How do you buy things today?
You may not realize it, but the process has changed dramatically in the last few years.
Fast growing companies like @slack @dropbox @drift and @expensify make it so easy to get started, after a little while you love the product and are pulling out your wallet to buy or asking your boss for budget. It’s the consumerization for IT purchase.
Our guest this week is Liz Cain, who is at the forefront of the Product-Led movement, supporting companies working with @openviewpartners in Boston and beyond as a Partner.
In this episode, we discuss Product-Led growth, and how it relates to Sales Development.
Good news, it makes the customer experience better and the Sales Development role more valuable. This is a must listen!
Big thanks to @Darryl Praill of @VanillaSoft for making this podcast possible. Check out their new Sales Engagement solutions.
Next week: Are you stuck in Analysis Paralysis? Break out of the trap and balance research with action to crush your goals.
https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/17…
Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Liz Cain to the show. Liz is a partner at OpenView, an expansion stage venture firm helping build software companies into market leaders. From the Tenbound Conference last August, Liz, shares with us what product-led companies are, how they work, and how they do sales development. Tune in as Liz drops value on monetizing your product and approaching your users to sign up.
3 Key Points:
- Be thoughtful in monetizing your product.
- Let your product create the viral loop for you.
- Approach will always vary depending on who your customer is.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
- 00:38 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
- 00:58 – David introduces Liz
- 02:00 – Liz is a partner at OpenView, a VC that invests in enterprise tech companies
- Prior to that, she was AVP for NetSuite
- 03:33 – NetSuite went public in 2007 and got acquired by Oracle in 2016
- 05:39 – Liz explains product led growth as a go-to market strategy
- Expensify as an example of a product-led growth company
- 09:43 – The key is bottom-up approach
- Design to create a delightful experience for the end user
- Figure out your value drivers for your users and monetize on that
- 11:03 – Be thoughtful in monetizing your product
- Involving your sales teams at the right point
- 14:08 – A leadership alignment that’s hard to create is having one that’s reactive to the customer needs
- 14:52 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
- 15:53 – Liz shares about millennials and immediate responsiveness
- “People intuitively knew how to do it”
- Think about de-laboring your own motions
- Letting products create the viral loop
- 20:49 – David mentions about Drift, a conversational marketing platform for your website
- 22:19 – “Even in a product-led business there is a role for sales development in sales”
- These companies use most traditional sales plays
- 25:01 – Liz’s advice in approaching single users to sign up:
- It depends who the buyer is
- 28:03 – There are roles of product growth leaders
- 29:49 – Liz sees some companies where growth leader skill set is highly valued
- 30:17 – How events and community-building play in the mix for product-led companies
- 33:28 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
- 33:35 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs
Resources Mentioned:
