I get a lot of messages throughout the day. The other day, I received one that made my day significantly better. It was from Ben Hillman who calls himself the Head Honcho of Paddle Studios.
It was a message in response to an hour-long interview we recorded together. Ben created this absolutely amazing 8-minute video and article where we go into the details of why it’s getting indeed a bit spicy for sales.
So…
Is Sales dying?
[Teaser from the full article / video from Paddle]
Not exactly. Sales isn't dying; it's evolving. The old focus on just making sales without considering customer retention is outdated. Now, companies prioritize long-term relationships over quick wins. The role of sales is becoming more data-driven, aiming to provide value and sustain long-term customer monetization. The strategy is shifting towards a blend of product-led growth and traditional sales, ensuring that the product and sales efforts complement each other for greater success. With Sales numbers trending down, its important do get a good strategy in place. So, with the help of Leah Tharin, let's dive into how a good product-led growth strategy can massively benefit you and help empower your other teams.
Why Sales is Evolving
A traditional view of sales evokes the thought of a man going door to door selling vacuum cleaners or someone at a cubicle shuffling through leads. Sales was focused firmly on ABC and didn’t care about any of the other letters of the alphabet on the dotted line. Sales has now become more and more data driven, where buyer personas and ideal customer profiles shape how you sell and who you sell to. But if your customer isn’t actually using the product, they’re not getting an honest representation of the product's value. All that time and attention on making the sale isn’t as valuable when retention is left on the backburner…
Read the full article here: Ungated full article/video
I’ll talk about this and more topics around pricing, packaging, and payments next week.
You can join my Webinar with Paddle on the page or by following the link on the Banner.
Been listening to the Acquired podcast on Walmart and time and time again Sam Walton could see what was coming. He would say- this is the future. The evolution of sales and a one size fits one approach to retention feels like the future to me.
Leah saying the quiet part out loud again! I love it! 🥰 This is a great topic and something that should spawn a lot of debate in Executive rooms. Most business executives need to mature their own thinking on the role their teams play in the organization before groups come to the table to collaborate in this way… especially in organizations who haven’t yet evolved to PLG thinking.