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Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself
“Product-Led Growth is about helping your customers experience the ongoing value your product provides...and this book shows you how it’s done.” - Nir Eyal, Author of “Hooked” and “Indistractible”
“As captivating as a good novel, Product-Led Growth is an absolute must-read for SaaS business owners.” - Omar Zenhom, CEO, WebinarNinja
“Why did I just blow $300K promoting a whitepaper?”
That’s the hard question I asked myself but couldn’t answer—after all, we were just following the same old SaaS playbook. Sure, sales cycles were long and acquisition was expensive, but that’s how everybody grew their companies.
But after I helped launch a freemium product that went from 0-100K users in less than 12 months, I realized the traditional way of selling software was deeply flawed.
Hi, I’m Wes Bush, founder of ProductLed.com. And in Product-Led Growth, I show you how you can cut your acquisition costs and scale further than you ever thought possible...by making your product the tool that helps you acquire, convert, and retain customers.
But what does it mean to be “product-led”? How do you know if a product-led growth strategy makes sense for your business? And most importantly, how do you execute it?
You’ll find answers to all of these questions inside this book. In addition, I’ll also show
How to save 3-6 months of development and hundreds of thousands of dollars by launching a free trial in 24 hours—and why you should do it (Ch. 10)
Which HUGE mistake ProfitWell's Patrick Campbell says can "kill your growth and set you up for long-term failure"...and how to avoid making it (Ch. 8)
How to turn more users into customers with the simple framework I invented—that already drives brands millions in revenue (Ch. 13)
Why you can't ever stop your churn, but how you can (almost) wipe it out (Ch. 15)
The 4-letter decision framework that will help you nail the right go-to-market strategy and growth model for your SaaS (Ch. 2)
Which of the 4 most common SaaS pricing strategies is the ONLY one with long-term viability (Ch. 9)
What the "Triple-A" sprint cycle is and how to use it to build a sustainable growth process—in just 1 month (Ch. 12)
How to stop paying customers from slipping away (Ch. 15)
The 3 apocalyptic "tidal waves" that are coming for SaaS companies—and what you MUST do to survive them (Ch. 1)
How to make free trial and freemium users hunger to upgrade to paid (Ch. 9)
The single biggest cause of leaky funnels and how to fix it, fast (Ch. 10)
Which 7 people you need in your “tiger team” to run a successful product-led growth team (Ch. 11)
The #1 thing to improve right now to maximize your customer lifetime value (Ch. 14)
Product-Led Growth also comes packed with “do this, not that” real-life examples from the industry’s biggest brands—as well as a collection of high-converting email scripts you can customize and send out immediately to turn more users into customers.
“As captivating as a good novel, Product-Led Growth is an absolute must-read for SaaS business owners.” - Omar Zenhom, CEO, WebinarNinja
“Why did I just blow $300K promoting a whitepaper?”
That’s the hard question I asked myself but couldn’t answer—after all, we were just following the same old SaaS playbook. Sure, sales cycles were long and acquisition was expensive, but that’s how everybody grew their companies.
But after I helped launch a freemium product that went from 0-100K users in less than 12 months, I realized the traditional way of selling software was deeply flawed.
Hi, I’m Wes Bush, founder of ProductLed.com. And in Product-Led Growth, I show you how you can cut your acquisition costs and scale further than you ever thought possible...by making your product the tool that helps you acquire, convert, and retain customers.
But what does it mean to be “product-led”? How do you know if a product-led growth strategy makes sense for your business? And most importantly, how do you execute it?
You’ll find answers to all of these questions inside this book. In addition, I’ll also show
How to save 3-6 months of development and hundreds of thousands of dollars by launching a free trial in 24 hours—and why you should do it (Ch. 10)
Which HUGE mistake ProfitWell's Patrick Campbell says can "kill your growth and set you up for long-term failure"...and how to avoid making it (Ch. 8)
How to turn more users into customers with the simple framework I invented—that already drives brands millions in revenue (Ch. 13)
Why you can't ever stop your churn, but how you can (almost) wipe it out (Ch. 15)
The 4-letter decision framework that will help you nail the right go-to-market strategy and growth model for your SaaS (Ch. 2)
Which of the 4 most common SaaS pricing strategies is the ONLY one with long-term viability (Ch. 9)
What the "Triple-A" sprint cycle is and how to use it to build a sustainable growth process—in just 1 month (Ch. 12)
How to stop paying customers from slipping away (Ch. 15)
The 3 apocalyptic "tidal waves" that are coming for SaaS companies—and what you MUST do to survive them (Ch. 1)
How to make free trial and freemium users hunger to upgrade to paid (Ch. 9)
The single biggest cause of leaky funnels and how to fix it, fast (Ch. 10)
Which 7 people you need in your “tiger team” to run a successful product-led growth team (Ch. 11)
The #1 thing to improve right now to maximize your customer lifetime value (Ch. 14)
Product-Led Growth also comes packed with “do this, not that” real-life examples from the industry’s biggest brands—as well as a collection of high-converting email scripts you can customize and send out immediately to turn more users into customers.
