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Introducing Sales Led Growth (SLG)
Introducing Sales Led Growth (SLG)
What is Sales Led Growth (SLG)?
How to Get The Best From Marketing & Sales. The Must Have Growth Marriage For Every SLG Business
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Introducing Sales Led Growth (SLG)
Throughout October, we explored strategies and insights on Product Led Growth (PLG), examining how SaaS and technology companies achieve revenue growth by prioritising product accessibility (Freemium vs Free Trial), usability and testing. If you missed it you can click here to learn more about PLG.
However, a vast amount of businesses operate under a Sales Led Growth (SLG) model, relying on human engagement, sales negotiations, and personal connections to drive revenue.
In November, our focus will be on SLG and we will delve into the attributes that can strengthen the relationship between marketing and sales teams; a marriage of growth matrimony.
What is Sales Led Growth (SLG)?
Sales-Led Growth (SLG) is a business strategy focused on achieving commercial growth through human-to-human relationships, with dedicated sales teams driving customer acquisition and retention via tailored, high-touch engagement. This traditional approach relies on exceptional communication, deep market knowledge, and strong organisational and time management skills.
SLG vs PLG - Factors Impacting Growth
Examining the factors that drive Sales-Led Growth (SLG) and Product-Led Growth (PLG) reveals how each approach responds differently to external and operational pressures. Factors like market dynamics, competition, geographic focus, and stakeholder engagement impact SLG and PLG in unique ways.
SLG relies heavily on relationship-building and adaptability, while PLG leverages scalability and automation to allow customers to self serve and purchase without sales involvement.
The following factors shape each model's strategies, challenges, and resilience, ultimately uncovering the core difference in their reliance on human interaction versus product-driven growth.
Market Conditions
SLG.
In SLG environments, market conditions shape both operations and finances. For example, political changes like Rachel Reeves' recent budget can drive up hiring costs, forcing SLG companies to adjust pricing or manage expenses, which may affect their competitiveness. Sales teams often need to justify price increases to clients, making selling even harder.
PLG.
PLG businesses, while also affected by economic shifts, are less vulnerable to people and commission related costs. Since they typically use scalable, automated user acquisition channels, hiring costs don’t directly impact product usage or growth, making PLG companies more resilient to changes in the hiring market.
Both PLG and SLG models depend on people and departments, but this reliance manifests differently. In PLG, the product drives sales, creating a more automated process. In SLG, human relationships and engagement are essential to convert leads into customers. However, combining SLG’s human and relationship focus with a marketing team that drives analytics, creativity, and lead generation growth becomes a shared responsibility, lessening the heavy reliance on sales alone.
These comparisons underscore how SLG’s reliance on people-centric operations makes it more sensitive to market, operational, and ethical challenges, while PLG’s automated and product-driven approach allows for scalability with fewer dependencies on traditional, high-touch sales interactions.
The overarching theme and key differentiator is reliance. In a PLG model, the product is designed to sell itself, creating a more automated and self-sustaining sales process. In contrast, SLG organisations depend heavily on human engagement and personal relationships to convert leads into customers. Whilst this isn’t anything new to sales professionals, having a meaningful and productive relationship with a marketing team that can provide analytical insights, creative support, sales collateral and more, means the reliance becomes a shared responsibility.
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Learn more about PLG with our FREE download. Find out more.
Discover more about PLG and read our blog What is Product-Led Growth (PLG) And Is It Really Something New?
The 18 Sales Reliance Pain Points
Sales professionals in Sales-Led Growth (SLG) models bear significant responsibility for driving business growth, often without the support that Product-Led Growth (PLG) strategies offer. This reliance places a heavy burden on sales teams to meet aggressive targets, maintain strong client relationships, and continually generate leads, all while managing client education and other roles. The strain on sales professionals becomes clear when examining these critical areas where they are expected to excel with minimal support.
18 Reasons Why Sales Professionals Need Support
In an SLG environment where sales teams carry the burden of growth, and this reliance is ingrained in the organisation's culture, the emphasis remains on people as the drivers of growth—unlike in PLG businesses. So, what can be done to expand SLG companies? The journey to growth in SLG requires input from marketing, sales, and leadership:
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How marketing can strengthen brand, lead generation, and communication.
