A Product-led Approach to Sales
When approached in the right way, layering in a human sales effort into your product-led business can accelerate growth while maintaining envy-worthy unit economics.
But what should sales look like in a product-led company? The fundamentals of sales remain the same – it’s all about engaging the right people, at the right time, with relevant information.
Here’s the who, when, and how of adapting to support a product-led business.
From the Investors
Angela Tran Kingyens of Version One Ventures expands on the dynamics of each social platform type: messaging, private networks, public networks, enterprise networks, and communities in “Understanding Social Platforms” (83 slides)
Stan Reiss of Matrix Partners weighs in on the worrying state of the IPO market and how entrepreneurs need to stop following trends and start taking risk again in “Time to Stop Acting like Lemmings”
Toni Schneider of True Ventures notes how some marketplaces are the digital equivalent of using the town center to open a farmers market instead of a box store in “Why I Think “Marketplaces” Are Not Just Software, but a Human Opportunity”
Isaac Madan of Venrock and Shaurya Saluja of LEO Express outline helpful recruiting metrics to better understand and optimize the hiring process in “Effective Recruiting Metrics for Fast-Growing Startups”
Mark MacLeod of SurePath Capital Partners looks at fundraising and exit activity of SaaS companies based in North America that serve the SMB market in “The State of SMB SaaS Report”
From the Operators
Caitlin Kalinowski of Oculus / Facebook spells out what the just-right scenario looks like and lists the potholes to look out for before you hit the ‘ship’ button in “Six Steps to Superior Product Prototyping: Lessons from an Apple and Oculus Engineer”
Jose Ancer, a startup lawyer, opines on why the future of professional services belongs to people who embrace technology and let it do what it does best in “Luddites v. Tech Utopians: 409A and Legal”
Josh Pigford of Baremetrics thinks calling the tough days for what they are is much more therapeutic and healthy than brushing them under the rug and faking it until you do or don’t make it in “Confronting Imposter Syndrome as a Startup Founder”
Josh Scott of Craftsy dissects why you should not wait to build your team with the right people in “Building Your Team: Focus on People, Not Jobs”
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Also published on Medium.