280 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 28, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews
November 25, 2021
Strongly recommended if you're running a SaaS company! This is a short, 3-4 hour read. The author talks about how to make product-led growth work, tactically. Some useful takeaways were:
1. If you start with a freemium or free trial product, you can make it easy for people to experience the value of the product and radically lower your customer-acquisition cost + increase brand awareness
2. This has its risks and can be hard, though. “Freemium is like a Samurai sword: unless you’re a master at using it, you can cut your arm off.” Freemium only works if your TAM big enough and if you can walk the thin line between giving too much and too little away
3. To create a successful product-led business, you need a quick time-to-value. New users need to be able to experience a key outcome in your product quickly and without any assistance.
4. Reducing unnecessary friction in onboarding is critical for product-led growth to work. Ditto for any steps in your product usage that aren't absolutely needed for the user to realize value
5. To execute 4, you need to a) understand your value, b) communicate your value to users, and c) deliver on that value
6. Your users don't just use your product for functional outcomes. They also use it for emotional outcomes (using this makes me feel smart) and social outcomes (my boss loved the presentation I gave via this product)
7. You ideally want to understand all 3 outcomes of using your product, and align them to a value metric. A value metric is the way you measure value exchange in your product
8. Founders often fall into the trap of doing user-based pricing without thinking about it too much. It can work, but it's a bad idea to use it as a default. You can often leave too much value on the table. Make sure you consider the alternatives
There were also plenty of nuts-and-bolts takeaways (like how exactly to reduce friction in a product, how exactly to think about pricing etc). Strongly recommended if you're thinking about shifting to a self-serve SaaS!
1. If you start with a freemium or free trial product, you can make it easy for people to experience the value of the product and radically lower your customer-acquisition cost + increase brand awareness
2. This has its risks and can be hard, though. “Freemium is like a Samurai sword: unless you’re a master at using it, you can cut your arm off.” Freemium only works if your TAM big enough and if you can walk the thin line between giving too much and too little away
3. To create a successful product-led business, you need a quick time-to-value. New users need to be able to experience a key outcome in your product quickly and without any assistance.
4. Reducing unnecessary friction in onboarding is critical for product-led growth to work. Ditto for any steps in your product usage that aren't absolutely needed for the user to realize value
5. To execute 4, you need to a) understand your value, b) communicate your value to users, and c) deliver on that value
6. Your users don't just use your product for functional outcomes. They also use it for emotional outcomes (using this makes me feel smart) and social outcomes (my boss loved the presentation I gave via this product)
7. You ideally want to understand all 3 outcomes of using your product, and align them to a value metric. A value metric is the way you measure value exchange in your product
8. Founders often fall into the trap of doing user-based pricing without thinking about it too much. It can work, but it's a bad idea to use it as a default. You can often leave too much value on the table. Make sure you consider the alternatives
There were also plenty of nuts-and-bolts takeaways (like how exactly to reduce friction in a product, how exactly to think about pricing etc). Strongly recommended if you're thinking about shifting to a self-serve SaaS!
July 4, 2020
I have 15 years experience in SaaS and always thought that product, actually, can sell itself. I hoped Product-led approach would be a cool accumulation of proven facts and practices why this indeed can work. Unfortunately, the book did not deliver anything new.
There are some good quotes you can highlight, but in terms of real information you'll find frameworks for kids, few stories to prove the point and almost zero statistics. Plus you will find some self-promotion. That a perfect sign of a bullshit literature.
How to really implement product-led approach? Well, there are some things:
1. Web site aligned with the product value proposition
2. Good onboarding flow
3. ...
4. PROFIT!
I am not kidding you, that is it. Any person with 2+ years of experience in low touch SaaS marketing knows that.
Overall, the main idea is good. The book is bad. No depth.
There are some good quotes you can highlight, but in terms of real information you'll find frameworks for kids, few stories to prove the point and almost zero statistics. Plus you will find some self-promotion. That a perfect sign of a bullshit literature.
How to really implement product-led approach? Well, there are some things:
1. Web site aligned with the product value proposition
2. Good onboarding flow
3. ...
4. PROFIT!
I am not kidding you, that is it. Any person with 2+ years of experience in low touch SaaS marketing knows that.
Overall, the main idea is good. The book is bad. No depth.
December 5, 2019
There aren't many books that dig into the meat of how to have a product that markets itself, which is why it was great to read something that brought up important questions throughout the customer lifecycle. It's a quick and clean read that will prompt your team to think hard about how you position yourselves and follow through on that promise.
That said, my hesitation with it is around it as a stand alone book. I felt like an editor could have taken a knife to it and the content could have come across in a couple pointed blog posts. There were a lot of redundancies with graphics and content that left me feeling like I couldn't be trusted to read the whole book, that I hadn't been paying attention. If we're getting real into it, there is a Venn diagram used that is definitely not a proper Venn diagram.
While it could have been more concise and the graphics could have been more pointed, it does provide good frameworks and I appreciated the perspectives included. Thank you, Wes! Looking forward to the next one.
That said, my hesitation with it is around it as a stand alone book. I felt like an editor could have taken a knife to it and the content could have come across in a couple pointed blog posts. There were a lot of redundancies with graphics and content that left me feeling like I couldn't be trusted to read the whole book, that I hadn't been paying attention. If we're getting real into it, there is a Venn diagram used that is definitely not a proper Venn diagram.
While it could have been more concise and the graphics could have been more pointed, it does provide good frameworks and I appreciated the perspectives included. Thank you, Wes! Looking forward to the next one.
