Explore every episode of the podcast Growth Machines: Combining Product-Led Growth and Sales

In this episode of the Growth Machines Podcast, host Vincent Jong speaks with Jesse Ervin, CRO at Nylas, about the company's journey from a sales-led approach to a hybrid product-led sales model over the past two years. 

Jesse introduces Nylas and describes how the migration from traditional sales to a product-led growth strategy has impacted the company's sales, customer acquisition, and internal processes. 

They discuss challenges faced, surprising insights, customer behavior monitoring, and adjustments made during the transition. Jesse also highlights the importance of a flexible approach, constant improvement, and focusing on customer self-service. 

00:00 Introducing Jesse and an overview of Nylas
04:46 Challenges and Concerns with PLG Transition
07:26 Strategies for Sales Team Adaptation
11:30 Metrics and Outcomes of the PLG Implementation
17:10 Signals and Customer Interaction
19:32 Future Directions and Conclusion

In this episode of the Growth Machines podcast, host Vincent Jong speaks with Kristen Habacht, Chief Revenue Officer at Typeform, about integrating sales into a product-led growth framework as a company scales. 

Kristen discusses the evolution of Typeform from a PLG pioneer to incorporating sales without creating artificial barriers for customers. She highlights the importance of customer success, segmentation strategies, and the role of tech partnerships. 

The conversation also delves into the benefits of combining sales and PLG, such as improved NPS and revenue per rep, and touches on nuances like sales team incentivization and the relationship between product and sales teams. 

Kristen concludes with advice on questioning basic assumptions to drive business inflection points.

00:00 Kristen Habacht's Background and Typeform Overview
00:48 The Evolution of Typeform's Product-Led Growth
02:54 Segmentation and Sales Strategies
06:51 Challenges and Counterintuitive Insights in PLG
09:50 Sales and Product Team Dynamics
16:31 Combining Sales and PLG for Success
19:50 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

In the fifth episode of the Growth Machines podcast, I sit down with Leah Tharin. Leah is a leading Product-Led Growth (PLG) advisor for scaling B2B companies and Interim CPGO of GotPhoto. She led products like Jua and Smallpdf and is portfolio growth advisor to VC funds like Notion Capital. She writes about her experiences and hosts a podcast on Leah’s ProducTea.

In our talk, Leah emphasizes the merging of PLG and traditional sales approaches, advocating for data-driven sales strategies. She warns against common mistakes such as misinterpreting user engagement as buying signals and stresses the need for iterative processes to identify genuine buying signals effectively.

She also discusses successful implementations of Product-Led Sales, citing examples where expansion revenue and leveraging trials or low-cost offerings have been used to penetrate larger accounts. Leah underlines the importance of adaptation to meet market demands, particularly in maximizing efficiency and capitalizing on changing customer expectations.

[00:22] Introducing Leah Tharin
[00:56] The Evolution and Impact of Product-Led Sales
[02:21] Combining PLG and Sales: Strategies and Challenges
[03:51] Identifying and Leveraging Buying Signals
[12:14] Navigating Sales Concerns
[16:42] Expanding into Enterprise with PLG
[23:42] Common Approaches when Introducing PLG

This interview is part of my book about Product-Led Sales which recently came out on Amazon. More info on www.PLGandSales.com.

In the fourth episode of the Growth Machines podcast, I sit down with Ben Williams, a product and growth executive with over 20 years of experience at companies like Snyk and Cloudbees, and the author of The Product-Led Geek. 

We talk about how to combine Product-Led Growth (PLG) with sales strategies to drive company growth. Ben shares insights from his experiences, including his time at Snyk, on how companies can blend PLG with traditional sales methods. He highlights common challenges and suggests how to deal with them.

We discuss bottom-up adoption, the role of PLG in improving lead qualification and Go-to-Market efficiency, and how PLG can help with contract expansion. Ben emphasizes the significance of developing a growth model for the business and the necessity to focus on driving specific impact instead of trying to boil the ocean.

