Tony Robbins says you need the right strategy. But to follow through, you need to tell yourself the right story. But to tell yourself the right story, you need to be in the right state. That’s what he calls the 3 S’s to understand and affect change: state; story; strategy.
For example:
If you’re in a state of fear, your story of product-led growth (PLG) is “Death Of A (Software) Salesman.”
If you’re in a state of greed, your story of PLG is “Digital Vending Machines.”
If you’re in a state of excitement, your story of PLG is “The Gold Standard For New Software Companies.”
How Does PLG Work?
I’ll illustrate an example of how motivational speakers do it:
- Listen to THIS VIDEO for background motivation. Imagine listening to this every day for free.
- Imagine applying the strategies and perspectives to situations in your life. Imagine the advice working.
- Imagine buying the next, more powerful advice with the click of a button without leaving the platform.
- Imagine buying a seminar, a book, or a personal coaching program with the click of a button without leaving the platform.
- Imagine continually buying more — for as long as the previous thing proves itself valuable.
PLG Fixes The Problem … Your Great Salespeople Aren’t Great At Scaling Themselves
Great salespeople transfer a state of enthusiasm from themselves to a prospect to guide them down a decision path. But they can’t do that at internet scale.
Great marketers invoke a state of enthusiasm from content to cohorts to guide them down a decision path. But their stories aren’t personally relevant to each prospect in the cohort.
In software companies with a PLG strategy, those two teams operate together to create a product experience that sells itself by playing a part in the prospect’s very own story of getting her work done.
In a PLG strategy, every team obsesses over the prospect’s experience of using the product. App analytics reveal the most successful users’ click paths and the most frustrated users’ friction. They achieve (and maintain) product-market fit through prototyping, A/B testing, and lots of quick release cycles. It’s how today’s business leaders build great products that people are willing to buy.
My colleague, Kate Leggett, and I went behind the scenes of companies and thought leaders in the PLG space. What we found was a movement afoot.
Here Are Just A Few Of Our Findings
- PLG is your state of high growth. PLG can help you (technology executives) deliver substantial benefits to your firm — such as better equipping you to understand your ideal customer. Your marketing team analyzes every interaction that the prospect has with your product to determine the profile of the most profitable customers.
- PLG is your story of experimentation in your culture. CIOs can expect to lead their technology teams through their firm’s larger organizational changes that will commit to a culture of experimentation. Tech execs and their staff who revere the agile manifesto will recognize Jeff Sutherland’s assertion that they can do twice the work in half the time using an observe, orient, design, act (OODA) loop.
- PLG is your strategy driven by the CEO. Tech execs must support activities when their company plans their pivot to PLG just like ensuring executive buy-in. PLG is a CEO-led pivot, and other organizations must support this strategy. Budgets will shift into product organizations and away from sales and marketing organizations. Without the right support, chaos could ensue.
If you or someone you know received an email requesting your resources to be part of a PLG movement, book an inquiry with Kate Leggett or me.
Forrester clients can read What CIOs Should Expect When Business Leaders Ask For A Product-Led Growth Engine.