May 28, 2023
Small but significant guide to manage your SaaS startup. Welcome letters, acquisition in B2B, rebill emails, etc. a lot of templates and good advices
Now i don’t need info about this industry, so 3 out of 5
Now i don’t need info about this industry, so 3 out of 5
July 18, 2019
A while ago I was faced with a challenge to improve trial-to-paid conversion rates in our SaaS product. When looking for answers, I came across the product-led-growth approach that was touched upon in the innumerous resources made by Wes (free email course, podcasts, articles, product-led summit). Even before the book was out, it was clear that this was the direction to follow if we wanted to continue building a value-filled business. The book is a great all-in-one resource that has helped us improve our business and marketing strategy immensely. Highly recommended!
June 17, 2019
A must-read book for SaaS founders, especially if you have a self-serve SaaS. Wes has provided a blueprint for creating a complete product-led growth strategy. The book includes both top-level strategic frameworks and tactics like onboarding, product adoption and churn reduction example email sequences.
January 2, 2021
This is a great, easy read for anyone who works at a SaaS technology company — though it will especially resonate with PMs/PMMs.
While there are a lot of great ideas in the book with tactical key takeaways, I found myself nodding along to the concepts presented, rather than deeply reflecting on the content. This may only serve to corroborate preexisting notions of the way in which technology companies should go to market.
Still, there are a few good nuggets in here and I can see myself referring back to it from time to time.
While there are a lot of great ideas in the book with tactical key takeaways, I found myself nodding along to the concepts presented, rather than deeply reflecting on the content. This may only serve to corroborate preexisting notions of the way in which technology companies should go to market.
Still, there are a few good nuggets in here and I can see myself referring back to it from time to time.
December 20, 2020
If you are seeking the map to hidden treasure: start here.
Wes Bush offers incredible insights gained by working with numerous companies and a step-by-step how to guide on building better product from straight-lining your onboarding, shopping your own service, welcoming your customers, measuring your churn and growing revenues.
Sales-led growth pushes your product on others. In product-led growth the product and experience instead pull customers into the product with freemium offers, better customers experiences, easier paths to success, and more realized value. It is ultimately VALUE that customers get from the product that keeps engagement high and churn low at this point–the product truly sells itself.
Wes Bush offers incredible insights gained by working with numerous companies and a step-by-step how to guide on building better product from straight-lining your onboarding, shopping your own service, welcoming your customers, measuring your churn and growing revenues.
Sales-led growth pushes your product on others. In product-led growth the product and experience instead pull customers into the product with freemium offers, better customers experiences, easier paths to success, and more realized value. It is ultimately VALUE that customers get from the product that keeps engagement high and churn low at this point–the product truly sells itself.
January 11, 2022
Product Led Growth - Wes Bush
Really good and hands-on book about product, highly recommended for all product and growth professionals.
Some thoughts about the book / quotes:
- Initially thought that there are too many quotes from Profitwell... I was thinking why didn't they just co-author the book?.
- Good, detailed description on SaaS product strategies.
- The book has a very useful description of onboarding strategies and user metrics.
Really good and hands-on book about product, highly recommended for all product and growth professionals.
Some thoughts about the book / quotes:
- Initially thought that there are too many quotes from Profitwell... I was thinking why didn't they just co-author the book?.
- Good, detailed description on SaaS product strategies.
- The book has a very useful description of onboarding strategies and user metrics.
April 1, 2022
A refreshing overview of the main objectives in a product-led company vs. a sales-led company with descriptions of key terms and specific advice: Understand your value and your market, communicate that value and execute on providing the value. Create a value KPI that is easy to understand, aligned with perceived value and grows with user product interaction. That KPI will be the only goal of your company.
October 3, 2020
If you are looking for a book that puts you through the selling process and gives you ready-to-use tips you might be a bit disappointed. Similarly, if you wish to find comprehensive knowledge regarding how to build a product that sells itself, you are in store for disappointment.
So what can you get from reading this book?
Valuable capsules of essential topics related to products and sales strategies for internet-based or software companies.
Whether you are a decision maker or regular employee by reading this book you can either review your decision making process or be able to better understand the strategy of the company you work for.
So what can you get from reading this book?
Valuable capsules of essential topics related to products and sales strategies for internet-based or software companies.
Whether you are a decision maker or regular employee by reading this book you can either review your decision making process or be able to better understand the strategy of the company you work for.
November 30, 2021
For how short this book it, there is a lot of value in it. If you have been working in SaaS and you've been paying attention to what's happening in your business, in the market and with your customers, the information in this should come as no surprise. That said, I respect people who can make complex work (and in my opinion, product management is hard) simple. This book does it. Yes, if you are experienced, there is nothing new, but if you want to review or learn, then it's really useful. Simple is hard to achieve. Simple is good. This book is simple.
January 20, 2020
It's a great book!
Wes brings a lot of references and methods to show us a PLG Playbook.
Wes brings a lot of references and methods to show us a PLG Playbook.
January 30, 2022
My new go-to for referencing examples from other companies and understanding metrics deeply. Absolutely loved it!
May 29, 2019
Wes does an excellent job at guiding business owners through the steps of building a business that is 100% product-led. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn of the strategies they can employ to grow their company via their product.
He dives deep enough into the data to give you meaningful experiments to try, yet not too far that you stop reading because of boring context. I especially loved the last few chapters that dive into specific areas you can improve when onboarding users so they have a delightful experience.
Honestly, this is one of the best written books on product strategy that I have read. I recommended it to my team immediately after finishing it.
