The ultimate guide to product-led sales | Elena Verna

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

April 23, 2023

Duration

1h 16m

Channel

Lenny's Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Elena Verna is a leading growth expert with over 15 years of experience in tech. She was SVP of Growth at SurveyMonkey and interim CMO at Miro, where she built high-performing teams that drove significant growth. She recently served as interim Head of Growth at Amplitude and currently advises and is a board member for early-stage startups. In today’s podcast, we discuss:

• What product-led sales is
• How product-led sales differs from product-led growth
• Unpacking common acronyms: PQAs, PQs, PQLs, and MQLs
• When and how to consider investing in PLS
• Metrics for identifying qualified accounts
• The team, data, and tooling required for implementing PLS
• Common pitfalls to avoid when adding PLS

— Brought to you by Linear—The new standard for modern software development | Braintrust—For when you needed talent, yesterday | Rows—The spreadsheet where data comes to life Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-product-led-sales-elena-verna/#transcript Where to find Elena Verna:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenaverna
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/elenaverna
• Newsletter: https://elenaverna.substack.com/

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Elena’s background and what she’s doing now (07:13) Product-led sales (PLS) vs. product-led growth (PLG) (12:47) How sales solutions can be applied to enterprise-level problems (15:06) Defining enterprise-level problems (17:51) How product-led companies start with PLS (20:30) When to add sales (22:36) Two ways to get to PLS (24:27) Why every sales-led-growth company needs to add PLG (26:50) Two ways you can own revenue (28:37) PQAs, PQs, PQLs, and MQLs (37:17) How to get started adding PLS (42:01) Metrics to identify PQAs (47:00) Why sales should be carefully applied (49:07) Systems, infrastructure, and tooling (50:59) The people and resources required for PLS (53:42) Why you should have a clear ROI for every new hire (55:05) Why product needs to be accountable for monetization with PLS (59:57) Revenue-based goals product teams should have (1:06:28) Common pitfalls startups run into when implementing PLS (1:09:15) Benchmarks and the amount of time needed for implementing enterprise solutions (1:12:04) Using onboarding to profile users (1:13:08) Will AI be the next sales movement? Referenced:

• Elena’s previous episode on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/elena-verna-on-how-b2b-growth-is-changing-product-led-growth-product-led-sales-why-you-should-go-freemium-not-trial-what-features-to-make-free-and-much-more/
• Miro: https://miro.com/
• Figma: https://www.figma.com/
• Elena’s PLS funnel diagram: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/elenaverna_b2b-product-led-sales-guide-activity-7052664130763206658-yxLK/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
• Elena’s memes: https://www.elenaverna.com/memes
• Mixpanel Signal reports: https://mixpanel.com/blog/mixpanel-signal-launch/
• Amplitude Compass chart: https://help.amplitude.com/hc/en-us/articles/235147347-The-Compass-chart-discover-your-users-a-ha-moments
• Looker: https://www.looker.com/
• Tableau: https://www.tableau.com/
• Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/
• HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/
• Marketo: https://nation.marketo.com/
• Waitlist for PLG course on Reforge: https://www.reforge.com/programs/product-led-growth

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Elena Verna

  guest

• Lenny Rachitsky

  host

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, featuring Elena Verna and Lenny Rachitsky, The ultimate guide to product-led sales | Elena Verna explores how Product-Led Sales Turns Usage Data Into Enterprise Revenue Pipelines Elena Verna explains product-led sales (PLS) as the motion where product usage generates and qualifies pipeline for sales, bridging self-serve product-led growth (PLG) with high-value enterprise sales. Instead of marketing alone feeding sales, the product now acquires, activates, and qualifies accounts based on in-product behavior, while sales closes larger, often six-figure, contracts. She contrasts PLG (individual, self-serve value capture) with PLS (turning that usage into enterprise deals) and outlines how to decide if and when a company should invest in PLS. The conversation goes deep into required data, tooling, team structures, benchmarks, and common pitfalls, especially around misusing sales playbooks and not holding product accountable for monetization and pipeline.

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