Companies adapt PLS to their go-to-market strategy from all over the product-led spectrum because they realize that buyers want options. PLS enables sales-led and product-led GTM teams to meet customers where they are by taking into account product usage data, intent, and customer profile. That might be via a self-serve path, but it might also be further down the funnel.
PLS is, at its core, a way to shape your go-to-market that combines:
How you implement and run PLS playbooks will look very different depending on the complexity of your product, your target market (B2C/B2B), and your ideal buyer.
| Problem | How PLS helps |
|---|---|
| Challenge for reps to prioritize a high volume of sign ups and parse signal from noise | Define PQL and PQA definitions to surface prioritized leads and accounts to reps |
| Difficult to know when to reach out to customers and which messages will resonate | Personalize messaging and timing based on product usage signals and customer journey stage |
| Challenging to move from individual users to enterprise deployment | Identify champions within high ICP fit accounts that have strong product usage. |
| Want to talk to high ICP fit customers but don’t want to force friction | Reach out at the right time with a compelling message based on product usage instead of a generic offer to connect. |
| Problem | How PLS helps |
|---|---|
| Proactively driving expansion with existing customers | Identify and target accounts with high potential growth (use cases or seats) and strong product usage |
| Challenging to evangelize accounts and turn them into advocates | Use product data to proactively identify and reward product champions |
| Getting ahead of potential churn before it’s too late | Proactive alerts when accounts are at risk based on product usage activity as a leading indicator |
A product-led company, didn't start out with a self-serve model. Users had to be onboarded by humans to use the product. Their go-to-market has evolved since then. Yet, even in the early days, they had a PLS motion in the shape of consolidation and expansion playbooks to go from individual users to teams, based on customer profile and product usage.
A sales-led company, had a hypothesis that they could break into a new market (early-stage founders) by opening up a self-serve version of their highly complex product. Carta’s version of self-serve includes sales-assist playbooks with many human touchpoints to overcome the hurdle of customer education.
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