It Takes a Village to be Truly Product-Led

Just because you claim to be Product-Led, does not necessarily mean you have successfully implemented a Product-Led approach. Product-Led requires a shift in mindset and laser focus on user behavior.

As a CEO, you know that it takes a dedicated team of individuals to run an effective business. But when it comes to truly embracing product-led growth, it's about more than just the resources and manpower within your own company - it requires forethought, adaptability, and dedication from everyone involved in the process. From your internal teams; including Product Management, Marketing, Sales, as well as, external partners like third party vendors and technology providers - each one plays a critical role in helping ensure that your product has the best possible opportunity for success. In this blog post we will explore how these various touches points within the company can intersect to create and maintain growth-driven product initiatives.

According to OpenView and Zach DeWitt’s Notorious PLG list, there are somewhere between 37 to 42 large public companies with a “Product-Led Growth” model. Why are more companies turning to a Product-Led go to market? Product-led is becoming increasingly popular for companies as it allows them to take a value-centric approach by putting their customers first. With the ability to personalize their product journey, companies can make sure that users have the best experience and therefore increase their chances of conversions. This strategy eliminates any friction throughout the sales cycle, thus allowing for rapid growth. Companies that invest in a product-led go to market are reaping the rewards now and will be set up for even more success in the future.

Having alignment between all of the different teams in a product-led organization is key for success. Each team's efforts should be complementing each other and become product experts to ensure a consistent customer experience throughout their lifecycle. Deeply integrate information about how a customer is engaging with the product to ensure a smooth internal process and help with account prioritization. Furthermore, it is essential to actively monitor customer adoption and leverage automation to simplify onboarding needs. Being transparent about your roadmap and feature requests with customers will also help increase trust in the organization, as well as, make use of qualitative and quantitative data sources to inform decision-making.

Product design and user experience are becoming more important than ever before for product-led strategies. Designing a simple but highly effective user experience requires full knowledge of the customer lifecycle, which is further ensured through extensive testing and feedback from friendly customers. When a product onboarding experience requires little input and provides large output, the user immediately sees the benefit and builds trust on day one. This makes a huge difference in terms of customer adoption. For example, for any product that requires access to secure information will be met with skepticism. Consider how many consumers are comfortable connecting their financial accounts to FinTech applications. Designers must remember that honest feedback from customers can help them create a more efficient product, one that reflects users’ needs and values.

Customer success managers can play a key role in enabling product-led sales by creating success milestones for customers, becoming advocates for the product, and providing key insights to accelerate time to value. Doing so builds trust between customer and company, increases product adoption, and strengthens the customer voice. A well-executed customer success program early on can have impressive long-term retention results. Establishing proficiency milestones with training helps teams measure progress over time and encourages customers to tap into new features earlier. Advocacy then naturally follows since customers become emotionally invested in the success of their own career with the product. Ultimately, this leads to higher rates of adoption and more success stories that inspire other potential customers to give it a try too. For example, Totango provides a highly flexible customer success platform to customize your product-led milestones to serve your customers better.

Marketing is a powerful tool to drive innovation and engagement in any business. By linking buying behavior to product engagement, businesses can identify emerging buying trends or potential gaps in the market, allowing them to tailor their product roadmap or partnerships accordingly. Additionally, by using user-centric advertising tactics, companies can reach out directly to customers and build a meaningful relationship with them. Moreover, customer reviews and social referrals are vital for collecting feedback about products and services which can be used to further refine their offerings. Ultimately, marketing serves as an invaluable tool for innovative ideas that may increase brand reach, visibility, and engagement in today's competitive digital landscape.

To maximize the benefits of a product-led go to market, a sales team must create an approach centered around product qualified leads and pulling, rather than pushing prospects to a buying decision. An effective product-led sales engagement begins by building relationships through consultative conversations with prospects and leveraging industry expertise to develop a business case. Sales teams must establish trust and credibility with potential customers by clearly establishing how their product can positively impact their businesses. Additionally, co-piloting a customers actual product experience to showcase the capabilities of their product should be part of every product-led engagement. With a strong product-first approach that fosters long-term relationships with prospects, sales representatives can maximize their time with serious buyers instead of spending time with “tire kickers.”

To summarize, product-led organizations have started to become popular among companies as a way to ensure customer satisfaction and accelerate product adoption. This strategy requires all teams within the organization—from development and operations to user experience and customer support—to work together in order to increase engagement and innovation. In addition, areas such as marketing and sales have taken on an even greater role in ensuring the success of a product-led organization continuously advocate for the customer. With this comprehensive approach, companies can create an ideal product-led environment that resonates with customers. As you consider how best to proceed with your own product-led sales efforts, ask yourself: What does your product-led organization look like? Do you have a process? If not, now is the time to create one that works for your company’s goals and objectives. Working together as a team will guarantee success when it comes to product-led initiatives, so remember: get organized, get process-oriented and think strategically about how best to leverage cross-disciplinary input.