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How sales teams can trust marketing to support their efforts and create new opportunities, while also evolving and adapting.
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How leadership can create steps for a progressive, growth-focused culture.
1. Constant Pressure to Meet Targets
Marketing:
Develop consistent lead-generation campaigns to provide a steady flow of qualified leads, reducing pressure on sales to generate their own leads. Marketing and Sales need to agree what makes an Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) and an Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) with clear rules of engagement around the actions and processes surrounding pipeline and CRM management.
Sales:
Prioritise engaging MQLs to maximise in market opportunities. Prioritising these leads produces new revenue opportunities for sales prospecting.
Leadership:
Create incentives for improving the quality of MQLs and conversion of SQLs. Providing a collaborative environment where marketing can improve the targeting and creation of quality MQLs and where sales can give feedback on how marketing can support their sales efforted throughout the pipeline.
2. Limited Bandwidth for Strategic Outreach
Marketing:
Understand the needs of sales and leadership and create strategic opportunities to own outreach tactics and communication.
Sales:
For sales to maximise marketing efforts to drum up enquires and raise awareness, marketing need context to each client contact. This may require transitioning legacy operations and utilising a method where the wider business can have information and insights on client activity.
Leadership:
Incentivise accurate CRM data entry from sales, ensuring that marketing can action and react to client contact developments.
3. Constant Prospecting in Saturated Markets
Note: Before we start this point it's worth noting that the answer isn’t to always find new markets or regions. For example, builders merchants that have operations in the South East would find it difficult to price and service competitively in regions that don't have the required infrastructure.
Marketing:
If new regions or markets aren't an option then marketing teams need to be more strategic and think beyond just advertising. Good marketing teams and agencies should understand the saturation and find ways for the brand and services to stand out and generate interest.
Sales:
In saturated markets sales people will have to be reactive to respond to MQLs but be proactive to connect with their target audience and build their personal brand and authority.
Leadership:
Invest in marketing technology to explore new segments, focusing on sales efforts outside traditional audiences. If this isn’t an option then invest in supporting new marketing tactics, build authority around the brand and support and invest in the personal branding of sales leaders.
4. Lead Generation and Outbound Initiatives
Marketing:
Deploy inbound strategies, such as content and SEO ranking, to draw in fresh leads and reduce reliance on outbound sales alone. But create a test environment to try new tactics to generate leads and outbound efforts.
Sales:
Embrace the skill sets that marketing can offer to drive your personal branding, authority, speaking opportunities and other initiatives that put sales people at the heart of the conversation, whether that is online or in person. Be open to trying new ways to sell.
Leadership:
Position marketing as a revenue-generating function, encouraging greater budget allocation for lead generation. Be open to creating and rewarding a test and learn environmental learning from failures and celebrating successes.
5. Responsibility for Multiple Roles
Marketing:
Understand the pressures and the different hats worn by sales and create a clear plan to what marketing can own and what is needed to make this a success. Strive to lighten the load on sales but do it in a way that takes into account the efforts they have taken. There could be gold nuggets of information which should inform the marketing direction and priorities.
Sales:
Embrace the lighter workload by working with marketing to increase the conversion rates across the pipeline. Be prepared to embrace technologies like CRMs and other ideas to strengthen your ability to sell.
Leadership:
Clearly define roles and introduce shared KPIs between sales and marketing to promote cross-functional cooperation. There needs to be clear planning and accountability through shared KPIs. Ultimately, you need both functions to increase the growth of the business and to do this marketing needs sales and sales need marketing. It's key they understand and appreciate that.
6. Expectation of High Responsiveness
Marketing:
Implement automated workflows to pre-qualify leads and notify sales professionals only when leads are ready for outreach.
Sales:
Integrate marketing workflows into daily operations, allowing for timely responses without burnout.
Leadership:
Ensure you have the infrastructure to enable automation. This can be an expensive route so ensure you feel comfortable that the plan for automation will deliver value and ROI. Understand how can technologies and automation prevent burnout, increase sales and deliver leading service.
7. Pipeline Management Without Dedicated Marketing Support
Marketing:
Actively monitor pipeline activity, intervening with targeted campaigns to fill in gaps and address lulls. For example, how can marketing keep SQLs engaged and keep the brand front of mind.
