[PLG ~ Product Lead Growth]
[SLG ~ Sales Lead Growth]
Why not have both?
*Cue little girl from Old El Paso Ad*
When companies like Atlassian & Calendly showed that they could grow their customers just by people using their product.
The Product Lead Growth (PLG) epidemic took off.
Investors and founders became addicted.
And why wouldn’t they be?
➡️ More leads?
➡️ More sales?
➡️ More revenue?
➡️ More growth?
Without having to spend more on sales and marketing? It's a not brainer.
But then all the famous buzzwords started popping up:
🗣️“We’re a product lead company”
🗣️“Our product sells itself”
🗣️“We’re kind of like Facebook...”
For some, salespeople appeared obsolete and dropped out of focus.
Founders started taking a new "less salesperson" approach.
Until those who were lucky to experience enough growth began entering the realm of “Enterprise” level customers.
I.e. Selling to larger organisations
I.e. Bigger customers meant bigger $$$...
But what they didn’t bank on was that these new cash cows had highly complex buying processes. Meaning a “sharable” product alone was not enough to navigate the:
➡️ Cultural
➡️ Procurement and
➡️ Retention complexities of an enterprise level purchase.
So what they needed was...Salespeople...
After a couple of these Enterprise clients the sexiness of PLG now wasn’t so hot. After all, Enterprise meant:
💵 Bigger clients = bigger budgets $$$
💵 Value-based selling = higher margins.
💵 Long-term client ownership autonomy = less vendor support needed per user.
💵 Complex procurement = higher switching costs = higher retention.
The focus then flipped back again to “chasing the big fish” - i.e. Sales Lead Growth - SLG.
Turns out investors love bigger margins...
BUT THEN - the costs of acquisition increased once more as greater sales resources were needed.
In particular, the effort needed at the top of funnel (TOF) - Lead generation became arduous and manual.
I.e. costly - which we all remember - investors. don’t. like.
So the lesson is... Just give up - All paths lead to failure...
No. Of course not.
The lesson is - there is a time and place for both PLG & SLG. Each have their strengths and their weaknesses. Each should be used and positioned correctly for maximum growth efficiency.
So what does that look like on the customer journey?
PLG: Product Lead Growth
Ideal for:
➡️ Low cost, low effort initial interactions with buyers.
➡️ A 1:Many market awareness and top of funnel “magnet-filler” for leads.
➡️ A low-touch way to indirectly build trust and identify champions in the business over time - ripe for SLG to capture...
SLG: Sales Lead Growth
Ideal for:
➡️ Complex, multi-approval sales with bigger $$$
➡️ Sales where the “Human Trust” element and relationships are needed
➡️ NOT 1:1 lead generation
➡️ Qualitative data is needed by both the buyer & the seller
So what does the ideal state look like together?
Conclusion
Ultimately, neither PLG nor SLG reigns supreme. Both have unique strengths suited for different phases of customer engagement.
The key is integration: leveraging PLG for initial wide spread, trust-building awareness, and transitioning to SLG for large, complex, relationship-driven sales. Harmonizing both offers the blueprint for sustainable, efficient growth.
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