Product-Led Certified: Learn the Fundamentals for Free

ProductLed

ProductLed

Last Updated
March 4, 2023
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Product-Led Fundamentals is a free training that breaks down which businesses should (or shouldn’t) become product-led, why it’s critical to think about this now, and how to create a strong foundation for successfully building a product-led model.

You can start the free training here.

Not sure if it's worth your time?

Let's dig into what you'll get by taking our training.

What’s Unique About the Product-Led Fundamentals Program?

Here's why you should take our PLG Fundamentals certification:

  • You can watch it anytime: This on-demand course is delivered straight to your inbox. You can access it anywhere, anytime. And it only takes 44-minutes.
  • We cover all your bases: You’ll get clear on whether your business should be going product-led, how to go about it the right way if you decide to transition to PLG, and which critical steps you need to follow to make it a success

Once you’ve completed the training, and pass the final exam, you'll receive your Product-Led Growth Fundamentals Certificate. In an industry where product-led growth is now table stakes for SaaS companies, getting PLG certified will set you apart in a crowded job market.

What exactly can I expect to learn?

Here's what we cover when you get product-led certified:

  • Why product-led businesses tend to scale much faster and how you can tap into the same powerful drivers
  • The three specific market forces that are quickly making PLG the only way for many SaaS companies to survive
  • How to establish a solid foundation for your PLG model and why it’s not as simple as ‘just launching a free trial’
  • Three mindset shifts your company needs to make and how to create a product-led culture that drives success
  • The 4-step framework that every company should follow when developing their free trial or freemium model

Is Product-Led Growth Just a Fad?

Three out of four Business to Business (B2B) buyers would rather self-educate than learn about a product from a sales representative, according to Forrester.

This trend does not apply only to small and mid-size businesses. As Gainsight notes, “Enterprise buyers also expect to try and evaluate software in an easy, frictionless way.”

Over the last 5 years, customer acquisition costs have risen by over 50%. That's a 10% increase every year.

At the same time, customer willingness to pay has gone down 30%.

You don't have to be a math magician to realize that if you don't change your current strategy, you're going to hit a breakeven point and eventually operate an unprofitable business.

Breakeven point for product-led growth as a visual to why you should become product led certified

At face value, both of these opposing forces mean that operating a sales-led company is going to get harder in the next 5 years.

"The more it costs you to sell something, the more it will cost others to buy it."

Paul Graham, founder of YCombinator

Consumers are finally realizing that they're picking up "the tab" for an expensive sales process, not a more valuable product. As a result, they expect more for less and this trend shows no signs of stopping.

On the flip side, why are so many people gravitating towards Product-Led Growth?

What Are the Main Benefits Of Product-Led Growth?

Product-led businesses have an unfair advantage and enjoy access to a dominant growth engine and significantly lower Customer Acquisition Costs (CACs).

1. Dominant Growth Engine

Product-led businesses tend to scale faster than their competitors in two powerful ways:

Wider top-of-funnelA free trial or freemium model opens up your funnel to people earlier in the customer journey. This is powerful because, instead of prospects filling out your competitor’s demo requests, they’re evaluating your product.

Rapid global scale: While your competitors are busy hiring new sales reps for each region under the sun, you can focus on improving your onboarding process to service more customers around the world in a fraction of the time.

2. Significantly Lower Customer Acquisition Costs

Free software also builds a moat around your business in three powerful ways:

Faster sales cycles: By having your prospects onboard themselves, you can significantly reduce your prospect’s time-to-value and sales cycle. Once people experience the value of your product, the next logical thing to do is upgrade. The quicker your users can accomplish a key outcome in your product, the quicker you can convert your free users into paying customers. The conversion rate is important to your growth strategy.

High revenue-per-employee (RPE): Software was always built to scale well, but with a product-led approach, you’re able to do more with fewer people on your team. Less hand-holding means higher profit margins per customer. Just take a look at Ahrefs in 2019. They have a $40 million ARR business with 40 employees.

Better user experience: Since your product is built for people to onboard themselves, people can experience meaningful value in your product without any hand-holding.

The benefits of a product-led GTM strategy don’t stop there. According to OpenView, product-led businesses are valued more than 30% higher than the public-market SaaS Index Fund.

Ready to go beyond the basics? Join our Accelerator Program

Whether you’re selling perfume or software, trying out a product is and always will be an essential part of the buying process. Consumers demand it. Companies that embrace product-led growth align their business model with an undeniable and enduring consumer trend.

The ProductLed Accelerator is our live, online program that helps companies build and launch products with a compelling free experience that encourages users to upgrade.

The program is spread across four weeks:

  • Week 1: You learn how to develop your product-led strategy.
  • Week 2: You identify your product-led model (freemium, free trial, or one of three hybrid models.)
  • Week 3: You learn how to optimize your onboarding sequence so that users reach the core value of your product as quickly as possible.
  • Week 4: You optimize your monetization strategy, allowing you to charge users in a way that aligns with your acquisition model and maximizes upgrades.

Along the way, we provide case studies, decision frameworks, templates, and worksheets so you can learn how to put the strategies to work for your company.

We host Zoom workshops every Tuesday throughout the program to answer questions and offer feedback. You get access to a private Slack group to connect with your cohort and get help from leading industry experts. Plus you have access to all course materials for a year. Enroll today in our next cohort.

If you’re interested in diving deep into product-led growth, be sure to read my bestselling book: Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself. You can read it for free here.

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