Building the Flywheel: Creating Sustainable Revenue & Profit Growth

I must be in LinkedIn’s algorithm for Product Led Growth recently, as I seem to be getting inundated with posts about how important Product Led Growth (PLG) is, in contrast to Sales Led Growth (SLG). chatGPT says that the difference between PLG and SLG is that in the former, “The product itself is the main driver of user acquisition, conversion, and expansion.” In contrast, in SLG “The sales team plays the primary role in driving revenue by engaging directly with prospects and closing deals.”

While I do resonate with the philosophy of focusing on the product to drive customer acquisition, I worry that the debate between PLG and SLG minimizes the role a sales team can have in shaping the product strategy. Around the mid-point of my career, I led an international sales team, followed by a role leading Product Management and Strategy. The combination of those two roles taught me that for many businesses, an “either / or” approach to PLG vs SLG is not a good philosophy.

In my experience, a strong product strategy is deeply informed by insights from the sales team in terms of customer pain points, competitive differentiation, pricing strategy, and value proposition. A product strategy that incorporates these learnings from the sales team enables the sales team to be much more effective, and in fact allows them to lead with the product itself. In fact, the best product managers I have worked with spend almost as much time with the sales team and customers as they do with the engineering team.

I think of this approach as Customer Insights Led Growth, where there is deep synergy and collaboration - and sometimes healthy tension - between the Sales team and Product team. It is difficult for a Product team to get these deep Customer Insights that truly differentiate a business and allow the Product to lead growth unless they are work closely with the Sales team to understand customer buying behavior, competitor dynamics, and the true jobs to be done by the end users.

I understand the sentiment around referring to Product Led Growth or Sales Led Growth, but I personally focus on leading with deep Customer Insights from both Product and Sales to drive growth.

Strategies for Accelerating Revenue Growth and Profitability 💡 - Watch Video

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