Growth Channels By ARR Stage: PLG vs. SLG

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Covered today:

• Growth channels by motion and ARR.

• More on GTM for your eardrums.

• More on GTM for your eyeballs.

• Startup to watch.

• Hottest GTM jobs of the week.

• GTM industry events.

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Growth Channels By ARR Stage: PLG vs. SLG

Growth channels change as your company scales. These changes also depend on whether your company follows a Product-Led Growth (PLG) or Sales-Led Growth (SLG) model.

Holly Chen is the Managing Partner of ExponentialX, a Marketing and Growth Advisory Collective for high-growth SaaS startups, advising companies like Miro, Loom, ServiceNow, Appsflyer in their growth journeys. She outlines the evolution of channels in the slides below, which we’ve broken out for a side-by-side comparison.

Let’s get into it.

Let’s take a closer side-by-side view for each stage.

PLG vs. SLG Channels for <$1M ARR

Key differences:

• Product-Led Growth (PLG) focuses on organic channels and community-driven engagement. It leans into digital community engagement and leverages social media to drive awareness.

• Sales-Led Growth (SLG) prioritizes direct sales and outreach. It often relies on founder-led sales efforts and uses the founder’s network to build relationships with early adopters.

PLG vs. SLG Channels for $1M – $5M ARR

Key differences:

• Product-Led Growth (PLG) focuses on digital channels and user-driven growth. Influencers and ads help to increase visibility. Virtual events foster user engagement and build a strong community around the product. Referrals from customers, partners, and affiliates, along with review platforms, help drive growth organically.

• Sales-Led Growth (SLG) prioritizes direct sales engagement. It emphasizes thought leadership to establish authority and credibility. Outbound sales efforts target potential clients and leverages events for direct interaction with prospects.

PLG vs. SLG Channels for $5M – $20M ARR

Key differences:

• Product-Led Growth (PLG) focuses on driving growth through the product itself and community engagement, along with ads and events for increased visibility.

• Sales-Led Growth (SLG) prioritizes targeted and relationship-driven approaches. ABM targets high-value accounts and events provide direct engagement opportunities.

PLG vs. SLG Channels for $20M ARR (SLG)

Key note:

• Both Product-Led Growth (PLG) and Sales-Led Growth (SLG) models often converge into a more sales-led approach as companies reach the $20M+ ARR stage.

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More for your eardrums

The GTM Podcast – subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

GTM 105: Scaling to $100M ARR with Creative Demand Gen and Hiring Discipline with Sam Blond

Sam Blond is the former Chief Revenue Officer at Brex, where he scaled revenue from $1M to hundreds of millions in ARR. Prior to Brex, Sam served as VP of Sales at Zenefits, growing revenue from $1M to $70M in just two years. After his operating roles, Sam joined Founders Fund as an investing partner before leaving to co-found a new startup.

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Vanta – raised a $150M Series C. Vanta was founded on a mission to secure the internet and protect consumer data. With this latest round of funding, they will:
– Accelerate their upmarket momentum with a new way to GRC.
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– Deliver more AI-powered innovations to reduce manual work for security teams.

Hottest GTM jobs of the week

1. Regional VP of Sales at OfferFit (Remote – US & Canada)

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GTM industry events

Upcoming go-to-market events you won’t want to miss:

• Catalyst 2024: August 14 -16 (Chicago, IL)

• Live Book Summary on the Cold Calling Manuscript: August 14 (Online)

• SaaSOpen: September 5 – 6 (NYC)

• SaaStr Annual: September 9 – 12 (Bay Area, CA)

• INBOUND: September 18 – 20 (Boston, MA)

• GTMfund Annual Retreat [community]: October 4 – 6 (San Diego, CA)

• GTM Summit: October 14 – 16 (Austin, TX)

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Have a great weekend ahead.

Barker

This newsletter was entirely written and edited by myself (Scott Barker) and Sophie Buonassisi (not AI!).

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