shifting to product led growth - any advice for me as an AE?

Our company is shifting towards a product led growth model (PLG). Companies like Zoom, Slack, Atlassian have seen a lot of success pushing prospects into the product and driving self service before engaging with sales or potentially taking another path to close (i.e., buy 1 seat and expand organically). As a result, we are removing the BDR team and rebranding to product specialists who will be educating most of the prospects before passing anyone to us AE's.


From what I understand, we'll no longer be running as many full cycle deals. Instead, we'll be dealing with more prospects who need help building budget or reaching the final stages, or just want to see the product to address specific questions.


Has anyone else dealt with changes like these? Any stories of AE's being dissolved entirely? Seems like a great model for everyone else, haha!

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4
SalesSpectre
Opinionated
2
AE
Questions: Does your product on average cost more than 10k per year and does it affect multiple departments?ย 
exec
Acclaimed Answer
0
Account Executive
yes and yes!
SalesSpectre
Opinionated
1
AE
In that case I wouldnt be worried. Those size deals require a sales person.ย 
Moving to a PLG strategy is good for you. You will have more qualified leads and more data.ย 

It also really depends on your comp plan. Do you get paid on upsells and cross-sells?ย 
CTXC
Opinionated
1
Strategic Account Executive
I think this is a great strategy for companies that 1. have low barriers to entry (easy implementation, all-in-one product, integrations as an add-on) and 2. are used by only one or two functions (ex. SDR and AE).ย 

You'll notice that all 3 of the companies you mentioned are communication/collaboration related. Arguably some of the easiest products to learn/implement in organizations of any size.ย 
exec
Acclaimed Answer
1
Account Executive
yeah we check those boxes, too. I'm sure we'll see positive results yet unclear on how the positive growth will impact me as an AEย 
ReadTheScript
Politicker
0
Sales Manager
My CEO is pushing hard for this as well. The big challenge we run into Is it's incredibly difficult to get adoption and our implementation is extremely hands on in an incredibly crowded market.

Has anyone seen PLG work in an environment like this and if so who were the companies?ย 
salesboi22
Politicker
0
Head of Growth
Yeah those are two things that almost completely limit PLG. You need super easy onboarding
MR.StretchISR
Politicker
0
ISR
I did this campaign once with a partner where we sent Big Foot figures to prospects with a note that read along the lines โ€œAre you a myth like big foot?โ€ 99% thought it was hilarious, one guy got offended and responded that if we have the money to waste on that โ€œcrapโ€ we didnโ€™t need his business.
Error32
Politicker
0
ISR
Agreed here and we are very actively discussing how to incentivize more upvoting. Ultimately there is a little chicken/egg issue with promoting discussion/rewarding people for doing it.
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