What things in your marketing strategy would change if you move your GTM motion from sale-lead to product-led?

Switching from a sales-led to a product-led go-to-market (GTM) motion is a significant transition that necessitates adjustments across various facets of your marketing strategy. Here's how different components might change:

• Content and Messaging - While sales-led strategies prioritize sales presentations and case studies emphasizing the value proposition, product-led approaches focus on developing product tutorials and walkthroughs to showcase specific features and functionalities.

• Lead qualification - The sales-led approach primarily nurtures Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) through a structured and linear sales funnel, whereas the product-led approach shifts to identifying Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) based on genuine product interaction and engagement.

• Customer journey mapping - In a sales-led approach, the customer journey is often linear and facilitated by the sales team, contrasting with the product-led approach where the journey is more flexible, allowing prospects to explore and engage with the product at their own pace. With a product-led go-to-market strategy, it’s critical you leverage user-based analytics to identify the behaviors that occur within the product to help personalize how your team markets to multiple cohorts of accounts and users.

• Sales and marketing alignment - Sales and marketing alignment in sales-led strategies involve distinct roles with a focus on lead handover, while product-led strategies blur the boundaries between the two, necessitating integrated efforts to encourage product adoption and user growth.

• Customer engagement - Customer engagement in a sales-led environment is generally formal and structured with communications spearheaded by the sales team; on the other hand, product-led strategies foster organic, product-centric engagement, nurturing community building and customer advocacy.

• Marketing metrics and KPIs - While sales-led strategies focus on metrics revolving around leads, opportunities, and conversions, product-led approaches shift the emphasis towards user-centric Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like product usage, engagement, and customer satisfaction.

• Budget allocation - In terms of budget allocation, sales-led strategies allocate a significant portion to sales team operations and activities, in contrast to product-led strategies which direct more resources towards product development and enhancing the user experience.

• Feedback and iteration - Feedback and iteration in sales-led strategies are generally collected through sales interactions for incremental improvements, whereas product-led strategies involve continuous feedback from actual product usage, which is swiftly integrated into product enhancements and developments.

Overall, transitioning to a product-led GTM motion involves fostering a culture of customer-centricity, where the product itself becomes the primary driver of growth, and marketing strategies are realigned to support and enhance user experiences. It's about shifting from "selling" to "serving," where the product value is demonstrated through actual usage rather than the sales process.

Moving from a sales-led to a product-led approach can be a challenging transition, but it is not impossible. Your marketing strategy will indeed need to undergo specific shifts based on your business and existing tactics. Here is a general outline and recommendations:

• Go-To-Market (GTM) Motion Focus. The focus of your GTM strategy will shift towards metrics related to product adoption, activation, and engagement. Prioritize understanding how customers adopt and use your product in a product-led growth (PLG) motion.

• Content and Resources. Shift your mindset from sales enablement to customer enablement. Identify the resources and content that customers need to quickly and effectively start using your product.

• In-Product Messaging. With a PLG focus, it's important to meet customers where they are. Implement in-app messaging, checklists, and contextual assistance to provide valuable guidance and showcase the value of your product.

• Data-Driven Mindset. Leverage product usage data and analytics to inform your marketing strategy. Adopt a data-driven approach to understand customer behaviors and actions, allowing them to help guide the direction of your marketing efforts.

Ensure your marketing strategy aligns with these key considerations to successfully transition to a product-led approach.