- A product-led growth approach thrives using [[friction as fuel]]
- Turning the product itself as a qualifier and acquisition model: you can "just" focus on just helping customers to solve their problems better. In turn, this self-selects and qualifies potential leads.
- A by-product is that it forces the whole company to become experts in the domain and needs of customers, since the main leverages are baked into the thing you are selling.
"**By making it easy for people to experience the value of our product, we transformed it into a powerful customer acquisition model.**"
"The best user onboarding emails are an extension of your product. **They have a magical ability to reach beyond your app or site to bring people back and move them toward customer happiness.**"
"**A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is an action plan that specifies how a company will reach target customers and achieve a competitive advantage.**"
"**When you’re launching a new category, you have to change the way people approach problems. This not only takes time but requires you to educate people on how to do things differently.**"
"As a result, it often makes sense to start with a sales-led approach to better understand the customer’s pain points, objections, and core problems implementing your solution. **If you jump too quickly to a product-led model with a new category, you risk a high churn rate because you simply don’t understand what it takes for customers to succeed.**"
"**If you don’t have successful customers, a product-led model may amplify the problem.** Before you go down the product-led route, make sure you know what goes into customer success.”"
"**Define your MOAT
Market Strategy: Is your go-to-market strategy dominant, disruptive, or differentiated?
Ocean Conditions: Are you in a red- or blue-ocean business?
Audience: Do you have a top-down or bottom-up marketing strategy?
Time-to-value: How fast can you showcase value?**"
"When you understand why people use your product, you can catapult them to the right destination. **If you don’t know the primary outcome behind why people use your product, you’re growing your business on hard mode. What outcome does your product help people with?** Is it lead generation? Is it getting more fit?"
- We were using the same-old marketing playbook that everyone else did: Create content; use landing pages to capture leads; and nurture those leads with automated emails until, one day, they converted into paying customers (or unsubscribed). Sound familiar?
- **By making it easy for people to experience the value of our product, we transformed it into a powerful customer acquisition model.**
- As the SaaS industry evolves, I believe there will be two types of companies:
Sales-led companies represent the old way. It’s complex, unnecessary, expensive, and all about telling consumers how the product will benefit them. These companies want to take you from Point A to Point B in their sales cycle.
Product-led companies flip the traditional sales model on its head. Instead of helping buyers go through a long, drawn-out sales cycle, they give the buyer the “keys” to their product. The company, in turn, focuses on helping the buyer improve their life. Upgrading to a paid plan becomes a no-brainer.
- Why you need to consider product led growth:
Startups are more expensive to grow
Buyers prefer to self-educate
Product Experiences have become an essential part of the buying process
- **A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is an action plan that specifies how a company will reach target customers and achieve a competitive advantage.**
- **When you’re launching a new category, you have to change the way people approach problems. This not only takes time but requires you to educate people on how to do things differently.**
- As a result, it often makes sense to start with a sales-led approach to better understand the customer’s pain points, objections, and core problems implementing your solution. **If you jump too quickly to a product-led model with a new category, you risk a high churn rate because you simply don’t understand what it takes for customers to succeed.**
- **If you don’t have successful customers, a product-led model may amplify the problem.** Before you go down the product-led route, make sure you know what goes into customer success.”
- the MQL model has a few hidden flaws:
It encourages marketers to gate content to hit their MQL goals.
It focuses on content consumption as a leading indicator of intent.
The entire process rewards creating friction in the buying process.
- **Having the product team involved throughout the business allows for product-led businesses to create a seamless customer experience across every department**. What makes a product-led business unique is that all teams leverage the product to hit their goals.
A product-led marketing team asks, “How can we use our product as the #1 lead magnet?”
A product-led sales team asks, “**How can we use the product to qualify our prospects for us? That way, we have conversations with people that already understand our value.**”
The product-led customer success team asks, “How can we create a product that helps customers become successful without our help?
- **Define your MOAT
Market Strategy: Is your go-to-market strategy dominant, disruptive, or differentiated?
Ocean Conditions: Are you in a red- or blue-ocean business?
