Oh interesting! I've done both, but I truly believe PLG is the future for everyone. Or, I should say the paths are likely to converge!
New organizational structures that are empowering end-users to make more decisions for themselves, coupled with extremely efficient try>buy experiences are reducing sales cycles and making the "executive buyer" persona less relevant (not irrelevant, just less of a blocker than it used to be).
As hinted about, none of this means sales GTM motions are going away. Anywhere a problem and solution isn't extremely well understood, a sales person can provide necessary guidance. I just think that process will start to look a little more like sales-assisted growth motions, where we use product analytics to get smarter about where and when to insert humans into the loop.
If you're considering stayin in SLG as it exists today, you're likely committing to:
- More organization-level ICP research that will help the revenue marketing team better segment outbound initiatives
- More sales enablement (pitch practice, decks, competitive matrices, objection handling, and demos)
- More enteprise-grade content that can be gated for pipeline building
- More focus on executive-level CABs
If you're considering the PLG path, you're likely committing to siting a little further "left" into the headspace of end-users rather than navigating several stakeholders and organizational networks. This means:
- More end-user interviews and more product usage analysis
- More testing and iterating in the onboarding flow to help successfully activate and convert users
- (if you don't have DevEx or DevRel that has content quotas) more tutorials and use case guides
- More ungated assets like blogs, explainer videos, and solution pages
I should also note that I have both a Developer or "Self-Serve" PMM and an Enterprise or "Sales-Assisted" PMM at dbt Labs. Their work often does mirror one another (ICP, segmentation, and persona analysis), but does diverge when it comes to enablement and sales playbooks.
