sales-led growth

Definition

A go-to-market strategy dependent on human sales teams to drive customer acquisition, typical in complex B2B products with long sales cycles. The opposite of letting the product sell itself.

Example Usage

Enterprise security requires sales-led growth since CISOs won't buy six-figure contracts through self-service.

Origin

Defined in contrast to 'product-led growth' in the mid-2010s

Fun Fact

Sales-led growth companies can have customer acquisition costs 5-10x higher than product-led but often command higher prices and retention.

Source: Go-to-market strategy terminology

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acceleration clause

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churned

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Go-to-Market

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🚀 Startup / VC

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