How a product-led growth approach can benefit you

In part 2 of a two-part blog, App Advisory Plus gold partner Joiin look at how vendors taking up a product-led growth approach can meet consumers’ shifting expectations in the software market. Part 1 explored these changing expectations.

To re-cap part 1, we looked at shifts in the software market and how more innovative software vendors are rightly responding. In a nutshell, this is the shift in software expectations you’ve likely experienced:

·     Software now comes with a consumer-grade experience you enjoy elsewhere – software that’s easy to implement, use and scale. Think plug and play.

·     You can realise the added value early on – software that’s more intuitive, simpler, and quicker to adopt. But don’t mistake simpler for ‘basic’.

·     Vendors look to develop a more meaningful relationship – there are opportunities to play your part in a product’s development. Vendors and consumers work together.

·     Easier on-the-pocket pricing is here – meaning less of a vendor’s costs are included in your price, with traditional sales layers stripped away.

Of course, with all the above, we’re talking about product-led growth, which offers software vendors a clearly defined, strategic way to meet consumers’ shifting expectations regarding the software they’re considering and purchasing.

Firstly, what is product-led growth?

Product-led growth is a business strategy that places a software vendor’s product at the centre of initial contact to successful uptake and use. The product’s features, performance, stickiness and virality do much of the selling. Because it is product-led, the strategy incorporates freemium to premium models, free trials, customer feedback and product development involvement.

Is product-led growth a new thing?

You don’t have to look too far back to see the beginnings of product-led growth. In 2009, Salesforce led the way with its Service Cloud product; since then, many other software-as-a-service (SaaS) products have entered the market. And since 2009, the increasing capabilities of pocket-sized mobile devices have delivered richer digital experiences for consumers.

According to the PLG collective, “tech-savvy users are now demanding more beautiful, intuitive, powerful, and affordable software than the tools they used before."

The latest stats show that product-led growth uptake is rising. 58% of companies have already started doing it, according to Gainsight’s recently published Product-led Growth Index Report, with 47% planning to double their investment.

Is Joiin a product-led growth company?

Yes, we’re very open about our product-led growth strategy and why it is important to us. From our free trial and focus on continuous customer feedback to how we let our product do the talking, being product led is our ethos.

For us at Joiin, it’s about our entire company coming together to create a product that people want to buy in the first place and stick with.

With 32,000 entities across 103 countries relying on us, we’re dedicated to ensuring our product is easy to use, continuously improving and typically lower in price than our sales-led competitors.

Here are a few more stats about Joiin:

·       We’ve implemented 300+ product updates from customer requests.

·       The average time to value for a new Joiin customer is 7 minutes.

·       94% of our customers use self-service.

·       We offer value-based pricing.

·       There is an unlimited amount of collaboration between our team and customers.

·       96% of our customers renew annually.

How product-led growth benefits you

Because many of today’s software vendors reject the idea of schmoozing customers to funnel them along a sales process to close the deal, the focus is instead on a relationship of mutual benefit. It becomes about making the product as good as possible. With that comes a software product that’s easy to implement, use and scale; one that’s more intuitive, simpler, and quicker to adopt, with opportunities to play your part in its development. Ultimately, the vendor can offer a lower-priced product when all this happens, as there aren’t complex sales teams and processes that need to be covered in the price.

 So, if you’re exploring finance software, ask if your money is being spent filling the sales funnel behind you and who is eventually paying for your conversation with a salesperson.

Click here to explore Joiin and its consolidated group reporting app.

Back to part one of this two-part blog.