He dives deep enough into the data to give you meaningful experiments to try, yet not too far that you stop reading because of boring context. I especially loved the last few chapters that dive into specific areas you can improve when onboarding users so they have a delightful experience.
Honestly, this is one of the best written books on product strategy that I have read. I recommended it to my team immediately after finishing it.
February 27, 2021
Interesting book to show the strength and trade offs of product led vs sales led.
A lot of very strong insights on how to optimize the different steps of building a truly self-selling product that I’ll be definitely going back to over the next few months!
A lot of very strong insights on how to optimize the different steps of building a truly self-selling product that I’ll be definitely going back to over the next few months!
March 23, 2023
Quite a useful book for those of us not well-versed in Product-Led Growth strategies for consumer/SaaS products.
In short, Product-Led Growth is about letting your customers experience the value of your product on their own and letting the product sell itself, thereby flipping the traditional “sales-led” model on its head.
Per the author, to make PLG work for you it is crucial to understand your market conditions, competitive positioning, your ideal users, and the value you propose to offer. These factors determine your go-to-market and sales strategies, which must be aligned to produce results.
You also want to optimize your time-to-value, that is, how quickly users experience the value in your product, while reducing the gap between the perceived and experienced value. This means removing friction and unnecessary steps from the onboarding process. Don’t overpromise, and set the right expectations.
Definitely a book I will keep coming back to review my notes, as it will prove very useful in a current project.
Recommended!
In short, Product-Led Growth is about letting your customers experience the value of your product on their own and letting the product sell itself, thereby flipping the traditional “sales-led” model on its head.
Per the author, to make PLG work for you it is crucial to understand your market conditions, competitive positioning, your ideal users, and the value you propose to offer. These factors determine your go-to-market and sales strategies, which must be aligned to produce results.
You also want to optimize your time-to-value, that is, how quickly users experience the value in your product, while reducing the gap between the perceived and experienced value. This means removing friction and unnecessary steps from the onboarding process. Don’t overpromise, and set the right expectations.
Definitely a book I will keep coming back to review my notes, as it will prove very useful in a current project.
Recommended!
September 15, 2022
The leading book on PLG!
[SPOILER] My key takeaways on how to get your product to sell itself:
🌊 Blue Ocean vs. Red Ocean
In a blue ocean, a new market, sales-led wins. When Salesforce started, its sales reps had to educate buyers on the benefits of a cloud-based CRM.
Product-led growth works best within a red ocean, a crowded market. Salesforce is the dominant Enterprise CRM, so HubSpot became product-led. This lowered its customer acquisition costs and allowed it to compete in the SMB space.
💸 Charge based on your value metric
Product-led growth often starts with a freemium model. Most companies are lazy and ask you to upgrade after a trial or based on seats.
Instead consider your value metrics: What do customers care about? Great examples are Zoom's 40min limit on calls or Slack's 10,000 message limit on free plans. Customers can continue to use the tool, but the upgrade path aligns with the value they get.
It also allows customers to embed tools into their workflows before an upgrade. These customers also have the highest chance of sticking around.
A great value metric:
- is easy for customers to understand
- aligns with the value customers receive from your product
- grows with your customers' usage of that value
❤️ Focus on your best customers
Every SaaS company has customers that churn. So don't optimize for all customers. Create a great experience for your best customers. There are more great customers out there.
[SPOILER] My key takeaways on how to get your product to sell itself:
🌊 Blue Ocean vs. Red Ocean
In a blue ocean, a new market, sales-led wins. When Salesforce started, its sales reps had to educate buyers on the benefits of a cloud-based CRM.
Product-led growth works best within a red ocean, a crowded market. Salesforce is the dominant Enterprise CRM, so HubSpot became product-led. This lowered its customer acquisition costs and allowed it to compete in the SMB space.
💸 Charge based on your value metric
Product-led growth often starts with a freemium model. Most companies are lazy and ask you to upgrade after a trial or based on seats.
Instead consider your value metrics: What do customers care about? Great examples are Zoom's 40min limit on calls or Slack's 10,000 message limit on free plans. Customers can continue to use the tool, but the upgrade path aligns with the value they get.
It also allows customers to embed tools into their workflows before an upgrade. These customers also have the highest chance of sticking around.
A great value metric:
- is easy for customers to understand
- aligns with the value customers receive from your product
- grows with your customers' usage of that value
❤️ Focus on your best customers
Every SaaS company has customers that churn. So don't optimize for all customers. Create a great experience for your best customers. There are more great customers out there.
Read
July 18, 2022Tankar;
- Vi måste inte sluta skriva blogginlägg utan bara fundera på vad vi ska skriva om en bit ner i tratten.
- Om hubspot can köra product led, borde inte vi kunna då? Dem gör ett freaking crm.
- Bör vi köra en hybrid?
- Upgrade knappen måste in överallt.
- Time to value måste ner, till varje pris.
- Vår ffpp känns berättigad om vi lyckas tydliggöra för top management värdet av att jämföra fler och fler team. Att ta betalt/employee är rätt eftersom teamet självklart vill ha med alla och organisation likaså. Att det sedan är för aktivt användande är lurigare men kanske nödvändigt mot enterprise. Att ta bort detta tar även bort vår unikitet. Vidare... Huvudskälet till att implementera freemium är önskan att få mer leads. Det går också i linje med Wennbergs åsikt om att enterprise-team inte kan dra kortet.
