Fun_Ostrich_5521 Why 98% of SaaS leads never convert (PLG fix)

Fellow founders, I just finished diving deep into Wes Bush's "Product-Led Growth" and honestly, it's a gut punch if you're still doing the traditional sales-led thing.

The brutal reality check:

• 98% of Marketing Qualified Leads never become customers
• Your CAC is probably climbing every quarter
• You're gating demos while competitors let users try first
• Sales teams eat up cash faster than they bring it in

Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so.

What is Product-Led Growth anyway?

Instead of hiring armies of salespeople, your product becomes your best salesperson. Companies like Slack, Zoom, and Dropbox didn't succeed because of great sales pitches – they succeeded because their products sold themselves.

Bush breaks it down: if someone can't buy your product without talking to a human, you're using an outdated, expensive model.

The MOAT Framework (is PLG right for you?)

Before jumping in, assess your readiness:

M - Market Strategy

• Dominant, Disruptive, or Differentiated?

O - Ocean Conditions

• Red Ocean (competitive) or Blue Ocean (new market)?

A - Audience Strategy

• Top-Down (executives) = sales-led works
• Bottom-Up (users discover independently) = PLG gold

T - Time-to-Value

• Can users get meaningful outcomes quickly without help?

The game-changing frameworks:

1. Triple A Sprint (monthly growth engine)

• Analyze: Track signups, upgrades, ARPU, churn, MRR
• Ask: Focus on the 3 growth levers (churn usually has highest impact)
• Act: Make small, consistent improvements

2. Bowling Alley Framework

Think onboarding like bowling with bumpers:

• Product bumpers: Tours (3-5 steps max), progress bars, checklists
• Conversational bumpers: Strategic email sequences
• Remove 30%+ of onboarding steps (most are garbage anyway)

3. Value-Based Pricing

The 10X Rule: Charge based on delivering at least 10x the value customers receive.

Real numbers that matter:

PLG companies get:

• 30% higher valuations than traditional SaaS
• Significantly lower CAC
• Faster scaling with less overhead
• Higher trial-to-paid conversion

Churn benchmarks:

• Small Business: 31-58% annually
• Mid-Market: 11-22%
• Enterprise: 6-10%

Start small (the 1-hour PLG test):

1. Change Request a Demo to Start Free Trial
2. Update landing page copy from demo to trial
3. Track what happens to your conversion rates

That's it. One hour. See if PLG makes sense for your business before building complex systems.

The hard truth:

Bush doesn't sugarcoat it: implementing a successful Product-Led Growth strategy is difficult. But companies that make the transition often see explosive growth.

The question isn't whether PLG will dominate SaaS – it's whether you'll adopt it before your competitors do.

What's your experience with PLG? Are you still gate-keeping demos or have you gone full self-service? Would love to hear what's working (or not working) for your SaaS.