The ultimate guide to product-led sales | Elena Verna

Brought to you by Linear—The new standard for modern software development | Braintrust—For when you needed talent, yesterday | Rows—The spreadsheet where data comes to life — Elena Verna is a leading growth expert with over 15 years of experience in tech. She was SVP of Growth at SurveyMonkey and interim CMO at Miro, where she built high-performing teams that drove significant growth. She recently served as interim Head of Growth at Amplitude and currently advises and is a board member for early-stage startups. In today’s podcast, we discuss: • What product-led sales is • How product-led sales differs from product-led growth • Unpacking common acronyms: PQAs, PQs, PQLs, and MQLs • When and how to consider investing in PLS • Metrics for identifying qualified accounts • The team, data, and tooling required for implementing PLS • Common pitfalls to avoid when adding PLS — Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-product-led-sales-elena-verna/#transcript — Where to find Elena Verna: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenaverna • Twitter: https://twitter.com/elenaverna • Newsletter: https://elenaverna.substack.com/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Elena’s background and what she’s doing now (07:13) Product-led sales (PLS) vs. product-led growth (PLG) (12:47) How sales solutions can be applied to enterprise-level problems (15:06) Defining enterprise-level problems  (17:51) How product-led companies start with PLS (20:30) When to add sales (22:36) Two ways to get to PLS (24:27) Why every sales-led-growth company needs to add PLG (26:50) Two ways you can own revenue (28:37) PQAs, PQs, PQLs, and MQLs (37:17) How to get started adding PLS (42:01) Metrics to identify PQAs (47:00) Why sales should be carefully applied  (49:07) Systems, infrastructure, and tooling (50:59) The people and resources required for PLS (53:42) Why you should have a clear ROI for every new hire (55:05) Why product needs to be accountable for monetization with PLS (59:57) Revenue-based goals product teams should have (1:06:28) Common pitfalls startups run into when implementing PLS (1:09:15) Benchmarks and the amount of time needed for implementing enterprise solutions (1:12:04) Using onboarding to profile users (1:13:08) Will AI be the next sales movement? — Referenced: • Elena’s previous episode on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/elena-verna-on-how-b2b-growth-is-changing-product-led-growth-product-led-sales-why-you-should-go-freemium-not-trial-what-features-to-make-free-and-much-more/ • Miro: https://miro.com/ • Figma: https://www.figma.com/ • Elena’s PLS funnel diagram: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/elenaverna_b2b-product-led-sales-guide-activity-7052664130763206658-yxLK/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop • Elena’s memes: https://www.elenaverna.com/memes • Mixpanel Signal reports: https://mixpanel.com/blog/mixpanel-signal-launch/ • Amplitude Compass chart: https://help.amplitude.com/hc/en-us/articles/235147347-The-Compass-chart-discover-your-users-a-ha-moments • Looker: https://www.looker.com/ • Tableau: https://www.tableau.com/ • Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/ • HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/ • Marketo: https://nation.marketo.com/ • Waitlist for PLG course on Reforge: https://www.reforge.com/programs/product-led-growth — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe