PLGeek

Advising B2B SaaS startups in all things PLG, Product, Growth, Strategy

Advisor (PLG / Product / Growth)

neptune.ai

Advisor

Bleach Cyber

Reforge

Appearing as a featured guest in Reforge live programs (Growth Leadership, PLG)

Featured Program Guest (PLG, Growth Leadership)

Supporting content development for Reforge PLG program

Program Council Member (PLG)

TryHackMe

Gearset

Beyond Identity

Panaseer

QuotaPath

Snyk

- Led the product teams for groups owning growth, education, and developer experience through period of > 160% YoY ARR growth
- Built out growth function from scratch
- Defined Snyk's loop based growth strategy and growth processes
- Implemented behavioural analytics and experimentation platforms
- Launched all new product (Snyk Learn) as a core growth loop
- Defined and operationalised Activation and Engagement State metrics, along with company north star metric
- Acquisition/Activation/Engagement/Retention: Launched and scaled multiple growth loops to drive exponential growth in new and active users
- Monetisation: Developed new pricing and packaging, and launched multi-million dollar self-serve revenue channel, growing at 65% QoQ

VP of Products (Developer Journeys, PLG)

Helping B2B SaaS founders win with PLG | Snyk, CloudBees | Follow me to learn how to scale your startup with product-led growth and product-led sales.

I'm Ben Williams, aka the Product-Led Geek. I advise founders and heads of product/growth at B2B SaaS companies to help them create sustainable, defensible growth through PLG.

I spent 20+ years as an operator building, nurturing and scaling high-performing product and cross-functional growth teams to deliver strategic impact. My expertise and experience over the years implementing PLG across acquisition, retention and monetisation levers allow me to help you with

→ Defining and improving activation and engagement as inputs to better retention
→ Layering on a PLG motion to bring GTM efficiency to existing sales-led business
→ Establishing and scaling Product-Led Sales (PLS) to increase close rates and ACVs
→ Creating effective user onboarding to minimise time-to-value
→ Developing growth and/or product strategy
→ Identifying, documenting, standing up and quantifying growth loops
→ Building qualitative and quantitative growth models
→ Developing improved product and growth leadership muscle
→ Starting and scaling growth teams
→ Designing and implementing growth process
→ Implementing appropriate data and analytics infrastructure
→ Establishing experimentation (A/B, multivariate) programs
→ Selecting and implementing effective product & growth platforms & tools
→ Implementing product management process and best practice
→ Cultivating and coaching high-performing teams

I share content regularly on LinkedIn and in my newsletter at plg.news

Get in touch to chat about how I could help you 👉 ben@plgeek.com

10 B2B SaaS companies leveraging reverse trials as part of their retention and monetisation strategies.

Bottom-up B2B product-led acquisition vehicles historically came in two flavours:

• 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘂𝗺: A free (forever) plan, with the ability to purchase a paid plan at any time
• 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹: A time or usage limited trial of a paid plan requiring purchase at the end to maintain product access (aka free trial)

But for the last couple of years we’ve seen more and more companies implementing an approach that combines freemium and free trial mechanisms to deliver the benefits of both...

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹.

You get:

• equivalent conversion rates to a Free Trial, and
• to keep the users not yet ready to buy

Here are 10 B2B SaaS companies who have adopted a reverse trial to drive monetisation while promoting long term retention and a second bite at the apple to later monetize those that drop back to the free plan after the trial.

• Asana
• Miro
• Wrike
• Canva
• ClickUp
• Vidyard
• Calendly
• Airtable
• Trello
• Notion

Think that a reverse trial might work for your company?

Jonathan Anderson and I collaborated (he did the heavy lifting) on an in depth guide to reverse trials that you can read in the latest Product-Led Geek newsletter (link above this post).

#plg #monetization #freemium #reversetrial #B2B  

PS big thanks to Zeda.io and Sidebar for sponsoring the newsletter this week!

Ben Williams

Building a startup? Unsure if your first GTM motion should be PLG or SLG?

Go-to-market matters, but first:

🔑 Find a problem
🔑 Create an elegant solution
🔑 Target a sizeable market
🔑 Know you can scale

Focus on PMF before putting all your eggs into a distribution basket.

Even with PMF, PLG isn’t right for every business at every stage. The same applies to SLG.

The real question is when and how to implement both models - not if.

Here are some guiding principles:

Start with PLG if:

• Your use case is simple.
• Your product has network effects.
• Your pricing fits credit card limits.
• Your user is also the buyer.
• Your COGS is low.

Start with SLG if:

• Your use case is complex.
• No implicit network effects.
• Pricing exceeds credit card comfort levels.
• The user is not the buyer.
• High COGS makes free trials/test users costly.

And don't try to start with PLG and SLG at the same time. Focus.