Sales:
Communicate pipeline needs to marketing, fostering a responsive and supportive pipeline strategy. Marketing is a sales asset, be sure to use them to help convert SQLs.
Leadership:
Cultivate a culture of transparency and collaboration, encouraging open discussions on pipeline health.
8. Accountability for Revenue
Marketing:
Take responsibility for planning and executing marketing initiatives from awareness through to MQL. But remember 10 MQLs that create 10 SQLs is better than 100 MQLs that lead to 2 SQLs. Whilst lead volume is important the objective needs to focus on the quality of the leads. Sales can’t sell if leads are actively interested.
Sales:
Work with marketing to understand lead scoring, enhancing the focus on high-potential prospects. Create a relationship with marketing where both sales and marketing can be transparent and open to feedback and opportunities.
Leadership:
Include both marketing and sales performance in revenue-based KPIs to foster shared accountability.
9. Relationship Building with Minimal Support
Marketing:
Equip sales with relationship-nurturing content, such as personalised email templates or insights about the client. Present and support ideas for relationship building both digitally and in person.
Sales:
Use these resources to build trust and deepen connections with clients. Spend more time building relationships with new connections and leads.
Leadership:
Emphasise relationship-building metrics, adjusting KPIs to reflect long-term client value. Understand what marketing and sales need to nurture new and existing relationships. Emphasise relationship-building metrics, adjusting KPIs to reflect long-term client value. Understand what marketing and sales need to nurture new and existing relationships.
10. Managing Client Retention
Marketing:
Develop retention-focused campaigns to engage existing clients and inform them about new offerings. Be open to ideas from sales and adaptable to address client needs.
Sales:
Log and update client changes, including staff changes and purchase requirements. Use your relationship-building skills to strengthen relationships, meet wider team members, and address potential risks to ARR or future sales.
Leadership:
Reward retention efforts, building commission structures that favour customer loyalty and repeat business. Consider initiatives like client surveys, Net Promoter Score (NPS) and creating client network opportunities.
11. Customer Education Responsibilities
Marketing:
Create educational resources (e.g. webinars, how-to guides) for customer use, reducing direct involvement from sales. Unless there is a specific product marketing function where they are expected to be product experts, general marketing teams should lean on the product experts to make the education materials as meaningful as possible. Understand the sellable features and what the target audience like and need to make an informed decision.
Sales:
Direct clients and prospects to these resources to help inform their purchase decisions and future purchase considerations.
Leadership:
Customer education is key for overcoming barriers to conversion and speeding up the decision making process. Leadership need education materials that meet the needs of the audience (e.g. video content, brouchures, FAQs, combination of them all) which is driven by marketing. Sales must utilise this content to achieve their KPIs.
12. Understanding Client Needs Independently
Marketing:
I am not the biggest fan of personas personally but in some businesses personas can help demonstrate that marketing understands the ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). A robust ICP can provide sales and leadership with the confidence that marketing is targeting the correct audience.
Sales:
Combine the insights from marketing with sales emails, calls, meetings and networking within the CRM to ensure that there is a continuous feedback loop surrounding the clients needs.
Leadership:
Encourage collaborative workshops where sales and marketing teams discuss customer insights.
13. Reactive Workflows Based on Client Demands
Marketing:
Anticipate client needs by delivering campaigns aligned with industry trends or seasonal demand. Not forgetting that client demands might also be driven by external market factors.
Sales:
Sales know the client demands more than anyone in the business. They should identify commonalities along with coming up with ideas and themes that clients might be interested in or asking for. These insights should be shared with marketing in order to deliver on client demands but also create effective marketable opportunities.
Leadership:
Standardise processes for sales and marketing alignment, reducing the reactive nature of client requests. Changing client demands and expectations will always result in the odd curveball. It's making sure you have a culture that expects these moments and when they do everyone works together to get the deal over the line.
14. Inventory Awareness for Targeted Outreach
Marketing:
Run campaigns for specific inventory items, driving demand for underutilised stock and reducing manual sales tasks.
Sales:
Use inventory-linked marketing insights to tailor your outreach to specific client needs. When marketing is running campaigns (e.g., email campaigns or paid advertising) and sales are engaged in outreach (e.g., cold calling or re-engaging lapsed customers), the combined efforts help deliver more effective, targeted outreach.
