5 Smart Ways to Amp Up Sales Acceleration in the PLG Era

Sales acceleration doesn’t only involve the sales team.

Now that the product-led growth (PLG) movement is in full swing, it involves a close-knit team of revenue-focused departments.

But with the misalignment between these different teams and disconnected customer experience, where does one even begin?

In this guide, let’s look at the five big ways companies today can increase their revenue target by tenfold, thousandfold, and more.

Breadcrumbs is a co-dynamic revenue acceleration platform that connects cross-functional data dots, giving GTM teams predictive and actionable insights into revenue opportunities. Book a demo with Breadcrumbs to accelerate your revenue today.

Breadcrumbs Defines: What is Sales Acceleration?

Sales acceleration is where a company improves its sales strategy by tenfold and more, so that it can nudge leads down the sales funnel more rapidly and reach its revenue target at an uninterrupted speed.

How can Businesses Increase Sales Acceleration?

1. Align all revenue-focused teams

Everything starts from data, including the head of product’s decision to remove the least used features, the creation of a sales-focused content strategy, and the sales acceleration strategies at a venture-funded company.

Colton De Vos, marketing and communications specialist at Resolute Technology Solutions, agrees. 

He shares with Breadcrumbs, “A strong foundation of data promotes decision-making and acts as a baseline for improvement.” 

However, only 46% of sales reps have data insights on buyer intent. Bear in mind that this is the same survey where 85% of sales reps agree that access to these insights improves their efficiency. 

In product-led growth (PLG), sales acceleration can’t happen in full force when the sales team doesn’t have access to customer-focused data. 

This lack of access leads to silos, inaccurate sales forecasting, and potential revenue loss when left ignored for too long.

If this is the reality of the sales team, what does this say about the other departments?

The solution is simple. 

Invest in a PLG CRM platform and get everyone in your revenue-focused departments to use it wildly. 

The PLG CRM tool is a step above traditional CRMs. 

A single source of truth, the PLG CRM platform houses product data and contact scoring in one place, giving you a complete view of the customer’s journey.

You don’t have to click through multiple tabs to access these customer-focused data. Everything you need is in one place. 

Here’s how you can set up your very first PLG CRM:

1. Connect your favorite product analytics tool with Breadcrumbs
2. Determine what makes a product-qualified lead (PQL) in the Fit and Activity models (e.g., invites three members and creates five documents)
3. Set your PQL scoring model live

Pro Tip: This only applies to PQLs. To get a holistic view of the entire customer journey, you need to also determine your sales-qualified leads (SQLs). Learn how to implement your SQLs on Breadcrumbs here.   

After setting up the PLG CRM tool, get every stakeholder in the revenue team on the same page.

Chris Gadek, VP of growth at AdQuick, advises, “Gain clarity around everyone’s roles and responsibilities. It’ll help you determine how these teams should collaborate to accelerate sales initiatives quickly and seamlessly.”

This will require an overhaul of your processes across the entire organization, especially if your departments have been operating in silos for years. 

These changes tend to involve cross-functional collaboration in all departments. For example, marketing and sales will need to analyze the customer data in the PLG CRM and collaborate to create content that attracts leads for the funnel.

2. Rebuild your website according to the decision process

A website aligned with the customer’s buying journey creates an experience of sliding down a snow hill. 

It grabs instant attention, meets where the prospect is at, and compels them to read the content to the end. And presto, that’s how you get them to take action—whether starting a free trial or clicking the upgrade button.

According to John Dewey, a prominent American scholar and psychologist, there are five steps in the buyer decision process: 

• Problem recognition (e.g., “50% of our leads aren’t closing. They’re poor fits!”)
• Information search (e.g., “low close rate,” “what is lead scoring,” “lead scoring tools”)
• Alternatives evaluation (e.g., “What are the other contact scoring tools out there?”) 
• Choice (a.k.a purchase decision) 
• Outcomes (a.k.a. post-purchase evaluation) 

When Cloudways, a managed cloud hosting platform, evaluated its website based on Dewey’s buyer decision process, it discovered that it missed the third stage: alternatives evaluation.

And customer conversations confirmed it.

“Our prospects were looking for information about how our tool compares with other cloud hosting platforms in the market,” reveals Muhammad Saad Khan, associate VP of marketing at Cloudways. “Our BANT surveys and sales chat reviews validated this.” 

Recognizing an opportunity that’s far too valuable to ignore, the team immediately got to work and created competitive pages, comparing their platform to rivals like WPEngine, Kinsta, and SiteGround. 

As of this writing, Cloudways has created five such pages.

Since then, the company’s seen a 27% jump in sign-ups.

3. Focus on customers who will say yes

Venture-backed companies mustn’t waste resources on unresponsive customers. At this pivotal stage, resource availability can make or break a business. 

“Look at your current marketing and sales strategies and ensure that you’re targeting the right leads,” urges Roy Morejon, co-founder of Enventys Partners. 

“Using this data, you can determine where lead generation falls short. You need to ensure that the marketing team is not wasting their time on leads outside of the targeted demographics.”

The co-founder shares excellent advice. 

Yet, reality shows a different story. 

According to a recent survey from Sales Insights Lab, 71.4% of salespeople agree that half of their prospects are a terrible fit for the product.

Yikes, imagine the number of “No, I’m not interested” the sales team hears every day

To focus your best efforts on prospective customers who (a) fit your buyer persona (or ideal customer profile) and (b) show high buying intent, determine what makes an SQL.

Here’s how it works:

1. Connect your favorite CRM with Breadcrumbs
2. Set up your criteria for an SQL
   1. Add demographic attributes in the Fit model (e.g., “CRO” in the job title field, “manufacturing” in the industry field)
   2. Include sales-ready events in the Activity model (e.g., clicks through the upgrade URL link in a welcome email sequence)
3. Set the scoring model live

Breadcrumbs bakes recency and frequency into your lead scoring model, which allows you to identify buying intent the second it happens.

You can also build scoring models for cross-sells, upsells, and churn. Book a demo with Breadcrumbs to accelerate revenue today.  

4. Put customer success before sales in customer journey

65% of customers find a positive experience with a brand to be more influential than great advertising.

So, then. 

What better way to start on the right foot than giving these customers something of value at the beginning of their journey?

Dean Kaplan, president of The Kaplan Group, does this before expecting value in return.

He shares with Breadcrumbs: 

“Having a short time-to-value lies at the heart of our strategy. Customers should realize the product’s value for themselves as quickly as possible. You need to rapidly get them to that ‘aha’ moment.” 

In the F&B ecommerce world, this could take the form of a discount with zero strings attached. In the SaaS world, this could be seamless product-led onboarding in a freemium or free trial. 

5. Partner up with non-competing (but relevant) companies

When you collaborate with brands in related industries, you often become the go-to choice in your field.

The prospective customer who needs an automated marketing reporting tool might also need referral marketing software. The enterprise lead who signs a contract with a digital asset management suite may also need a business communication tool. 

Partnerships with complementary brands tap into a wider audience. 

“Find prospects and partners that have a complementary product or service and offer to promote each other’s business,” echoes Rick Elmore, founder of Simply Noted. 

“This gets you in front of a whole new audience and unlocks revenue acceleration.” 

There’s a lot more to sales acceleration than meets the eye

To the untrained eye, it looks like sales acceleration only involves the sales team. 

But now that we’re stepping into the PLG movement, we need to get every revenue-driven department on the same page to amp up our revenue targets. 

Book a demo with Breadcrumbs to connect your cross-functional data and increase your sales today.