How to Sell Your Product with Your Product

There is a new wave in B2B software sales. Companies are using their product as a key component in their customer acquisition strategies. Organizations see an opportunity to bring in a wider range of prospects by breaking down traditional sales barriers and leading with their product. These forward thinking companies are using their product to sell their product.

You have a great software solution. How do you get your great product in the hands of your customers?

The idea behind the new phenomenon of Product-Led Growth (PLG) is that the product, not the sales rep or marketing collateral, is at the forefront of a company’s growth and go-to-market strategy. OpenView Partners, the venture firm leading the charge to bring this concept to market, defines the mentality as:

“...a go-to-market strategy that relies on product usage as the primary driver of acquisition, conversion and expansion” (OpenView Partners).

Putting your product at the front and center of all growth considerations from development to customer success helps unify messaging and create an excellent user experience.

Today’s technology buyer doesn’t want to sit behind a sales person delivering a robotic pitch for the ninth time that day. According to Forrester research, roughly 75% of B2B buyers say that buying from a website is more convenient than buying from an actual sales representative (Forrester).

In our fast moving world, buyer patience is at an all time low. Millennial buyers have an average attention span of 12 seconds and are typically juggling between 3 different screens at any given point in the workday (Forbes).

Sales and marketing teams are looking for opportunities to scale to new audiences and potential buyers. Buyers are looking for opportunities to explore products in the buying cycle. Seeing is believing. After initiating interest in the product, prospects don't want to listen to marketing speak or view case studies, they want to see the product first-hand.

Sales is the core driver of any business. A product-led sales motion does not mean no sales. The product-led go-to-market motion gives prospects the option to decide on how they want to engage with software vendor. When needed, a sales resource is able to step in to facilitate the deal forward or answer questions.

Humans still close enterprise deals.

Larger deals will still require a human-to-human interaction to get to close. A product-led motion can be put in place to meet buyers where they are most comfortable. If a prospect wants to talk to sales reps and is more comfortable with a traditional enterprise selling motion, great! If a prospect wants to explore and learn on their own, empower them!

This is product-led sales. The option to have a product front and center in the sales process gives prospects the ability to choose how they want to engage with a vendor and drive the deal forward.

When planning out how to begin your product-led evolution, there are a few key components to consider when building the right product experience for early prospects.

Product scope - which product features do you want to showcase?

When selling your product with your product, how do you carefully craft the right story to engage your prospect? Prospects want to quickly see the value. They are looking to get to the "wow" moment to see where the product is uniquely positioned to solve a real business challenge or need. Building the right scope in this early product evaluation is crucial. When building these experiences, you need to find the right level of detail that is both informative but keeps a prospect engaged. Too much detail can be overwhelming but too little leaves a prospect wanting more.

Engagement metrics - how will you track prospect engagement?

Next, when deciding on how to best use your product as key instrument in your sales cycle, you need to determine how you will track engagement from these early users. A product-led sales motion leverages your core asset, the product, as a sales engine to qualify leads and drive interest in your solution. Quantifying this interest and engagement is critical to the success of this hands-off selling motion. Product qualified leads help to fill your sales funnel with leads that have proven interest in your offering to free up your growth teams to focus on the right opportunities with the highest likelihood of closing.

What happens next - after a prospect has engaged, what is the next step?

After a prospect has engaged with your product, you need to have a set of clear next steps to continue to drive engagement and keep your solution top of mind. In a product-led sales process, you are able to collect valuable data around buyer intent and feature interest. This information can be used to personalize and tailor the rest of the sales funnel. After a buyer has explored your product, you can track engagement patterns to call out specific features or areas of interest in follow up conversations and outreach.

Modern software buyers want to quickly see product value when making purchasing decisions. Get your prospects to this "wow" moment quicker by using your product to sell your product.