Leadership:
Integrate inventory metrics into sales planning, aligning stock awareness with marketing strategies.
15. Sales Cycle Length and Negotiation Demands
Marketing:
Equip sales with client-focused case studies and ROI calculators to streamline negotiations. Be prepared to focus on keeping the brand front of mind to key stakeholders.
Sales:
Leverage marketing resources to reduce the length of the sales cycle by addressing common objections. Marketing can produce these assets but only if sales communicate effectively what they need and why. This means bringing marketing on the journey with you so they can help engage and communicate throughout the sales process.
Leadership:
Value speed-to-close metrics, encouraging collaborative strategies to shorten the cycle. Encourage trends and themes to be identified so that marketing and sales efforts can be used across multiple deals.
16. Feedback Loops for Product Improvement
Marketing:
It should be second nature for marketing teams to collect and analyse customer feedback. Sharing these insights with sales to inform strategic planning is essential. Sales can overlay specific client insights to help guide the analyse and its effectiveness.
Sales:
Use marketing’s insights combined with client feedback to suggest product improvements and revenue opportunities.
Leadership:
Empower marketing and sales to influence product decisions by formalising feedback collection and application. However, be aware that sales may have short-term objectives to close a deal rather than contributing to longer-term growth planning.
17. Adaptation to Product or Service Changes
Marketing:
Develop targeted, customer-facing campaigns to communicate product updates and service changes. Collaborate with sales to provide ready-to-use resources, such as update summaries and FAQs to streamline client communication. Stay responsive to sales feedback, adjusting campaigns as needed to maximise impact and relevance.
Sales:
Stay informed on product changes by engaging with marketing’s resources and updates. Proactively share this information with clients, explaining how these changes add value or impact current use. Present yourself as a knowledgeable advisor, able to translate updates into client-specific benefits.
Leadership:
Ensure that critical product information from product, service, merchandiser, or distribution teams is digitised and integrated in real time for all teams. Where ecommerce is part of the revenue mix, this information should be automatically updated and accessible to enable sales and marketing to plan and react promptly and effectively.
18. Accountability for Revenue
Marketing:
Ultimately within an SLG business, marketing should love sales and sales should love marketing. The two are intrinsically linked, a marriage of growth matrimony. Marketing need to demonstrate they can deliver their part to earn the respect of sales.
Sales:
Likewise, marriage is a two way street. If marketing is proving their worth, benefiting sales (and ultimately helping sales achieve their targets and commission), then sales have to show their commitment. To keep marketing in the loop, update CRM in good time (after all marketing have helped to lighten the load so sales have time to do it) and ultimately take marketing on the journey with them.
Leadership:
Putting these teams together was the idea approved and implemented by leadership.
Leadership is the matchmaker and at times the counsellor, for the teams to thrive they need the tools to do the best possible job. Create a culture where teams can learn together, fall together and climb together. Shift from individual KPIs to team-oriented goals that reward cross-functional collaboration. Prioritise metrics that measure joint impact, such as the combined lead-to-close rate or total pipeline growth, to encourage collective success. Regularly review these metrics with both teams, emphasising the value of collaborative efforts to achieve sustainable growth.
Conclusion
In a Sales-Led Growth (SLG) environment, the relationship between sales and marketing isn’t just a partnership—it’s a marriage that shapes the very future of the business. For SLG to thrive, marketing must embed commercial thinking into every campaign, positioning itself as a true driver of sales success. Sales, in turn, must value the commission opportunities that strong marketing brings, understanding that this potential is best unlocked when they work hand-in-hand with marketing. Both functions need each other to navigate the complex, evolving landscape of customer acquisition and retention. And at the heart of this unity lies leadership’s role as the matchmaker, creating a structured, collaborative culture that goes beyond just hitting numbers.
Leaders must empower this alliance by establishing an environment where teams can learn together, fall together, and ultimately climb together—from shared goals to cross-functional KPIs that celebrate joint success. In this SLG marriage, each team’s growth is interwoven with the others. Only when marketing and sales invest their efforts in each other’s success, with leadership setting a clear, supportive vision, can SLG businesses reach their full potential.
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