[00:22] Introducing Ben Williams
[00:53] Combining PLG and Sales: Insights from Snyk
[06:21] Key Metrics for PLG Success
[08:39] Beyond Acquisition: PLG's Role in Retention and Expansion
[11:30] Integrating PLG into Sales-Led Organizations
[18:19] Deciding Where to Start with PLG
[20:13] Closing Remarks

This interview is part of my book about Product-Led Sales.

More info on www.PLGandSales.com

In the third episode of the Growth Machines podcast, I talk with Pekka Koskinen, Co-Founder of Leadfeeder (nowadays part of Dealfront). He explains how they developed a successful Product-Led Sales model long before PLG became a buzzword.

Leadfeeder was founded in 2012 when Pekka and his co-founders hit a wall with traditional sales methods in their previous company. Right out of the gate, they embraced a Product-Led Growth model for Leadfeeder, drawing inspiration from successful American companies like HubSpot.

They offered a free trial, focused on making users happy, and went the unconventional way of prioritizing product usage over immediate profits. Pekka stresses the importance of nailing the basics and staying focused on the product metrics, which paved the way for Leadfeeder's success.

[00:00] Introduction
[02:49] The Power of Free Trials and Feedback
[03:52] The Role of Analytics and Support
[06:55] An Unconventional Approach to Outbound
[13:24] Knowing When to Give Up on a Sale
[15:44] Key Roles in the Growth Journey
[17:33] Advice When Building a Business
[18:12] Conclusion and Upcoming Book Announcement

This interview is part of my book about Product-Led Sales.

More info on www.PLGandSales.com

In the second episode of the Growth Machines podcast, I talk with Kyle Poyar, Operating Partner at Openview and writer of the Growth Unhinged newsletter. We talk about what to do when you have a pricing model in place for a sales motion and are considering to introduce PLG.

Pricing and packaging can be an enabler or blocker when thinking about product-led approaches. Kyle talks about the different challenges this can present. He includes suggestions how to gradually introduce the product-led elements and points out common pitfalls to watch out for. At the end, we cover some trends and other observations of what’s happening in the market.

[02:32] Barriers to adopting Product-Led Growth
[06:31] Strategies for transitioning to Product-Led Growth
[11:07] Using PLG to create shared incentives across Go-to-Market teams
[13:07] Which companies aren’t the best fit for Product-Led Growth?
[17:10] Current market developments around Product-Led Growth
[22:32] A common mistake when going from PLG to enterprise
[25:02] Moving beyond user journey automation in PLG

This interview is part of a series from my book about Product-Led Sales. More info on that on www.PLGandSales.com.

In this first episode of the Growth Machines podcast, I talk with Franciska Dethlefsen, the Head of Growth Marketing at Amplitude. We discuss the recent experiences they’ve had launching the Plus plan, a new self serve option for Amplitude.

We focus on how companies can successfully transition to a product-led strategy if they are doing sales today. Franciska shares insights about the process of building internal support for this approach, ensuring the product is actually ready to sell when the switch is made, and the importance of customer education in retaining clients.

She also highlights the potential challenges and opportunities presented by this transition, such as customer churn, while also maximizing revenue opportunities

[00:18] Meet Franciska Dethlefsen
[00:57] The Journey to Self-Serve at Amplitude
[06:45] The Evolution of the Self-Serve Plan
[10:26] Addressing Concerns and Building Confidence
[17:57] The Impact of the Plus Plan Launch
[21:22] Lessons Learned and Future Opportunities
[25:27] Closing Remarks and Preview of Next Episode

This interview is part of my book about Product-Led Sales. Go to www.PLGandSales.com for more info.

In this episode of the Growth Machines podcast, host Vincent Jong speaks with Sindre Haaland, CEO of SalesScreen, about the company’s nearly two-year journey to launch a Product-Led Growth offering. 

Sindre discusses SalesScreen history, their sales gamification platform, and the challenges and strategies involved in shifting from a sales-led to a product-led approach. 

Key topics include the importance of internal alignment, the role of different team members in driving the project, and early learnings from their beta phase. He also shares insights on balancing value in their freemium model and the backend complexities that come with PLG implementation.

00:00 Meet Sindra Halland: CEO of SalesScreen

01:01 The Evolution of SalesScreen

02:04 Transition to Product-Led Growth

04:10 Challenges and Strategies in PLG Implementation

07:32 Building the Essential Package

12:42 Beta Testing and Learnings

16:48 Final Thoughts and Future Outlook

18:08 Closing Remarks and Contact Information

In this episode of the Growth Machines podcast, host Vincent Jong talks with Laura Erdem from Dreamdata about their unique approach to combining product-led growth and traditional sales in their go-to-market strategy. 

Laura delves into her role and the evolution of Dreamdata's sales strategy, from a sales-led model to incorporating a free trial product-led component. They discuss the trials and triumphs of this transition, the importance of understanding customer needs, and how personalized trials have become a key part of their success. 

Laura also shares insights into how close collaboration between sales and product teams has become essential and unexpected learnings that have shaped their strategy.

00:00 Laura's Background and Dreamdata's Journey
01:55 Transition to Product-Led Growth
03:09 Sales and Product Integration
05:19 Customer Trials and Sales Strategy
09:53 Unexpected Insights and Challenges
16:29 Segmentation and Qualification
20:21 Wrap Up and Get in Touch

In this episode of the Growth Machines Podcast, Vincent Jong hosts Andrew Davies, CMO of Paddle, to discuss how Paddle went from a product-led model back to a sales-led model to end up in its current hybrid state.

Andrew provides insights into Paddle’s transition from a sales-driven model to an integrated product-led and sales strategy, the importance of understanding customer decision processes, and the challenges encountered in ensuring a frictionless user onboarding experience while mitigating risks. 

The conversation highlights the need for a hybrid approach in scaling businesses. Andrew also shares his experience with adapting commercial infrastructure to support this hybrid model and tackling both internal and customer-facing complexities.

00:00 Andrew Davies' Background and Paddle's Mission

01:36 Evolution of Paddle's Go-to-Market Strategy

03:26 Challenges and Decisions in Product-Led Growth

07:02 Hybrid Sales and Product-Led Approach

10:00 Complexities and Learnings in Scaling

16:18 Final Thoughts

In this episode of the Growth Machines podcast, I speak with Susann Johansen, Head of Growth and User Experience at OneFlow, about how they introduced Product-Led Growth at Oneflow, a traditionally sales-led company. 

Susans shares the evolution of OneFlow's go-to-market strategy, the challenges of implementing a freemium model, and the nuances of segmenting and scoring product-qualified leads (PQLs). 

She also highlights the collaborative efforts between product, marketing, and sales teams to align on the right timing and approach for customer outreach. 

Our conversation covers the varying success of PLG across different regions and the interplay of PLG with traditional sales in complex B2B purchasing processes. 

00:00 Susann's Background and OneFlow Overview 

01:00 Transition from Sales-Led to Product-Led Growth 

02:03 Challenges and Strategies in Implementing PLG 

04:48 Segmentation and PQL Scoring 

07:13 Sales and Product Collaboration 

10:08 Country-Specific PLG Effectiveness 

14:08 Unexpected Successes and Final Thoughts 

16:04 Conclusion and Contact Information

In this episode of the Growth Machines podcast, Vincent Jong talks with Yazan Sehwail, co-founder of Userpilot, about integrating product-led strategies with human touch for optimal sales and expansion. 

Yazan shares Userpilot’s journey from focusing on one feature to managing complex product offerings, highlighting their approach to balancing free trials and demo CTAs based on the type of customer and their needs. 

He discusses the dynamics between product-led motions and sales teams, emphasizing the importance of tracking user engagement and experimental approaches to post-activation feature adoption. 

