Not Every Product Should Go PLG. Here's How to Know If Yours Should.

In a bold move to champion product-led growth, I swapped out the beloved demo CTA for a free trial push—after getting Josh and the sales team on my side first, of course. Risky bet or a brilliant strategy?

Sometimes, you just change one little button and everyone freaks out.

Okay, okay, I admit, I was pretty nervous too. But I also knew the website needed this tweak.

Up in the top right, the button in question used to say ‘Book a Demo.’ Swapping it out didn’t seem like such a big deal—reach mattered most, and getting people into the product was the fastest way to show its value.

The thing is, that shiny CTA had been sitting up there, quietly doing its job. Sales liked it. Demos were getting booked. Everything was running smoothly—until the moment I said we needed to get rid of it.

*Cue the dramatic music*

In this episode, Josh and I discuss why we ditched the demo CTA button and what it took to make the change pay off.

What you’ll learn  

• The method behind the madness of changing the core CTA button
• How sometimes the smallest changes have the biggest impact (we promise!)
• How switching that one button quadrupled signups
• Why we’re not shy about showing our product
  ‍

‍

TOP THREE TAKEAWAYS

Takeaway 1: Consider the behind-the-scenes actions of a PLG approach

That big shiny “Book a Demo” button seemed like a no-brainer. If you want demos, you ask people to book them, right? And it wasn’t like it didn’t work. It just could’ve been working better.

BUT changing a button alone isn’t a full PLG strategy—where growth is driven by the product’s value and ease of use. Trust me, I’d love to tweak a button and watch sales skyrocket with everyone cheering me on.

The reality? You need everyone in leadership on board to make this a success. Product needed to be on board, so did Engineering. And as for Sales? They’d need a ton of reassurance.

The biggest task = design a path to get people from free trial to paid product. That meant deciding what bits would be available in the free version. And more importantly, working out the special nudges that would convince folks to upgrade later on.

Our demo request form had to get an upgrade, too. We added an new first step, sort of an “are you sure you don’t want to try the free product first?” move. This was because we had a number of folks booking a demo when they were only interested in the free products’ capabilities. 

It ended up wasting time for both our would-be free customers, and our sales team. This new flow moved them to the free product faster, and kept them off the sales team’s calendars.

To sum it up, Team Sales and Team Marketing needed to be aligned on this. It was a big ask. But once the results started flowing in, the numbers spoke for themselves.

‍

‍

Takeaway 2: Know when freemium fits your PLG strategy

There’s just something about the word FREE that grabs attention—and freaks the hell out of sales and finance guys. So, to really sell this new idea, we needed to be honest: does it even make sense for us to push free trials?

We already had a great free product, we just weren’t capitalizing on it like we could have been. (I actually had customers tell me they didn’t realize we HAD a free product!) And our price point (low- to mid-five figures) made it ideal for getting people in fast and showing value quickly.

But the PLG or freemium model won’t work for everyone. For example, if the product comes with a hefty price tag and is deeply integrated across a business, a free trial can actually become more hurdle than help. Typically, a proof-of-concept (POC) works best in that case—a short, paid trial of one use case to prove the value of the product, after which the customer can decide if they want to continue using the product or not.

‍

‍

Takeaway 3: Leverage leadership support to move fast

 Marketing can sometimes feel like pushing a boulder uphill—trying to sell every little idea to the boss before you can even begin. Worst case? They say “no,” right?

But, if they say yes, it becomes their job to provide air cover for you when the rest of leadership gets cold feet.

As Josh says, it’s on him to represent Marketing’s big, bright (sometimes crazy) ideas to the rest of the executive team. So when I suggested swapping out that CTA button, Josh was all in—ready to back me up if things got messy. 

‍

‍

Big, risky changes can seem scary at first glance. But when you’re on a mission to grow, sometimes breaking “the way things have always been done” can clear the way for a strategy that helps sales take off.

Catch the full episode (and subscribe to This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast!) on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform.