Is PLG Right for Me?
When and How to Consider PLG as a GTM Strategy
If you Google search the question that is also the title of this post, you will find several articles outlining the conditions under which PLG works the best. Here are some of my favorites:
Yes, I agree with Stage 2 that “single player mode” is advantageous. And Appcues makes a great point about speed-to-value. Ben (always pragmatic) points out it will be easiest if your user is also your buyer. Elena rejects the “whether” question and focuses on “how and when.” And Leah puts forward a crazy—but useful!—decision tree.
Take a Shortcut
Before we go down the analysis rabbit hole, here’s a suggestion. Do yourself a favor and take a shortcut. Ask 3 simple questions:
Which parts (if any) of our GTM process are already automated?
Do any of our competitors automate any part of the GTM process that we do not?
What GTM process automation would be a game changer in our industry?
To get into the right mindset for these questions, we need to purge any defensive thinking. Yes, our company is great. Our customers are great, and our product is great. It may even be better than any of the competitors—that’s not the point. We are looking for ways to be better.
Let’s start with the first question:
1. Which Parts of our GTM Process Are Already Automated?
What do we mean by automating GTM processes? We mean taking them out of the human realm and moving them into the compute realm. In other words, let the product do something that humans used to do.
For example: Could the product renew itself?
With a contract in place, configuration in place, user access in place, nothing needs to change other than the expiration date on the subscription. Could the product propose the renewal to the customer and let them approve without speaking to a Customer Success rep?
Similar opportunities exist all across the Bowtie.
Are any of the actions sometimes performed by Marketing, Sales or CS personnel “automated,” in the sense that the software takes care of all or some of the activities related to that process?
Where in our own GTM process do we have automation? Take a minute and write down your answer.
2. Do Any of Our Competitors Automate Any Part of the GTM Process that We do Not?
Now we can ask the same question as above, but about our competitors. What GTM automation do our competitors have? Consider automated sales, onboarding, renewals, trials…
Answering this may require some competitive research, including secret shopping. This research is worthwhile. We need to know this for our shortcut exercise. If any one of our competitors is automating any part of their GTM motion and we are not, we need to take notice.
Keep a written log of all the automations you find that your competitors use where you are not yet automated.
3. What GTM Process Automation would be a Game Changer in our Industry?
Now that we’ve taken inventory of what automation already exists in our industry, it’s time to think about what could be.
“What is the one thing that is a huge pain and drains productivity, extends time-to-impact, or generally distracts customers from accomplishing what they want to accomplish?”
Take a minute to write down some ideas.
The Reveal
If any of your competitors are automating any part of the GTM you are not (see question 2 above), you need to run—not walk—toward automating that.
Why? Because you are paying humans to do something for which the competition has “hired” their product. This means rather than spending money on that part of their GTM, they can invest that money in their future. On the other hand, you will spend current money on maintaining status quo until you are also able to automate. This gives your competitor a short-term cost advantage and a long-term strategic advantage, assuming they invest wisely. You cannot afford to let this situation persist.
So if any of your competitors are automating any part of the GTM you are not, you need to run—not walk—toward automating that. It’s equivalent to discovering a hole in your fuel tank. Patch it first, before you work on anything else.
My recommendation is to copy your competitor wholesale. Just look at the workflow they have built around that automation and do your best to reverse engineer it and implement it step-for-step into yours. Of course, you will have to make adjustments, but I’ve had great success taking something that works for someone else and implementing it wholesale in my product.
With that in place, the hole in your fuel tank is patched, and you can look to your future.
What else?
Question 3 asks what automations might be a game changer in your industry. This is where you could gain advantage over your competitors by automating something they have not. This will give you a temporary advantage.
Take a look at your answers to question 3 and evaluate the impact and the feasibility of each of your ideas.
Some GTM activities are easier to automate than others. Renewals is a good example. Nothing needs to change except the expiration date? We should be able to build a simple user experience and some rules to serve it up and an integration with our system of record to handle that in fairly short order.
But what about something where human judgement is regularly applied, like the steps involved in onboarding? Or Sales?
The first step is to define the process. What steps are involved in executing an onboarding process? Can we write them down?
Then we must ask whether what we have written down can be universally applied, or whether it depends on the situation? If there are dependencies or judgements required, we will need to define those too, before we can standardize on what is commonly called a “playbook.” If our people can follow the steps in a playbook, we are ready to standardize on it.
Normalization has to do with measurement. In order to measure adherence to and the results of following a process, we want to create normalized measurements at each step. If we can normalize to accepted industry standards, we can also benchmark our results against our peers.
Once we are measuring inputs (process adherence) and outputs (results), we can begin to optimize: do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.
And finally, automation. With a well defined, standardized, normalized and optimized process. it becomes straightforward to translate a set of tasks from the human realm to the compute realm.
Leverage
The more GTM tasks we can move from the human realm to the compute realm, the more competitive we will be. Why? Because compute-driven processes are more reliable than human-driven processes. They cost less, they fail less often, and they require less attention to maintain. That leaves more attention and money available to invest in product, which in turn benefits our customers and puts distance between us and our competitors.
Automating GTM provides leverage. It adheres to the law of compound impact. Each little GTM automation adds efficiency, which then compounds across the bowtie to increase growth, decrease cost, and free up resources to invest elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
Is PLG for me?
Short answer: Yes.
Medium answer: If any of your competitors are making it work, then yes.
Longer answer: PLG is not one-size fits all. It may be better to think about PLGTM, which is the automation of one or more processes within your GTM. Great leverage exists in applying a systems thinking approach to this challenge and automating what you can, where you can, within your GTM.
XOXO,
-db