- Ska vi installera chat på nya hemsidan (och mjukvaran?) där man efter 30 sek på en sida får ett specifikt meddelande som drar dem vidare i tunneln? Ex. Do you have any questions about our pricing model?
- Eftersom time to value kommer genom pulsen måste det skrivas blogginlägg om detta snart. Och göra ett mejl med en video som når kunden direkt efter genomförd Pulse.
- Hur många nya kunder uppskattar vi att vi kommer få tacka vare en freemium? Gör scenarios över detta!
Slack och Dropbox är typiska exempel på product led growth. You didn't read a whit paper on how to communicate smarter in team. You wanted to see the product in action. It is basically a method where you let the customer tries the product befurw they buy.
Your marketing team should ask how can our marketing fly wheel?
...sales team should ask qualify leads?
...customer success team should ask how can our product do our customers successful?
...product team should ask how can we create a product with short time to value?
It has become much more expensive to aquire customers. All three big channels have increased their cost a lot. All in all, marketing has become expensive. At the same time customers are not willing to pay for tech at the same way any more.
Disadvantages with sales led gtm strategi
- Long sales cycles
- Few big customers (can ruin revenue)
Disadvateges of product led gtm.
- Expensive
-?
Demo, free trial eller freemium?
Decision framework
M market strategy (dominant, disruptive, differentiated)
O Ocean strategy (red or blue)
T time to value
Hinner kunden få en aha-upplevelse under vår free trail? Det är självklart mkt viktigt för conversion.
Många produkter överpresterar för vad kunden vill ha, ex Adobe (canva) , Microsoft Word (Google docs). Eftersom produkten är en scale down version av en existerande produkt så måste den vara user friendly!
Dominant, differentiated or disrupted growth strategy?
1. Do you want to offer the best solution to the lowest price? - Dominant strategy!
2. Do you want to offer the best customized produkt to highest price to underserved customers? - Differentiated strategy!
3. Do you want to offer the simplest product to the lowest price to oversevrved customers? - Disruptive strategy!
4. Or... Hybrid model?
Is this suited to external factors? This is based on blue or red ocean. Blue creates demand. Red harvest demand. Flourish is, in most cases, in a red ocean.
Selling strategy
Top down - IBM, SAP, Glint etc.
Months or years to make a sell. Value comes late. Sales led strategy.
Bottom up - Slack, Docsign etc.
Quick sales. Short time to value. Product led strategy.
Hybird mellan free trial och freemuium
1. Fattade inte
2. Freemium med free trial upgrade (man får testa en kort tid). Bäst om man har många features.
3. Free trial follow med Freemium.
Sälj outcome inte features.
What outcome do people expect when buying our product? The three reasons why people buy a product?
1. Functional outcome. The core tasks that people want to get done. E.g. gather feedback. (what most product companies understand).
2. Emotional outcome. How people want to feel OR avoid to feel after using our product. This one is hard. You need to ask your customers.
3. Social outcome. How people want others to look at them using our product.
Value metric - Fattar inte exakt men för oss kan det vara det faktiska namnet på det värde vi vill visa upp för kunden som bevisar värdet av Flourish. I mjukvaran, i samtal och via mail. Dessa bör räknas och visas upp i dashboarden. Vilka är det? Samma som IPV?
Fyra vanliga pricing strategies
1. Judgment.
2. Cost+pricing. Du räknar ut vad det kostar och adderar marginal. Gas station.
3. Competitor based pricing. Funkar bara om man säljer till samma kund och har samma features. Retail.
4. Value based pricing - Baserar priset på värdet som prospekt tycker produkten skapar. Du frågar kunderna helt enkelt. SaaS!
How to determine your price:
Gör din matte men skriv också ner om den sparar tid, reducerar kostnader, reducerad risk osv. Detta kallas functional outcome. Om det är social outcome (se ovan) som är det stora värdet kan det vara mycket svårt att bedöma värdet.
Questions to find price range
What would you consider an acceptable price for the value our product brings you?
When would our product seem expensive?
Slutet av kapitel 9 pratar om vad som ska vara på pricing page, bl.a en bra jämförelse med hamburgare.
- Vi måste inte sluta skriva blogginlägg utan bara fundera på vad vi ska skriva om en bit ner i tratten.
- Om hubspot can köra product led, borde inte vi kunna då? Dem gör ett freaking crm.
- Bör vi köra en hybrid?
- Upgrade knappen måste in överallt.
- Time to value måste ner, till varje pris.
- Vår ffpp känns berättigad om vi lyckas tydliggöra för top management värdet av att jämföra fler och fler team. Att ta betalt/employee är rätt eftersom teamet självklart vill ha med alla och organisation likaså. Att det sedan är för aktivt användande är lurigare men kanske nödvändigt mot enterprise. Att ta bort detta tar även bort vår unikitet. Vidare... Huvudskälet till att implementera freemium är önskan att få mer leads. Det går också i linje med Wennbergs åsikt om att enterprise-team inte kan dra kortet.
- Ska vi installera chat på nya hemsidan (och mjukvaran?) där man efter 30 sek på en sida får ett specifikt meddelande som drar dem vidare i tunneln? Ex. Do you have any questions about our pricing model?
- Eftersom time to value kommer genom pulsen måste det skrivas blogginlägg om detta snart. Och göra ett mejl med en video som når kunden direkt efter genomförd Pulse.
- Hur många nya kunder uppskattar vi att vi kommer få tacka vare en freemium? Gör scenarios över detta!
Slack och Dropbox är typiska exempel på product led growth. You didn't read a whit paper on how to communicate smarter in team. You wanted to see the product in action. It is basically a method where you let the customer tries the product befurw they buy.
Your marketing team should ask how can our marketing fly wheel?
...sales team should ask qualify leads?
...customer success team should ask how can our product do our customers successful?
...product team should ask how can we create a product with short time to value?
It has become much more expensive to aquire customers. All three big channels have increased their cost a lot. All in all, marketing has become expensive. At the same time customers are not willing to pay for tech at the same way any more.
Disadvantages with sales led gtm strategi
- Long sales cycles
- Few big customers (can ruin revenue)
Disadvateges of product led gtm.
- Expensive
-?
Demo, free trial eller freemium?
Decision framework
M market strategy (dominant, disruptive, differentiated)
O Ocean strategy (red or blue)
T time to value
Hinner kunden få en aha-upplevelse under vår free trail? Det är självklart mkt viktigt för conversion.
Många produkter överpresterar för vad kunden vill ha, ex Adobe (canva) , Microsoft Word (Google docs). Eftersom produkten är en scale down version av en existerande produkt så måste den vara user friendly!
Dominant, differentiated or disrupted growth strategy?
1. Do you want to offer the best solution to the lowest price? - Dominant strategy!
2. Do you want to offer the best customized produkt to highest price to underserved customers? - Differentiated strategy!
3. Do you want to offer the simplest product to the lowest price to oversevrved customers? - Disruptive strategy!
4. Or... Hybrid model?
Is this suited to external factors? This is based on blue or red ocean. Blue creates demand. Red harvest demand. Flourish is, in most cases, in a red ocean.
Selling strategy
Top down - IBM, SAP, Glint etc.
Months or years to make a sell. Value comes late. Sales led strategy.
Bottom up - Slack, Docsign etc.
Quick sales. Short time to value. Product led strategy.
Hybird mellan free trial och freemuium
1. Fattade inte
2. Freemium med free trial upgrade (man får testa en kort tid). Bäst om man har många features.
3. Free trial follow med Freemium.
Sälj outcome inte features.
What outcome do people expect when buying our product? The three reasons why people buy a product?
1. Functional outcome. The core tasks that people want to get done. E.g. gather feedback. (what most product companies understand).
2. Emotional outcome. How people want to feel OR avoid to feel after using our product. This one is hard. You need to ask your customers.
3. Social outcome. How people want others to look at them using our product.
Value metric - Fattar inte exakt men för oss kan det vara det faktiska namnet på det värde vi vill visa upp för kunden som bevisar värdet av Flourish. I mjukvaran, i samtal och via mail. Dessa bör räknas och visas upp i dashboarden. Vilka är det? Samma som IPV?
Fyra vanliga pricing strategies
1. Judgment.
2. Cost+pricing. Du räknar ut vad det kostar och adderar marginal. Gas station.
3. Competitor based pricing. Funkar bara om man säljer till samma kund och har samma features. Retail.
4. Value based pricing - Baserar priset på värdet som prospekt tycker produkten skapar. Du frågar kunderna helt enkelt. SaaS!
How to determine your price:
Gör din matte men skriv också ner om den sparar tid, reducerar kostnader, reducerad risk osv. Detta kallas functional outcome. Om det är social outcome (se ovan) som är det stora värdet kan det vara mycket svårt att bedöma värdet.
Questions to find price range
What would you consider an acceptable price for the value our product brings you?
When would our product seem expensive?
Slutet av kapitel 9 pratar om vad som ska vara på pricing page, bl.a en bra jämförelse med hamburgare.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 15, 2021
Oh what a waste of time. It’s books like this that reduce my motivation to read.
- Funny enough, Will Bush has a whole chapter dedicated to communicating the value to the user. Meanwhile, his own book title, cover, backcover are misleading. I bought the book, I read a quarter of it and only then I realized it is not about growth of the product. It is about growing the business and specifically SaaS (wouldn’t be a bad idea to mention SaaS on the cover)
- While there is some valuable information in the book, it’s nothing new and it doesn’t provide any new perspective
- Useless diagrams
- Poor editing that makes you confused
- Zero statistics
- A lot of self promotion
- Poor jokes that makes you think you are reading a Reddit post
- I would like to say that this book could be useful to someone but I can’t tell who - target audience is not clear to me
Quoting my favourite part:
“You can launch a free trial in 24 hours - even under an hour. All you need to do is pull out your credit card and pay me $5,000. I’m kidding. In all seriousness, you need to do two things:
1. Update your “Request a Demo” CTA to a “Request a Free Trial” CTA.
2. On your demo landing page, change the text from “demo” to “free trial”. “.
I won’t even comment on poor jokes but if the 2 steps are not obvious to you, then you probably don’t know what SaaS is. And it’s not explained in this book.
I have to say, it would have been a great blog post. But as a book, I feel that this is one of those books that is released for self-promotion rather than genuine knowledge sharing.
- Funny enough, Will Bush has a whole chapter dedicated to communicating the value to the user. Meanwhile, his own book title, cover, backcover are misleading. I bought the book, I read a quarter of it and only then I realized it is not about growth of the product. It is about growing the business and specifically SaaS (wouldn’t be a bad idea to mention SaaS on the cover)
- While there is some valuable information in the book, it’s nothing new and it doesn’t provide any new perspective
- Useless diagrams
- Poor editing that makes you confused
- Zero statistics
- A lot of self promotion
- Poor jokes that makes you think you are reading a Reddit post
- I would like to say that this book could be useful to someone but I can’t tell who - target audience is not clear to me
Quoting my favourite part:
“You can launch a free trial in 24 hours - even under an hour. All you need to do is pull out your credit card and pay me $5,000. I’m kidding. In all seriousness, you need to do two things:
1. Update your “Request a Demo” CTA to a “Request a Free Trial” CTA.
2. On your demo landing page, change the text from “demo” to “free trial”. “.
I won’t even comment on poor jokes but if the 2 steps are not obvious to you, then you probably don’t know what SaaS is. And it’s not explained in this book.
I have to say, it would have been a great blog post. But as a book, I feel that this is one of those books that is released for self-promotion rather than genuine knowledge sharing.
January 2, 2024
pick the right go-to-market strategy for your business:
1. Market Strategy: Is your go-to-market strategy dominant, disruptive, or differentiated?
2. Ocean Conditions: Are you in a red- or blue-ocean business?
3. Audience: Do you have a top-down or bot-tom-up marketing strategy?
4. Time-to-value: How fast can you showcase value?
Takeaway: Both free trials and demos work great with a differentiated approach, but due to the market-size limitations and complexity of the product, a freemium model often will not work in this environment. Your competitive advantage is how you solve your customer's problems.
Red-ocean companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of existing demand. As the market gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth reduce. Products become commodities, and cut-throat competition turns the bloody ocean red.
Blue-ocean companies access untapped market space and create demand, and so they have the opportunity for highly profitable growth. In Blue Oceans, competition is irrelevant.
If you're in a blue ocean and have a quick time-to-value in your product, use a product-led model.
However, if your product is complex, start with a sales-led go-to-market strategy to educate your audience and create demand. Still, ask "when" not "if" you're going to launch a product-led arm of the business.
1. Market Strategy: Is your go-to-market strategy dominant, disruptive, or differentiated?
2. Ocean Conditions: Are you in a red- or blue-ocean business?
3. Audience: Do you have a top-down or bot-tom-up marketing strategy?
4. Time-to-value: How fast can you showcase value?
Takeaway: Both free trials and demos work great with a differentiated approach, but due to the market-size limitations and complexity of the product, a freemium model often will not work in this environment. Your competitive advantage is how you solve your customer's problems.
Red-ocean companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of existing demand. As the market gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth reduce. Products become commodities, and cut-throat competition turns the bloody ocean red.
Blue-ocean companies access untapped market space and create demand, and so they have the opportunity for highly profitable growth. In Blue Oceans, competition is irrelevant.
If you're in a blue ocean and have a quick time-to-value in your product, use a product-led model.
However, if your product is complex, start with a sales-led go-to-market strategy to educate your audience and create demand. Still, ask "when" not "if" you're going to launch a product-led arm of the business.
October 21, 2020
A nice book that covers the introduction to intermediate levels of overall SaaS growth. It shares theoretical and practical suggestions for user acquisition and retention, along with a set of steps to transform your product to enable product-led growth. Even only going through the steps described in the book, you can easily make an initial plan and set up the initial workflows, that would be enough to have a working and result-generating system.
I suggest everybody interested in transforming their products to read it - although some sections cover very straightforward information, others might include some new information or angles that you haven't thought of before.
Two notes, though;
- Although it seems like a relatively long book due to its number of pages, it's not very long since the font size is around 1.5x bigger than regular prints. Hence, you don't really have a hard time finishing the book.
- I think the book could have been a bit shorter, but since it has a goal to convince audiences and direct relatively inexperienced people, it is longer than its potential.
I suggest everybody interested in transforming their products to read it - although some sections cover very straightforward information, others might include some new information or angles that you haven't thought of before.
Two notes, though;
- Although it seems like a relatively long book due to its number of pages, it's not very long since the font size is around 1.5x bigger than regular prints. Hence, you don't really have a hard time finishing the book.
- I think the book could have been a bit shorter, but since it has a goal to convince audiences and direct relatively inexperienced people, it is longer than its potential.
September 12, 2021
I was a bit hesitant since the cover design is garish, which made me question his ability to sell things. I still feel inclined to color it in since it's the ugliest book on my shelf by far.
I gave a chance since an executive at my company highly recommended it, and I have to admit that I found the book more useful than I expected. A lot of it is obvious to me, and things I've said for many years, but some sections were new. It also countered some of my intuitive responses and provided scenarios where my plan would fall short.
I ended up taking more notes than I do for most books since it reminded me of so many things I wanted to work on, and it's useful to have shared language with the management team.
I'm reading another product-led book soon, so I may adjust my opinion of this one if the other is much better.
I gave a chance since an executive at my company highly recommended it, and I have to admit that I found the book more useful than I expected. A lot of it is obvious to me, and things I've said for many years, but some sections were new. It also countered some of my intuitive responses and provided scenarios where my plan would fall short.
I ended up taking more notes than I do for most books since it reminded me of so many things I wanted to work on, and it's useful to have shared language with the management team.
I'm reading another product-led book soon, so I may adjust my opinion of this one if the other is much better.
January 31, 2021
This is a must read for all those who want to transform their companies from being a sales led company to being a product led company. There are lots of practical examples that are very relatable how we do business daily at Saas companies. Nothing here is a surprise, but, also a good reminder that we must be methodical, measure, apply, connect with customers, and do this on a regular rhythm. It's also a good blueprint to provoke some thought process on what your companies already do well, and where there might be blind spots. It's a quick read... I finished the book in two days while making some notes, so, get this out of the way. Especially if you are in Product Management or Engineering Leadership in a Saas business, I'd say that this one is a must read.
January 3, 2023
I'd honestly give 6 stars if I could
This was an extremely informative book, on one of the things I appreciated the most would have been the number of practical examples and direct links with friends and quotations from people in the industry that it's clear that Wes has a relationship with.
Couple key takeaways:
- Be product led (surprises)
- Review your business model to see if freemium or free trial works best, don't assume. Use the quiz included
- Identify and order your value metrics when deciding your pricing model (subscription, utility based, value based etc.)
- Make use of product and conversational bumpers. Won't spoil this for people who will be reading the book, but the depth of practical examples is exactly what I needed.
This was an extremely informative book, on one of the things I appreciated the most would have been the number of practical examples and direct links with friends and quotations from people in the industry that it's clear that Wes has a relationship with.
Couple key takeaways:
- Be product led (surprises)
- Review your business model to see if freemium or free trial works best, don't assume. Use the quiz included
- Identify and order your value metrics when deciding your pricing model (subscription, utility based, value based etc.)
- Make use of product and conversational bumpers. Won't spoil this for people who will be reading the book, but the depth of practical examples is exactly what I needed.
April 1, 2024
An informative and technical explanation of product-led products and methods.
Most of the products that we love and recommend to others are product-led. These products allow customers to influence the product roadmap and often come with a freemium pricing model. Companies that develop product-led products usually offer great value to their customers, enabling them to try the product for themselves quickly. As a result, customers become advocates for the product, which reduces the need for marketing and sales efforts. It's worth noting that the second half of this book is dedicated to explaining pricing and scoring, so it may not be the best resource for a design audience beyond the basic understanding of these concepts.
Most of the products that we love and recommend to others are product-led. These products allow customers to influence the product roadmap and often come with a freemium pricing model. Companies that develop product-led products usually offer great value to their customers, enabling them to try the product for themselves quickly. As a result, customers become advocates for the product, which reduces the need for marketing and sales efforts. It's worth noting that the second half of this book is dedicated to explaining pricing and scoring, so it may not be the best resource for a design audience beyond the basic understanding of these concepts.
April 5, 2021
This is a definite read for anyone starting a digital product. It's quite geared towards SaaS products but I think a lot of it is applicable to other types of software products as well, even to other types of products.
It talks about pricing models and markets and how making sure to keep the customers you get is vital for the product to be able to market itself.
Word of mouth has always been a very effective marketing strategy and with the global economy, we have now this surpasses the boundaries of our local social groups meaning with a good product that markets itself if you build for it.
I can really recommend it. A product manager must read.
It talks about pricing models and markets and how making sure to keep the customers you get is vital for the product to be able to market itself.
Word of mouth has always been a very effective marketing strategy and with the global economy, we have now this surpasses the boundaries of our local social groups meaning with a good product that markets itself if you build for it.
I can really recommend it. A product manager must read.
May 29, 2022
I'll be diplomatic on this one because I'm not working in a typical tech company. But a few key things to note before you sink time into this:
1) it's all pretty obvious logic????
2) it seems primarily (only?) useful for SAAS.
3) it tells you nothing about how to build the actual product and should actually be titled "How to Market a Product That Sells Itself: Except the Marketing is Freemium and In-Product Pop-ups :)"
4) it has never been clearer to me that the education industry and the tech industry are weird bedfellows. aka this guy needed a way better editor and I happily volunteer
1) it's all pretty obvious logic????
2) it seems primarily (only?) useful for SAAS.
3) it tells you nothing about how to build the actual product and should actually be titled "How to Market a Product That Sells Itself: Except the Marketing is Freemium and In-Product Pop-ups :)"
4) it has never been clearer to me that the education industry and the tech industry are weird bedfellows. aka this guy needed a way better editor and I happily volunteer
June 23, 2022
Well written — like so many business books, it could have been just an essay, but I find it very effective to see what parts of the process is clear in the index, and skip to what you want to define in more detail.
This is a SAAS-centric view of pretty standard best practices, but again, it is well laid-out and well explained, which is important when it needs to be presented to so many different functions: this book needs to convince Field sales, Product, and Marketing at a minimum and that is no small feat.
This is a SAAS-centric view of pretty standard best practices, but again, it is well laid-out and well explained, which is important when it needs to be presented to so many different functions: this book needs to convince Field sales, Product, and Marketing at a minimum and that is no small feat.
July 4, 2022
amazing eye opener for business transformation
This is truly amazing book. It not only makes a case for product led growth but lays out strategies and frameworks to use to make it happen. While it doesn’t talk about a growth product manager role but amount of stuff to do to be successful in a SaaS world is that you almost need a separate person leading these growth and retention activities beyond what and why to build something. This is the way most future businesses will need to adapt to continue to be successful.
This is truly amazing book. It not only makes a case for product led growth but lays out strategies and frameworks to use to make it happen. While it doesn’t talk about a growth product manager role but amount of stuff to do to be successful in a SaaS world is that you almost need a separate person leading these growth and retention activities beyond what and why to build something. This is the way most future businesses will need to adapt to continue to be successful.
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