
Digging deep into the why of your PLS motion is an essential step to structure your playbooks and get everybody on board. What areas of your current customer journey could PLS significantly improve? Is it at the top of the funnel? Is it more about retention? Analyze your pipeline metrics and pick one revenue goal you want to focus on, for example, net new revenue acquisition (ARR), expansion, net revenue retention (NRR), or churn prevention.
This initial goal will help you build your case, validate success, and eventually; branch out into other areas of the funnel based on your findings.
How do you build a convincing case for PLS? By outlining where you currently stand on your goal and doing a little data-backed forecasting on how your playbooks will make a positive impact.
You need to draft a proposal (not necessarily a lengthy one, our template is a one-pager!) that clearly answers:
<aside> 🎯 Your PLS objective: How will PLS help overall company goals?
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<aside> ✅ Strategy: How will we implement PLS? Who needs to be on the initial team? What other resources are required?
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<aside> 🗺️ Roadmap: What will we deliver in the first 30 days? 60 days? 90 days? What key milestones are important?
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<aside> 📈 Metrics: How will you measure success? What primary metrics will be impacted? What secondary metrics will be impacted?
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<aside> 💰 Costs: Are any new resources or tooling required?
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In short, craft a document that aligns your objective to your GTM strategy, plot out the roadmap for PLS implementation, choose the metrics you’re going to measure, and account for the associated resources and costs. Once you’ve compiled your findings, outline expected impact to your GTM org structure, compensation plans, and current processes.
A PLS motion is made up of many moving parts — if the foundation isn’t set up properly you won’t achieve the results you’re looking for. This is why it’s so necessary to take the time to write out all of the areas that will be impacted.
For example, you could get the go-ahead on PLS by pointing out that self-serve conversions should be higher because too many ICP users are dropping-off early after signing up. This is an excellent reason to launch a sales-assist playbook, targeting ICP sign-ups with human touchpoints to remove friction, provide education, and help them get value before they churn. It might not be so hard convincing executive leadership of the benefits of sales-assist in this case. But, if they say yes without the full context, you might run into problems later on if you find yourself without the level of access you need to usage data, or the technical resources to build scoring models, and so on.
Our advice is to be upfront on the current gaps you need to fill to launch PLS. If you run into some pushback (which is very likely, especially if you need new tooling, or new hires) then, create a PLS 0.5 plan. Lack of organization readiness is a major pitfall for many PLG orgs who are excited about PLS, but don’t have the infrastructure required to run it at scale. If you’re in this boat, part of your buy-in strategy should be to work within your current resources, DIY some PLS experiments, report on impact, and then advocate for what you need to scale.
This step is often a missed opportunity. You need executive approval, but you also need cross-functional buy-in. A few concerns we often see come up across GTM are: