I think one angle that's lacking here is scope of the product, and how it an impact strategy. If you have a product that is used widely then sometimes chasing PQLs can be a wasted effort for highly-paid sales resources. We've moved to a PQA model which helps target the right accounts. We still harvest PQLs, but more selectively. But the PQA score takes into account all users (aggregate score).
Kyle, love the blog and insights. In this post, what your are describing sounds like the role of the Sales Engineer, a well established “Presales” role for assisting software buyers navigate product capabilities. I’ve managed Presales teams of all sizes that engage to assist with free trials, open source, and freemium. When are we going to talk about the role of sales engineering?
Vancouver has a culture of this kind of bottom up growth. Slack has deep Vancouver roots. An earlier example that we have all learned from is Crystal Decisions (later acquired by SAP). Crystal also entered the market and grew through bottom up expansion.
One thing, as one grows a PLG business I think there is a transition from the Customer Experience Journey to the Customer Value Journey. Value is multidimensional of course, with economic, emotional and even community. It is important to make sure that all stakeholders are getting at least emotional value and that the business buyer is also getting economic value. Community value is a different topic, but one of growing importance.
One can layer this into the customer journey map by adding swim lanes for value and price, so this is a natural build from current PLG best practices.
Kyle, great article! I really appreciate the focus on helping identify and address obstacles to customer adoption & success, and that it's systemized so the whole organization (Sales, Product, Support, etc.) are aligned to that end.
I think one angle that's lacking here is scope of the product, and how it an impact strategy. If you have a product that is used widely then sometimes chasing PQLs can be a wasted effort for highly-paid sales resources. We've moved to a PQA model which helps target the right accounts. We still harvest PQLs, but more selectively. But the PQA score takes into account all users (aggregate score).
Kyle, love the blog and insights. In this post, what your are describing sounds like the role of the Sales Engineer, a well established “Presales” role for assisting software buyers navigate product capabilities. I’ve managed Presales teams of all sizes that engage to assist with free trials, open source, and freemium. When are we going to talk about the role of sales engineering?
Vancouver has a culture of this kind of bottom up growth. Slack has deep Vancouver roots. An earlier example that we have all learned from is Crystal Decisions (later acquired by SAP). Crystal also entered the market and grew through bottom up expansion.
One thing, as one grows a PLG business I think there is a transition from the Customer Experience Journey to the Customer Value Journey. Value is multidimensional of course, with economic, emotional and even community. It is important to make sure that all stakeholders are getting at least emotional value and that the business buyer is also getting economic value. Community value is a different topic, but one of growing importance.
One can layer this into the customer journey map by adding swim lanes for value and price, so this is a natural build from current PLG best practices.
Kyle, great article! I really appreciate the focus on helping identify and address obstacles to customer adoption & success, and that it's systemized so the whole organization (Sales, Product, Support, etc.) are aligned to that end.