#plg #slg #pls #gtm

The 10 Deadly Sins of B2B Growth (in memes)
Sin 2 of 10.

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗣𝗠𝗙

Lenny Rachitsky recently wrote a post on how many very successful founders never really felt that they’d found product-market fit until much later in their scaling journey.

In it, Ali Ghodsi, co-founder and CEO of Databricks shared the following.

“The fear of hitting a wall and collapsing was always there. Even when we were at 100 million in revenue, there was always this fear that we were suddenly going to crash into a wall and everything would stop.”

That sounds crazy at first, but I think is startup founder hustle epitomised.

But you can’t (and Databricks didn’t) defer focus on growth indefinitely.

You have to look at objective signals that provide some confidence that you’ve found PMF.

Sean Ellis’s PMF survey method is well known these days, but affirming responses to the survey should also be accompanied by a flattened usage retention curve (team based in B2B) at 40% or higher, and ideally by compelling evidence of both willingness to pay and your ability to repeatably sell.

If everything looks good, then by all means go forth and grow, but, if there are signals in any of this that suggest you haven't found PMF, then avoid the temptation to divert resources toward growth. 

Focus on PMF as the only priority. 

Without it, you won’t have a business for much longer.

Note: I am defining growth here as the work to connect as many good fit users / teams experiencing a problem to the value that your product supplies in solving that problem.

It could (justifiably) be argued that work on product surfaces like onboarding is growth work. 

PLG motions rely on the product for self-serve activation, so even pre-PMF it’s hard (and wrong) to completely ignore that work. 

But the work should be through the lens of better supporting getting users and their teams to value, and in service of finding PMF.

Don’t chase and incentivise growth before you have PMF.

#growth 

---

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝟭𝟬 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗮𝘁 𝟴𝗮𝗺 𝗘𝗧 𝗜'𝗺 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗶𝗻 (𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗲)

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗶𝗻. 

𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁! 🫶

𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀.

Sin 1: You Stop Talking With Users: https://lnkd.in/endpunEc
Sin 2: This post
Sin 3: Thu 16th May
Sin 4: Fri 17th May
Sin 5: Sat 18th May
Sin 6: Sun 19th May
Sin 7: Mon 20th May
Sin 8: Tue 21st May
Sin 9: Wed 22nd May
Sin 10: Thu 23rd May

The 10 Deadly Sins of B2B Growth (in memes)
Sin 8 of 10.

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮

It doesn’t matter if your primary GTM motion today is product-led or sales-led.

Either way there’s huge opportunity for using product usage data in your sales process.

Product-led sales (PLS) leverages the relative strengths of PLG and SLG.

With PLS, bottom-up product usage fuels pipeline for high-touch sales.

It’s more effective than pure PLG at selling company-wide because sellers can tell a compelling story about the benefits of broad adoption.

It’s more efficient than SLG because leads are better qualified and the product has done much of the heavy lifting in proving value. That translates to improved win rates and shorter sales cycles.

Actual usage with proven value means:

• The sales narrative and the business case are much stronger
• Trust and credibility are already established.

Even if you have no bottom-up motion, utilising product usage data to better understand and identify opportunities for expansion within the existing customer base is a game changer for B2B companies that have historically relied on finding those opportunities through ad hoc customer conversations or infrequent account reviews.

PS: Refer to Sin 5

#growth 

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝟭𝟬 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗮𝘁 𝟴𝗮𝗺 𝗘𝗧 𝗜'𝗺 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗶𝗻 (𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗲)

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟴𝙩𝙝 𝘀𝗶𝗻. 

𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁! 🫶

𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀.

𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟭: You stop talking with users: https://lnkd.in/endpunEc
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟮: You focus on growth before PMF: https://lnkd.in/esRA-FAK
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟯: Usage retention is an afterthought: https://lnkd.in/eYch896j
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟰: You obsess over funnels: https://lnkd.in/esze5sTU
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟱: You don't invest in trustworthy data: https://lnkd.in/eZHaHz8Z
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟲: Your experiments stink: https://lnkd.in/eg2H-eQN
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟳: You don't have a growth model: https://lnkd.in/eX8fnred
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟴: This post
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟵: Wed 22nd May
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟬: Thu 23rd May

The 10 Deadly Sins of B2B Growth (in memes)
Sin 9 of 10.

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮

So what if Sin 8 doesn’t apply to you?

You’ve got trustworthy product data into the hands of your sales teams. Check.

What now?

Time to get these suckers on a call!

No! No! No!

Please, for the love of all things growth, no!

For companies transitioning from a sales-led model, it may feel as if you now have access to a fire hydrant of ‘leads’.

And dangling rich product data in front of the previously lead-starved rep can act like an irresistible drug.

Remember, every sign up is not a lead.

Don’t chase them.

I’m looking at you, Gary.

