Product-led growth: letting the product do the first sale

When PLG works, it lowers the cost of each new customer, because the product replaces many early sales conversations. It also changes what marketing hands to sales. Instead of leads who filled in a form, sales gets product-qualified leads: accounts whose usage shows they are ready for a bigger plan.

It works best when:

• Value shows up within minutes or days, not after a long setup.
• One person can start alone and then invite a team.
• The entry-level price is low enough to buy without approval.

It struggles when the product needs data migration, a security review or agreement from several departments. Most PLG companies add a sales team once larger accounts arrive. That mix is often called product-led sales.

PLG buyers say different things from enterprise buyers, because they want to try the product themselves. Here are sample sentences, scored 0 to 100 for buying intent the way HearBuyers scores posts:

• Sample, score 89. "Need a scheduling tool I can sign up for today and share with my four teammates, no sales call please." A self-serve buyer, ready now.
• Sample, score 67. "Which project tools have a decent free tier for a small team?" Shopping, with a price limit.
• Sample, score 11. "What's the difference between PLG and sales-led?" Learning the term.

When a post says "no sales call please" and your product is self-serve, reply with a signup link rather than a calendar link.

• Calling a trial PLG. A trial that ends in a mandatory demo is still sales-led.
• Ignoring usage signals. In PLG the product tells you who's ready, so watch what it says.
• Removing sales entirely. Bigger accounts usually still want a person.
• Gating value behind setup. If people can't get value on their own, they won't stay long enough to upgrade.

• SaaS sales: the wider category PLG sits in.
• Inbound sales: selling to people who came to you.
• Lead scoring: how PLG teams rank product signups.
• MQL vs SQL: the hand-off stages PLG often replaces.

If you sell self-serve software, the B2B SaaS use case shows how to find people asking for a tool they can try today.