Sales and marketing costs are rising, and converting prospects is challenging in an increasingly competitive sector. However, what if there was another way to generate and convert leads? Enter product-led sales.
How product-Led sales meet evolving customer preferences
Traditional software sales involve promoting your product or service via sales and marketing to generate leads. From there, your reps speak to prospects and convince them to agree to a sales demo. While this approach can get great results, it costs money and time.
In recent years, software development teams have been trying different techniques. Some of these changes were motivated by saving money and reducing the sales cycle. However, part of this evolution was driven by changes in customer preferences.
As the internet matured, customers gravitated towards self-serve options. When given a choice, many prospects don’t want to interact with sales teams. Instead, they prefer to research on their own time and access product demos when ready.
When taken together, the above factors have altered how products are bought and sold, especially within B2B sales. Of course, there is another significant factor to consider.
How buying changed
In the past, software was costly to develop and purchase. It needed to be physically installed on computers and stored on on-premises servers. Additionally, there weren't many different vendors available to businesses.
As a result, chief technical officers (CTOs) made most of the decisions. Information about the product and its capabilities weren't readily available. Salespeople were the primary source of knowledge and product education.
However, the internet opened up the flow of information. Soon after, the CTO and salesperson's sales style gave way to a more information-driven approach. The proliferation of data meant C-suite teams could research software and select their company's tools based on price, features, or other business needs.
In recent years, things have shifted again. C-suite teams deciding on what tools to use became outmoded. Suddenly, businesses realized there were people inside their organization who understood who were the best people to evaluate and decide on products: the people who actually used them.
Instead of targeting business executives, software developers realized that making a great product and getting it in the hands of stakeholders was an excellent way to drive adoption and marketing buzz.
And so, the era of product-led sales was born.
How product-led sales works
In the past, if you wanted to sell a product, you needed to tell someone how it could benefit them. The process was longer because it relied on qualifying leads so you could focus your time on prospects needing your product.
Product-led sales are different. Instead of holding the prospect's hand through the process, you rely on your customers doing the work. When they use a product and realize its value, they recommend it to their teammates. Instead of spending marketing resources to convince customers, you can use their existing network to distribute your product.
How automated sales demos have taken over
Automated sales demos, on the other hand, solve these issues. You still get to show off your product and all its features and functions. However, you get to do it 24-7 and without needing a salesperson.
Now, of course, this process has some disadvantages. It misses the relationship-building element of sales. But, as we said earlier, customers don't necessarily need that anymore. Instead, they're happy to explore a piece of software to see if it meets their needs.
Automated sales demos work because the customer can engage with the product. They can experience the value for themselves. This approach offers a great alternative option in an era when people are becoming more distrustful of salespeople.
Additionally, it allows busy people to explore products on their own time. They can do an automated sales demo, and if they like what they see, they can send the link to other stakeholders. Remember, buying a product these days involves 6 to 10 stakeholders. It's not always feasible for them to do a demo with a salesperson individually.
Other factors that have encouraged product-led sales
Building software used to be an unbelievably expensive process. However, in recent years, costs have gone down. Now, thanks to the proliferation of development tools, products can be made for cheap.
The downside of this for developers is that competition is higher. With so many alternative products out there, everyone is competing for a smaller slice of the pie.
This scenario results in two situations. Increased competition:
reduces the price of products
increases the costs of sales and marketing
A sales-led go-to-market strategy requires a big budget. And there's not much guarantee that it will be a success. Product-led sales, on the other hand, can be done at a fraction of those costs.
Pros and cons of the sales-led approach
The sales-led approach has advantages and disadvantages for businesses. Let's explore the pros and cons.
Sales-led pros:
#1. Close larger deals
Sales-led approaches are suitable for targeting and qualifying larger customers.
#2. Good for cutting-edge tools
Some tools are so advanced that they can be considered a new category of software. Their features and functions could be for emerging industries or new business categories. In these scenarios, a sales-led approach can help educate customers on new tools.
For products with narrow niches, sales-led approaches can work. Within a limited market, each relationship must be approached carefully, or you'll quickly run out of prospects.
Sales-led cons:
#1. Less efficient
Higher marketing costs and long sales cycles lead to increased customer acquisition costs (CAC).
These higher costs must be reflected in the price, which can reduce the competitiveness of your solution. Product-led sales solve this issue.
#2. Leads to organizational silos
Product-led sales can lead to organizational silos. Sales, marketing, and customer success operate away from product development.
A product-led approach means that development is focused on creating intuitive tools that allow the user to unlock value straightaway. It’s an entire shift in priorities that leads to better products.
#3. Marketing and sales are misaligned
A sales-led approach means marketing and sales can be misaligned. Marketing is focused on one metric; marketing qualified leads MQL, which doesn't always translate to sales. As such, marketing teams can concentrate on gating content to generate leads rather than building demand through content generation or an interactive product demo.
As you can see, product-led sales offer some huge advantages for modern sales processes.
How sales demo automation can help
Sales demo automation is perfect for product-led sales. The focus is on the product and how it can help your customers.
Usetiful can help you build an interactive product demo. Our no-code tool allows you to create self-guided online sales demos. Customers just need to click a link, and they can get a powerful demonstration of what your product can do.
By cutting out the need for a salesperson to show them around, sales demo automation allows your product to sell while you sleep. The days of scheduling demos are over. Instead, your salespeople can focus on chasing bigger deals or other revenue-generating activities.
Sales demo automation advantages
An interactive product demo has many advantages. Here is a quick look at how Usetiful can drive your product-led sales with engaging demos that impact your prospects.
1. Easy to set up
While you might think that building an interactive product demo requires advanced programming tools, Usetiful is a no-code solution. So even your least technical staff can build amazing demos in no time.
2. Engagement
Instead of passively watching a demo, your prospects can guide themselves around your solution and explore the features and functions that are important to them.
3. Available 24-7
Sales demo automation means your interactive product demo is available 24-7, so it can fit around even the busiest schedule.
4. Personalization
Sales demo automation doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on the personal touch. Usetiful allows you to customize your demo for each prospect. You can add their name and implement questions to ask during the process. You can even qualify leads during the process!
5. Scaleable
Sales demo automation is scalable. Instead of adding new sales staff while your product expands, Usetiful can scale with you. That means you can ensure you don’t miss out on any sales or opportunities because your demo it’s always on and ready to deliver, no matter how busy your sales team is.
6. Power your analytics
Each interactive product demo is an opportunity to collect data. You can see when your prospects are engaged or when their interest wanes. Analyzing this data can help you improve your interactive product demo and even your product.
7. Language support
24-7 available product demos mean you can sell your product across time zones. Usetiful also allows you to build interactive demos in various languages, helping you expand into new markets.
Exciting upcoming features
Of course, that’s not all. We also have two exciting upcoming features that will allow you to get much more from your sales demo automation.
#1. Integration with your favorite customer relationship management (CRM) tool.
By connecting with your CRM, Usetiful will allow you to gather customer data, which you can use to improve your sales process and product.
#2. Sales Assistant
Usetiful can help you answer your prospects' questions by referring to your knowledge base. Additionally, your sales team can follow up if their question isn't answered, helping you get more sales.
Summary
Product-led sales is an approach to software distribution that relies on the product to do the work. Instead of prospects being told why a product can help them, they can experience the solution themselves. By creating positive user experiences, you can immediately build trust in your product.
Of course, product-led sales require intuitive products. However, sometimes prospects need a hand to understand a solution's features and functions fully. Sales demo automation allows you to create an interactive product demo that wins you more deals while you sleep.