Make sure that sales engagement is only triggered within Product Qualified Accounts (PQAs) - the accounts within your ICP that exhibit defined behaviour and/or reach defined usage thresholds.

Engaging too soon can kill any chance of success for your product-led sales process.

You're guaranteed to alienate users and accounts by taking that approach.

It's also highly inefficient.

#growth 

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝟭𝟬 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗮𝘁 𝟴𝗮𝗺 𝗘𝗧 𝗜'𝗺 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗶𝗻 (𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗲)

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟵𝙩𝙝 𝘀𝗶𝗻. 

𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁! 🫶

𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀.

𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟭: You stop talking with users: https://lnkd.in/endpunEc
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟮: You focus on growth before PMF: https://lnkd.in/esRA-FAK
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟯: Usage retention is an afterthought: https://lnkd.in/eYch896j
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟰: You obsess over funnels: https://lnkd.in/esze5sTU
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟱: You don't invest in trustworthy data: https://lnkd.in/eZHaHz8Z
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟲: Your experiments stink: https://lnkd.in/eg2H-eQN
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟳: You don't have a growth model: https://lnkd.in/eX8fnred
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟴: Your sales teams aren't using product data: https://lnkd.in/eNAV_yvw
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟵: This post
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟬: Thu 23rd May

The 10 Deadly Sins of B2B Growth (in memes)
Sin 10 of 10.

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴
 
When it comes to product and growth, the culture of winning at all costs is ironically not at all conducive to winning repeatably.

Instead, you have to prioritise learning.

Learning is the path to repeatable and predictable impact.

There are three reasons why thinking in this way and pursuing learning first and foremost make sense:

1. Impact is the destination, not the journey; focusing on learning will let you navigate the best path to impact.
2. The impact is often too far away to confidently understand what you need to do; finding the next best step to take de-risks the work greatly.
3. Learnings have compounding value; think about what you can take forward into future work.

Don't lose sight of the impact you're striving for, but remember that the two concepts go hand in hand.

Take every experiment (regardless of outcome), release, customer conversation as an opportunity to learn.

#growth 

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝟭𝟬 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗮𝘁 𝟴𝗮𝗺 𝗘𝗧 𝗜'𝗺 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗶𝗻 (𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗲)

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟭𝟬𝙩𝙝 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗶𝗻. 

𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁! 🫶

𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀.

𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟭: You stop talking with users: https://lnkd.in/endpunEc
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟮: You focus on growth before PMF: https://lnkd.in/esRA-FAK
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟯: Usage retention is an afterthought: https://lnkd.in/eYch896j
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟰: You obsess over funnels: https://lnkd.in/esze5sTU
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟱: You don't invest in trustworthy data: https://lnkd.in/eZHaHz8Z
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟲: Your experiments stink: https://lnkd.in/eg2H-eQN
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟳: You don't have a growth model: https://lnkd.in/eX8fnred
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟴: Your sales teams aren't using product data: https://lnkd.in/eNAV_yvw
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟵: Your sales teams abuse product data: https://lnkd.in/epyvR2Ny
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟬: This post

How NOT to introduce Product-Led Sales to your Sales-Led company.

As told through a medical analogy... 

---

Revenue is the lifeblood of your business.

Your sales process is like your bone marrow.

Just as hematopoiesis (yes, it’s hard to say) is continuously generating new blood cells, your sales process is continuously bringing in new revenue.

Just like your kidneys produce the hormone erythropoietin (EPO) that stimulates your bone marrow to produce more red blood cells, potential customers raise their hands, and your sales process converts them.

And it’s been working well throughout the life of your company.

Until recently, when you started to see some worrying signs.

Sales growth is slowing.

Churn is on the rise.

Your company's bone marrow isn’t working as efficiently as it used to.

You’ve got the B2B SaaS equivalent of aplastic anemia, and your current sales process isn’t generating enough new revenue.

There’s a lot to unpack here, but left unchecked, your business will die.

Luckily, someone smart in your company heard about product-led sales.

You decide you’re going to rip out the failing sales process and put this new PLS thing in its place.

You’re having a bone marrow transplant. 

And you're doing it yourself!

You open the product’s front door to let people sign up and get started on their own.

You get engineering to add some instrumentation to the product.

You pipe all that data into Salesforce.

Your sales team marvels at all these new ‘leads’.

They’re quick to try to capitalise on them, and reach out to try to get on a call with them.

But response from these ‘leads’ is really low.

The few people that do respond are stuck and looking for help getting going with the product.

They’re not ready to buy.

Those conversations are frustrating for your sales team.

Pretty soon, they declare product-led sales a failure.

The transplant is being rejected.

The transplanted bone marrow is there to help of course.

But that doesn’t matter anymore.

Your company immune system sees it as an unwanted foreign entity, and makes it very clear that it doesn’t want it there any more.

Your product-led initiative is dead in the water.

---

It's rare for rip and replace or wholesale changes like this to be successful.

