Predictive lead scoring ⊂ product-led sales ⊂ product-led growth
Hello people 👋 After a short break, we finally find the time and inspiration to share what we’ve been working on for some time.
Ever since product-led growth came into our lives with Slack, Zoom, and Dropbox, the PLG hype has been growing like a snowball.
But there is one thing that has caught our attention: Product-led companies successfully use their products to acquire, grow, and retain customers. But, they miss the part where an enterprise-level sales approach should be taken for high-quality customer acquisition, conversion, retention, and revenue growth.
If you don’t know which account is ready to buy, or even which accounts are self-service purchasing from you, you are more likely to miss high potential leads, and cannot spot the room for improving your ideal customer profile (ICP).
This is where product-led growth connects with predictive lead scoring, and we call that intersection/subset product-led sales.
We had two theories at first;
Product-led growth intersects predictive lead scoring, and we call it product-led sales. So, they are intersecting concepts.
Predictive lead scoring is a subset of product-led sales and product-led sales is a subset of product-led growth. So, they are concepts that are knotted to each other.
But, when we looked closer, product-led growth and product-led sales are actually not separate concepts.
As it turns out, not every company implementing PLG gets to taste outsized performance. Most achieve this through a subsetted motion— predictive lead scoring ⊂ product-led sales (PLS) ⊂ product-led growth (PLG).
This model marries PLG's principles with predictive lead scoring and prioritization, where a sales team focus on high-potential, revenue-generating leads.
Product-led growth encompasses product-led sales, and within PLS, predictive lead scoring finds its natural home.
Predictive lead scoring, with its ability to evaluate the likelihood of leads becoming customers based on their behavior, adds granularity to the broader strategies of PLG and PLS. It's the fine-tuning that makes product-centric strategies truly efficient by prioritizing leads based on key product usage and behavioral analysis.
Think about this. You have a bunch of self-service leads, who experience your product easily; without a need for support. But, there should be some shining stars (product-qualified leads) that show real interest and engagement —they have invited their decision-maker, integrated their SaaS tech stack, and completed the key events.
Predictive lead scoring removes the guesswork for your sales team and helps them get in touch with the right leads.
Simply put, PLG depends on product usage; PLS uses those product usage insights to drive high-quality sales, while predictive lead scoring sharpens these insights, enabling sales teams to prioritize the highest potential leads. All connected.