Audience: Do you have a top-down or bottom-up marketing strategy?
Time-to-value: How fast can you showcase value?**
- Do you want to offer the best solution for the lowest price? (Dominant strategy)
Do you want to offer the best-customized solution for the highest price to underserved customers? (Differentiated strategy)
Do you want to offer the simplest product for the lowest price to over-served customers? (Disruptive strategy)
Or are you planning on using a hybrid strategy?
- If you’re in a blue ocean and creating demand, your product may have a steep learning curve. Before you can make the sale, you need to educate your market on why your new way of doing something is better.
- Am I creating or capturing existing demand?
Does the product have a quick time-to-value?
Will a marketing, sales, or product-led GTM suit my business the best?
- There are four types of users:
Mission Impossible Users. Your user has low motivation and finds it hard, if not impossible, to use your product.
Rookie Users. Your user has high motivation but finds it incredibly difficult to use your product. This scenario is often a luxury for companies. It usually pops up when employees are forced to use existing software or have no alternative solutions.
Veteran Users. Your user has low motivation but finds it easy to use your product. This means your user will accomplish the target behavior easily but could flee at any sign of friction—or hunger. Who knows?!
Spoiled Users. This is the outcome to optimize for. Your user has high motivation and finds it straightforward to use your product. This means that you’ll help the greatest number of people in your Total Addressable Market (TAM).
- How motivated are users when they sign up for your product?
Is your product easy for your target audience to use?
Can users experience the core value of your product without hand-holding?
- If customers get incredible value from your product, charge them more—your product is worth it. On the flip side, if customers aren’t getting the full value from your product, charge them less.
- It’s easy for customers to understand
It’s aligned with the value that the customer receives in the product
it grows with your customer’s usage of that value
- What do my best customers do regularly in the product?
What do my best customers not do in the product?
What features did my best users try first during onboarding?
What similarities among my best users—demographics, team structure, ability—led to success?
- Determining price
Too Expensive. At what price point would you consider [our product] to be so expensive that you would not consider buying it?
Expensive. At what price point would you consider [our product] so expensive that, while not out of the question, you would give it some thought before buying?
Bargain. At what price point would you consider [our product] to be a great deal for the money?
Too Cheap. At what price point would you consider [our product] so inexpensive that you would feel the quality couldn’t be excel”
- Alternatives to determine pricing
“What would you consider to be an “acceptable” price (good value for the money) for [our product]?
When would [our product] seem “expensive” (they’d have to think twice about buying it)?
- Value Metric, Willingness to pay, Valued features, Demographic information
- Does the first product experience lead to a specific, relevant, meaningful “quick win”?
Do tooltips and hotspots spur meaningful action in the product, not just point at buttons?
Do social and directional cues indicate high-value behaviors?Are key task completions indicated with a success state, such as Mailchimp’s famous high-five?
Are all unnecessary points of friction and distraction removed from critical workflows?
- When you understand why people use your product, you can catapult them to the right destination. **If you don’t know the primary outcome behind why people use your product, you’re growing your business on hard mode. What outcome does your product help people with?** Is it lead generation? Is it getting more fit?
- How to launch a free trial in 24 hours
Change copy to request a free trial
Qualify them
Ask about the primary outcome they want to achieve with the product
Watch the trailer try to achieve an outcome in the products
- What are the conversational bumpers?
What are product bumpers?
- Welcome Emails
Usage Tips
Sales Touches
Usage Reviews
Case Study
Better Life
Post trial survey
expiry warning or trial extension
customer welcome emails
- The best user onboarding emails are an extension of your product. **They have a magical ability to reach beyond your app or site to bring people back and move them toward customer happiness.**
- 1 Welcome Email
3 Content to educate user
5 Check in demo
8 Product Features
12 Expiry warning email
- How to handle a client that does not convert?
Still evaluating -> offer a trial expansion
Not a fit -> drop into a nurture funnel
Too complex -> Schedule a CSM call
Too expensive -> Provide a discount
Went with another solution -> send top of funnel lead nurturing emails in case it does not work out