Yazan also speaks on the future of personalized user experiences powered by AI and hints at trends observed within Userpilot’s customer base.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:53 The Evolution of Userpilot's GTM Strategy
02:59 Balancing Self-Serve and Sales Models
06:27 Managing Sales Team Dynamics
10:14 Strategies for Expansion Revenue
13:54 Trends in In-Product Experiences
16:57 Future of Personalization with AI

On this episode of the Growth Machines podcast I speak with Mathias Thulin from GetAccept. He shares how they developed the Go-to-Market model for GetAccept going from sales-led to freemium and now a combination of sales-led and free trial.

As of today combines a free trial, an interactive product tour, and a book-a-demo option in an intuitive way. Depending on the customer profile, one or more of these options will be emphasized during the customer journey.

One of the things that was a big topic at GetAccept was ungating the content on the website. Mathias talks through this experience and how they learned that the more they gave away, the higher quality their pipeline became.

Mathias highlights the importance of understanding the maturity of your category when considering Product-Led Growth. If people don’t understand your product, they might be hesitant to sign up for it. 

In a similar manner, we talk about the importance of the decision-making process: can your customer actually start using the product? In the case of GetAccept the adoption is almost always a top down decision, which is more challenging for product-led customer acquisition. 

Regardless, Mathias advocates a product-first mindset, even if PLG is not the primary growth motion. He emphasizes that thinking product-first results in a better onboarding and software product altogether, which also helps other Go-to-Market metrics like sales conversions and retention.

In the seventh episode of the Growth Machines podcast, I speak with Japna Sethi, Product and Growth leader at Calendly. Previously she has been a lead for Product and Growth at Dropbox and she built and led the Growth team at Productboard from the ground up. 

Each of these companies dealt with a large flow of incoming users and Japna shares how they built support and sales motions on top of this to identify and convert accounts with larger potential. In one company experiments to involve the support team at key moments led to the creation of an entirely separate team and organization that drove conversion for the business.

She describes the challenges of applying the scientific method in a B2B context, which often leads to long timelines to see results for Product-Led Growth. Listen to the full episode to hear how she recommends to create a portfolio of experiments and what teams can do to make sure they don’t circle back to the same ideas without properly validating or invalidating them.

[00:00] Introducing Japna Sethi
 [00:45] Success patterns in companies doing Product-Led Growth
 [04:14] Setting the right expectations in terms of timeline
 [07:08] Creating a Portfolio of Experiments
 [09:51] The API between Product-Led Growth and Sales
 [13:42] Common Pitfalls and Challenges
 [17:02] Involving Support and Customer Success
 [21:27] Dealing with Large User Volumes
 [25:28] 3 Things to Look at When Assessing a PLG strategy
 [29:44] Final thoughts

This interview is part of my book about Product-Led Sales. Go to www.PLGandSales.com for more info.

In the sixth episode of the Growth Machines podcast, I speak with Todd Olson, the co-founder and CEO of Pendo, about leveraging in-app messaging for tailored user experiences and the impactful role of Product-Led Growth (PLG) in sales operations. 

We discuss robust PLG strategies employed by companies ranging from startups to large enterprises, including personalized onboarding flows, efficient go-to-market approaches, and AI-driven campaign suggestions for improved user engagement and retention. 

Todd also highlights the broad application of PLG beyond software companies, with examples from banking and other sectors for driving growth and personalization at scale.

[00:00] Introducing Todd Olson: The Journey to Pendo
[01:02] The Power of Pendo: Transforming User Experience and Business Growth
[02:21] Exploring Product-Led Growth Strategies with In-App Messaging
[04:25] Efficient Growth and Expansion
[10:36] Advanced Implementations
[14:36] The Future of Growth: AI-Driven Strategies and Personalization

This interview is part of my book about Product-Led Sales. For more info, go to  www.PLGandSales.com