Driving Product-Led Growth with a Value Framework

The product-led growth (PLG) era marks a disruption in how SaaS companies interact with customers. A good working definition of PLG is that the product itself is the vehicle for acquiring, retaining, and expanding customer accounts.

PLG companies share some characteristics. First, their solution is a significant upgrade from the previous status quo. Second, freemium or open-source versions usually feature a frictionless (meaning minimal human interaction) customer experience. Not every company has these characteristics. But the reality is that customer expectations have shifted, and the most successful companies in today’s B2B tech market are borrowing from the PLG model in order to satisfy the demand for a frictionless approach to customer engagement. 

Whether your company drives revenue from more traditional sales-and-marketing-led efforts or has a purely PLG-driven approach, the fundamentals of selling SaaS Solutions remain the same. Organizations get ahead of competitors by: 

(1) Ensuring company-wide clarity on the value they provide for their customers, and 

(2) Structuring themselves in ways that enable delivering that value, capturing it in negotiations, and maintaining the value throughout the ongoing business.

Getting Aligned on Value

The highest-performing SaaS firms edge out the competition by achieving cross-functional alignment on the value and differentiation they provide to customers. For some, that journey means improving alignment between the product development and growth teams that manage the self-serve funnel. For others, it could mean creating better alignment between selling and customer success teams that step in when free users show buying signals. The department names and functions may change, but the power of alignment on your value proposition will never change.

An exercise we use to help clients align on the value they provide is to have clients consider their answers to these Four Essential Questions: 

1. What problems do you solve for your customers?

2. How specifically do you solve those problems?

3. How do you do it differently from your competition?

4. Where have you done it before?

Without language and methodology built on consistent answers to these questions, customer-facing teams will continue struggling to uncover and attach their solutions to big problems that demand urgency and funding. 

At Force Management, we work with a cross-functional group of leaders to achieve agreement on the answers to these Four Essential Questions. Once aligned, we work with these leaders to build a tangible tool for transformation which we call the Value Framework.

What is a Value Framework?

The Value Framework isn’t a script; it’s a navigational tool that guides your customer engagement process, product development roadmap, and marketing collateral. It’s a guide and common language your teams can leverage to maintain messaging alignment on the value and differentiation that are top-of-mind for your most influential buying audiences.

Here are five key characteristics of the Value Framework:

1. It outlines what's important to the buyer

Even in freemium models, buyers want to know that their needs are understood and that your product provides the best possible solution. That message and connection must still be communicated, even through the website, app, or other customer-facing materials. If Product Development, Marketing, and Sales can't align on why people buy your products, you will suffer from inconsistent messages in the marketplace, time wasted describing features that aren’t important to your buyer, and ultimately, an ineffective means of distribution. A Value Framework outlines the specific reasons companies would choose to purchase your solution. 

2. It provides a tool to uncover business pain

Opportunities are won or lost on discovery. Companies using free trial periods or open source versions gather valuable information on usage patterns, visited pages, and who’s sending referrals. Your customer-facing teams need questions that can artfully make the connection between usage and quantifiable business pain. By having the ability to understand and quantify your prospect’s business pain, you can articulate the connection for how your product solves their specific pain points. A Value Framework gives your organization a tool for executing discovery for identifying negative consequences to current business challenges–and how your software can solve those problems.

3. It categorizes what makes you different from your competitors

Many sellers default to competing on price and features rather than articulating the differentiators that align with the buyer’s specific needs. A Value Framework gives everyone the talking points that clearly explain your company’s differentiation in ways that map features and functions to the desired buyer outcomes. It’s a comprehensive and concise differentiation cheat sheet that teams can reference, ensuring these selling points remain top-of-mind.

4. It lists success metrics from previous clients

For the buyer, it's all about observing proof that you can do what you say you can do. To be genuinely convinced that your product or service can alleviate the business pain, the buyer needs to be assured of the positive outcomes that come from adopting your solution. Case studies, success metrics, and testimonials aligned to your prospect's needs provide insurance that the buyer is making the right vendor decision. Many companies have these assets, but most of the time they're used inconsistently. A Value Framework organizes these proof points into a reference tool that can (1) be easily accessed by everyone in your organization, and (2) be positioned in ways that align with the top-of-mind issues for your buying audiences.

5. The whole organization can leverage it

Because of the previously mentioned components, a Value Framework drives consistency across the organization. For example, your product team can make development decisions based on the value drivers and competitive differentiators that help your product stand out and maximize product-market fit. Enterprise sellers will leverage marketing more because their collateral uses the same customer language. Your Services department will better understand the promises made to customers during the sales process. A customized Value Framework built with the right inputs intrinsically aligns your entire organization behind those value drivers.

Driving PLG Results with a Value Framework 

In this video, former Segment CRO Joe Morrissey talks about the process of working with Force Management to build Segment’s Value Framework and how it helped an already-successful PLG firm grow ARR by 150% over two years:

The Fundamentals of Growing SaaS Revenue

Whether you engage customers face-to-face, over the phone, or through an app, your ability to close deals relies on your ability to connect with customers on the value you provide. Without language and methodology built on a consistent value message, customer-facing teams will continue struggling to uncover and attach their solutions to big problems that demand urgency and funding.

We’ve assembled this Leader Playbook for PLG companies looking to shift their revenue-driving machine into high gear. Dive in for more resources, strategic advice from other PLG leaders, and case study examples that can help B2B revenue teams engage in topline selling practices. 

Let us put our expertise in selling SaaS and software solutions to work for you. Reach out today to start a conversation about meeting and exceeding your revenue goals.