S 01 | Ep 12 The Most Effective Strategy for Software Companies to Achieve Rapid Growth

Unlock the world of Product-Led Growth (PLG) in this riveting discussion with our special guest, Kyle Poyar, the operating partner at OpenView.

Prepare to be enlightened as Kyle helps us dissect the nuances of PLG and how this transformative model helps software companies boost their customer acquisition, conversion, and retention. During the conversation, we unravel the differences between extreme and hybrid PLG models and expound on the critical role sales teams have in this innovative strategy.

Key Takeaways

(01:16 - 06:35) Understanding Product-Led Growth in Business

(06:35 - 09:38) Calendly's PLG Strategy

(09:38 - 18:49) Calendly's Importance in Product Growth

(18:49 - 24:38) Different Types of Communities in Salesforce

(24:38 - 31:03) SEO Strategy vs PLG Approach

(31:03 - 38:16) Product and Sales Strategy Bridge

(38:16 - 41:00) Creative Approaches to Account-Based Marketing

(41:00 - 48:08) Content Power in Professional Growth

(48:08 - 51:13) Aligning SEO With Target Audience Needs

📱 Apple Podcasts | 🎧 Spotify | 🔗 iHeart

Unlocking
Product-Led Growth

As a true authority in the go-to-market arena, particularly in the realm of product-led growth – a philosophy very close to our hearts at RELAYTO – Kyle is here to demystify this approach. He'll explain what product-led growth truly is and, crucially, what it isn't, providing a clear and accessible understanding for everyone in our audience. Get ready to explore the power of your product as the primary driver of growth with the expert insights of Kyle Poyar.

1. Understanding Product-Led Growth in Business

Kyle highlights that "product-led growth" (PLG) is a term coined by Blake Bartlett at OpenView, emerging from the observation that traditional software growth models relying heavily on sales development representatives (SDRs) and business development representatives (BDRs) for cold outreach often led to inefficient and unpredictable growth. These models typically involved long deal cycles and a significant delay before end-users could experience the product.

In contrast, companies like Atlassian, Expensify, and Datadog adopted a different approach by focusing on the end-user, offering open access to their products, allowing users to experience value firsthand, and empowering them to advocate for organizational adoption. This "consumerization of IT" or "C2B" model, sometimes referred to as "shadow IT," lacked a defined playbook and initially faced skepticism from venture capitalists who favored traditional "spend money to make money" strategies. However, these PLG companies demonstrated faster and more scalable growth, improved customer experience, and reduced reliance on extensive hiring. The core principle of PLG is to automate and productize processes typically handled by people to enhance customer acquisition, conversion, and retention.

The summary to people with all this work is to think about product-like growth as taking things that would normally be done by people, finding automated, productized experiences, and pointing those towards helping you acquire, convert, and retain your customer base. — Kyle Poyar

2. Calendly's PLG Strategy

Calendly serves as a perfect illustration of this. Their success stems from a user-friendly product that solves a common pain point – scheduling – allowing individuals to easily adopt it and experience immediate value. This facilitates both individual conversions through affordable pricing and organic expansion within organizations as teams discover the benefits of collaborative scheduling.

Furthermore, Calendly's inherent virality drives new user acquisition as recipients of meeting invites often become users themselves. While PLG fuels significant growth for Calendly, a sales team remains crucial for larger enterprise deals. These sales professionals often work with organizations where Calendly is already in use, leveraging internal advocates to navigate complex decision-making processes and cater to deeper, more integrated use cases. So, in Calendly's case, PLG and a strategic sales team work in tandem to achieve comprehensive market penetration.

3. Product and Sales Strategy Bridge

Best-in-class companies leverage this data to adopt a more account management-style approach, even with free accounts. They engage with power users to understand their needs, document their successes, and potentially gain introductions to decision-makers. This bottom-up engagement can be combined with a more traditional top-down outreach to executives, providing relevant data and personalized value propositions based on the existing usage within the organization. This hybrid strategy leverages the trust and credibility built through product usage to facilitate broader adoption within an enterprise.

You want to start with the users, especially the power users. Just document how they use the product, what it does for them, and what the business priorities are. You start using them for fact-finding, and you can ask them for an introduction to their boss, or you can enable them with materials to go back for you. Then you might need to go top-down and reach out to a decision maker with data or with a more personalized work that accounts cohesively. That's a totally different strategy from working with a new prospect who's never heard of your brand, but you're trying to get that demo in front of them. — Kyle Poyar

4. Content Power in Professional Growth

Kyle focuses on accelerating growth for portfolio companies by addressing their challenges and sharing his learnings through content. He started by writing about common issues faced by founders on LinkedIn, which not only helped him refine his problem-solving skills but also built a valuable network. This content-driven approach evolved to support OpenView's broader marketing strategy, aiming to position the firm as a helpful resource for founders even before they seek venture funding. The goal is to build familiarity and trust, making outreach from the investment team more impactful.

OpenView employs a targeted, account-based marketing (ABM) style approach, focusing on engaging a specific universe of software companies and their founders. Success is measured not by traditional metrics like page views, but by the level of engagement from this target audience. They aim to nurture these founders through a content-oriented journey, fostering strong affiliation and even creating champions for OpenView before any direct interaction. This strategy emphasizes deeper engagement with in-depth content over broad SEO reach, building trust and paving the way for more meaningful connections and potential partnerships.

We're measuring success not based on page views of a report that we've downloaded but on engagement from that target audience. And looking at how we drive engagement with that audience, what they end up caring about, and what resonates with them. Then how can we nurture them to show signals that we haven't just reached them from an awareness standpoint, but we've developed strong affiliation? Or maybe they're even champions of what we're doing before we've ever talked to them. — Kyle Poyar

5. Aligning SEO With Target Audience Needs

Kyle Poyar is an Operating Partner at OpenView Venture Partners, where he focuses on enabling growth and market leadership for portfolio companies. He emphasizes the importance of aligning marketing efforts with the interests of the target audience, particularly founders, rather than focusing solely on broad top-of-funnel metrics. Kyle advocates for creating high-value content and strategically distributing it through channels like personalized direct email, targeted LinkedIn retargeting, influencer partnerships with early-stage VCs, and local marketing initiatives in areas with high founder concentration. He highlights that content serves as the fuel for these targeted outreach efforts.

A key aspect of Kyle's work involves sharing his insights through various channels. He is active on LinkedIn, posting several times a week, and contributes to the OpenView newsletter. Additionally, he authors his own newsletter, Growth Unhinged, on Substack, offering his perspectives on growth strategies and related topics. His work aims to provide actionable guidance for reaching and influencing key audiences within the startup ecosystem.

We need really high-value content and thought leadership to resonate with the founders. But then, our engine is about getting that fuel in front of the right audience at the right time. — Kyle Poyar