Where Should Sales Sit in Product-Led Companies?
Product-led companies are becoming increasingly popular, placing more emphasis on product driven sales and marketing strategies, as opposed to traditional sales processes like outbound cold-calling. But where should sales sit within these new companies?
Spotlight on the Product
Within product-led companies, the product itself should take the main focus. By building a great product and understanding the right feature set for customers, company directors can turn their attention onto perfecting the messaging around the product itself. It’s important to ensure that sales teams have a deep understanding of the product so they can talk about it with passion and enthusiasm to potential customers.
Combination of Sales and Marketing
Companies looking to achieve a product-led success story should look to combine their sales & marketing teams. This ensures that there is overlap between the two teams and sales staff have a comprehensive understanding of the marketing strategies and plans in place. By doing this, messaging from the point of sale through to post-sale is consistent and clear, with everyone in the business having the same aims for the company.
Role of the C-Suite
As well as having the right departments in the right place, it is essential to ensure that the c-suite understands the importance of a successful sales process within the product-led business model. Once awareness has been raised of the importance of having top of the line teams, the c-suite can ensure that sufficient resources are provided to give the sales staff the tools they need to succeed.
Summary
To summarise, within product-led companies,
- Sales should make sure they have a deep understanding of the product,
- Marketing & Sales should be combined,
- And the C-Suite must recognise the importance of having great sales.
By putting the product-led approach at the heart of your business and equipping your teams with the tools needed to represent the brand successfully, you can help your business realise success. In the ever-evolving realm of product-led companies, the question of “where should sales sit?” is often asked. As product-led companies have become more popular, it is important to explore the best approach to this question.
The first factor to consider is the structure of the company itself. Sales roles within businesses are often highly independent and therefore, need to be organized in a way that makes sense for the objectives of the business. For example, in larger companies with distinct product, sales, marketing and customer success teams, it can be beneficial to position sales as part of the customer success team. This configuration allows for effective collaboration between departments, as sales can communicate customer needs and feedback to other teams.
In smaller product-led companies, the sales team usually resides within the product team. Product team members are typically passionate about their product and are familiar with its features and benefits, making them ideal candidates for product promotion. Furthermore, having the sales team in proximity to the product team helps to ensure that sales strategies are in alignment with the product goals.
The ultimate goal of positioning sales within a product-led company should be to create value by offering customers a product that is easy to use and brings measurable results. To achieve this, sales teams must be able to effectively communicate the value of the product and provide customer support when needed.
In conclusion, when it comes to where sales should reside in product-led companies, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The right solution will depend on the structure, objectives, and size of the company. A well-structured sales team can play a pivotal role in garnering customer interest and securing customer loyalty, making the task of determining the company’s sales placement a high priority.