Everyone knows what Product-Led Growth is.
It’s your product acquiring, engaging, activating, and retaining clients in a self-serving motion.
But Product-Led Sales? That’s where the confusion begins. Many think it’s a subset of PLG, it’s “selling without a seller”. But is it?
PLS is leveraging your product to sell. It’s using product telemetry for sales, empowering your teams to lean on the product and better sell your software.
If we look behind the scenes, PLS is a common element of the most successful B2B companies of the past decade.
Yet, it is also one of the most overlooked opportunities in software today.
Let me show you why.
What Is the Problem With the Traditional Sales Process? No Product Telemetry.
Adopting PLS doesn’t mean getting rid of your Sales team.
But it means getting rid of their old ways of working.
Traditional sellers’ incentives don’t work in PLS. Usually, at the beginning of the funnel, they are rewarded for scheduling a meeting to do a demo. At the end, they are often only credited if the client purchases via them, accepting the quote they sent out.
But how does this help the user? In many cases, it doesn’t. It just distracts them from using the product.
This blind process doesn’t take into account the most important actors of this game: your users.
It ignores what they are trying to accomplish when it randomly asks them to join a meeting. What are they doing on the product? What is preventing them from experiencing value? Are they stuck somewhere in the onboarding journey?
The process is inefficient, at the very least. At most, it harms customer satisfaction and falls short of delivering value to users.
Luckily, there is a better way to do it. You guessed it, that way is Product-Led Sales.
Why Product Telemetry is Essential for Sales in PLS
The PLS model empowers Sales teams to do their job much more efficiently.
The key difference? Information.
Product telemetry gives sellers insights that help them align with the product motion and grow in the same direction. At a minimum, they need to know:
- What a potential customer is supposed to do
- What a specific potential customer has done so far
The Product team is responsible for clearly defining and sharing what an ideal user journey is. What does the user onboarding look like?
It is also responsible for collecting product telemetry and transforming data into information for sellers.
Equipped with it, they are much more empowered to reach out to potential customers and help them exactly with their struggles.
Let’s see an example.
Imagine the usual path for a lead to convert is to perform actions A, B & C. When a seller identifies a lead that has only gone over the first two steps, they can reach out and offer help in completing C. Meeting customers where they are, informed by product telemetry, makes a huge difference in sales. Not only does it convert leads, it also increases customer satisfaction.
Now, instead of receiving a pointless message from a seller, customers get help tailored to their situation. It might be exactly what they needed to progress in their buying journey.
The upside of this model comes at a cost: more work for the Product team. It’s on them to define the intended user journey and to share that information with Sales. It’s also their responsibility to analyze the relevant metrics to measure success.
Remember the broken incentives for sellers we mentioned above? This model rewards sellers for facilitating product adoption, even when the customer buys via e-commerce. The self-serve purchase was only made possible thanks to the seller’s contribution – even if they were not the ones sealing the deal.
As you might have noticed, this model is not about automating the whole sales flow. You still need people to handle important touch points in the customer journey. But it’s also not exclusively about human interaction to drive sales. It combines the power of PLG and product telemetry for sales with the extra touch humans can add to the equation.
This Is What PLS Success Looks Like
The most successful B2B companies of the past decade have all been adopting a PLS model. Think of organizations such as Instana, Datadog, Canva, or Airtable. They all experience similar benefits:
1. Empowered Sales Teams
Sales teams move from being “follow-up machines” to trusted advisors. They become less intrusive and more supportive.
2. Improved Customer Satisfaction
Customers feel supported on their journey with the product. They receive useful help with onboarding, troubleshooting, and maximizing product features. This ensures a smooth and effective experience.
3. Improved Post-Sales Engagement
Product-Led Sales doesn’t apply only to the initial sales process.
Customer success teams can use telemetry data to monitor product usage too. It allows them to identify any disruptions in adoption and proactively resolve issues. This encourages deeper product adoption and long-term customer retention.
4. Scalability Through Telemetry
Product telemetry gives Sales and CS teams real-time insights they can act on. This helps teams focus on users who are most likely to buy, making the process more efficient and increasing conversion rates.
5. Cross-Functional Alignment
Product-Led Sales brings different teams together to create a better experience for users. This teamwork often earns support from company leaders and fosters a company-wide focus on putting the customer first.
Conclusion: The Future of Sales Uses Product Telemetry
While most companies are still figuring out PLG, industry leaders have already moved to the next phase. They understand that the future isn’t about choosing between product and sales. It’s about integrating product telemetry for sales into your strategy.
PLS organizations are growing faster and creating better experiences for their customers. So the question isn’t whether to adopt Product-Led Sales anymore. The question is: how long can you afford to wait? If you want to implement PLS but are unsure how, we can help. At Blu Estates, we partner with software companies of all sizes to implement effective PLG and PLS strategies that drive real results.
Ready to join the industry leaders?