However bad things seem with your current sales process, it's typically catastrophic to take this transplant approach.

Instead, start small with a tiger team: someone from product/growth, data/ops, and the sales org (decreases the likelihood of rejection).

The tiger team is responsible for GTM experimentation.

Pick a single goal (e.g. new customer conversion, expansion) and bulid a simple playbook.

Define a simple rubric for scoring & prioritisation of Product Qualified Accounts (PQAs).

Don’t try to boil the ocean.

Test. Learn. Iterate.

#plg #pls #sales 

PS Get your geek on with weekly posts to help you scale your business with product-led growth and product-led sales in my newsletter - link above this post 🧠

Have you ever looked at a website and thought ‘WTF does this company do?!’ 

Not withstanding the very real possibility of simply bad messaging, you may be witness to Productitis:

The condition of a manufactured state of unnecessary complexity in a company’s product offerings that leads to confusion, bewilderment and disorientation internally and amongst that company’s customers and target market.

Here are 5 telling symptoms that you might be suffering from Productitis:

1. It’s difficult to accurately yet succinctly articulate what your company does. 

If you can’t give a clear, cohesive and succinct elevator pitch for your company that is inclusive of all of your product offers, then you have a problem. 

2. Marketing are struggling to clearly message your products/offers. 

Great marketers have a wonderful ability to make the complex feel simple. 

But they’re not miracle workers. 

If you can't clearly and succinctly articulate what your company does, then expecting marketing to somehow solve that for you is unrealistic. 

If your website messaging and general presentation feel overwhelming and confusing, then you have a problem.

3. Prospects and customers find it difficult to understand the differences between products/offers. 

When faced with too many product variations with unclear (or poorly articulated) differences, customers struggle to determine which one best meets their needs. 

This confusion leads to choice paralysis or customers choosing a competitor that’s easier for them to grok and understand the value of. 

If you hear any feedback like this from your customers/prospects, then you have a problem.

4. Sales are struggling to sell and promote the complex portfolio. 

Reps have trouble understanding what to sell, when, and struggle to clearly articulate the value prop of each product. 

They may even avoid selling certain products altogether due to them complicating, elongating, and introducing additional risk into the sales cycle. 

If your folks in marketing can't clearly message your products/offers, and your prospects can't understand your products/offers, then it should come as no surprise that sales will struggle to sell. 

You have a problem.

5. Reduced internal inefficiency in managing your products. 

You might see different departments struggle to stay aligned on all the work across the different product offerings. 

Things get missed, fall between the cracks, and mistakes are made that impact forecasting, pricing, launches etc. 

Decision-making bogs down. 

Resources are diffused across too many areas - you’re spread too thin. 

You may notice it’s taking longer to go from idea to released value as product and engineering teams are increasingly working on support and maintenance tasks. 

If any of these sound familiar, you have a problem.

#plg #productmanagement  

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The 10 Deadly Sins of B2B Growth 💀 

I’ve written a lot about how to approach different aspects of growth, all focused on the things you should do.

But I thought it would be fun to shed some light on the things you should NOT do!

Equally important yet much less discussed! 

Below you’ll find my 10 deadly sins of B2B growth.

Ignore them at your peril!

Every single one has the potential to derail your efforts and stunt your growth.

And every one comes with a meme.

𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟭: You stop talking with users: https://lnkd.in/endpunEc
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟮: You focus on growth before PMF: https://lnkd.in/esRA-FAK
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟯: Usage retention is an afterthought: https://lnkd.in/eYch896j
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟰: You obsess over funnels: https://lnkd.in/esze5sTU
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟱: You don't invest in trustworthy data: https://lnkd.in/eZHaHz8Z
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟲: Your experiments stink: https://lnkd.in/eg2H-eQN
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟳: You don't have a growth model: https://lnkd.in/eX8fnred
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟴: Your sales teams aren't using product data: https://lnkd.in/eNAV_yvw
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟵: Your sales teams abuse product data: https://lnkd.in/epyvR2Ny
𝗦𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟬: You don't prioritise learning: https://lnkd.in/eEcHe4Hr

#growth  #b2b  

𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁! 🫶

𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲 (Ben Williams) 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀.

Here's the story of my failure.

Stepping into my first head of product role, I had a stellar track record as an IC and a lower-level PM leader.

My peers in product, design, and engineering respected me.

But under the surface, I was battling fierce imposter syndrome.

I hadn't mastered turning self-doubt into a strength.

So, I overcompensated by pretending to have all the answers.

It backfired.

Dive into the full story on Adam Fishman's latest newsletter:

https://lnkd.in/eR4znGqc

#leadership #growth #failure

Open article: Failure Stories Volume 6 by fishmanafnewsletter.com

https://www.fishmanafnewsletter.com/p/failure-stories-volume-6-ben-williams-snyk

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