Episode 159

159 Wes Bush - From Zero to SaaS Hero: An Unfiltered Guide to Product-Led Triumph

In this episode of the SaaS Fuel podcast, Jeff engages with Wes Bush, renowned in the industry as the "product-led growth guy." Wes shares his wealth of expertise in product-led growth, shedding light on its effectiveness and impact on business growth.

The conversation covers topics such as understanding user needs, creating an irresistible offer, and streamlining the onboarding process to deliver value to users efficiently. They also delve into the core steps of successful and scalable product-led growth and the significance of pricing based on value metrics.

Join us as we explore valuable insights on driving growth and success in SaaS businesses with Wes Bush on SaaS Fuel!

Key Takeaways

00:00 Request a demo to learn about our software.

05:08 Companies simplify processes and solve complex problems.

07:33 Consider vision and strategy for product-led success.

10:13 Understanding the user is crucial for successful apps.

16:22 Irresistible offer is crucial for business success.

18:59 "Using the bowling alley framework for onboarding."

21:27 Customize step to maximize user success.

24:53 Easy and fast pricing decision for customers.

27:37 Pricing based on message volume, and market fit.

31:15 Simplify tracking for core business metrics.

36:18 In product-led companies, hiring comes last.

38:50 Prioritizing process over hiring for problem-solving effectiveness.

41:12 Seamless orchestration of sales and support strategies.

44:06 Free training and system available at productled.com.

Tweetable Quotes

"Understanding that user is paramount to really making this motion work because if you don't know who you're serving, chances are you're not gonna have, like, raving SaaS, where they're like, I love your app. Oh my goodness. Like, what would I do without this app?"— Wes Bush 00:10:23

"You can get people to stack rank them in a survey of, like, okay, sort these by which one makes the most sense for you." — Wes Bush 00:27:59

"So once you find that the process component is all about, okay, how do we understand launch more high impact experiments to tackle this." — Wes Bush 00:33:15

"we're gonna see a lot more of that evolution of, like, where does SaaS, support, success, all kind of blend together? And we're gonna have a lot more kind of, like, low touch sales as well as still enterprise sales that's not going anywhere else." — Wes Bush 00:41:56

"I've seen a lot of companies that have been sales-led, a lot of product-led, both have been very successful, but crossing over seems to be a difficult thing for either side." — Jeff Mains 00:03:56

"I like the value metric. I think that makes a lot of sense. But, you know, if I look at a CRM and they're gonna charge me per contact, do I really wanna do that or would I rather pay per seat? I don't know." — Jeff Mains 00:25:41

"The best way for companies to get that feedback and keep that loop going so that the product experience, implementation, onboarding, activation, all of that keeps getting better and better." — Jeff Mains 00:42:23

SaaS Leadership Lessons

1. Embrace Product-Led Growth: Understand the value of prioritizing product-led growth strategies, focusing on creating a product that sells itself and simplifying the pricing structure to make it easy for users to understand and pay.

2. Iterate and Improve: Continuously iterate and improve the product experience, keeping the feedback loop going to enhance various aspects such as implementation, onboarding, and activation.

3. Understand User Needs: Prioritize understanding user needs and questions before progressing to the next level, particularly in the context of beginner-level users, to deliver value efficiently.

4. Streamline Onboarding: Focus on creating an irresistible offer for businesses and streamline the onboarding process to guide users through the app and minimize steps for users to achieve their milestones.

5. Clarify the Vision: Clarify the overall vision and strategy of the business, as this is often overlooked and can lead to indecision, hindering growth and scalability.

6. Usage-Based Pricing: Consider usage-based pricing models as it can lead to better conversations with customers and increased growth, allowing for alignment with the value provided to customers.

7. Solve Bottlenecks Strategically: Identify and tackle bottlenecks, generate potential solutions, and launch targeted experiments to solve them quickly, involving the entire team, to drive growth and success in SaaS businesses.

8. Simplify Business Metrics: Simplify business metrics to focus on core drivers and accountabilities, which can help in aligning the team towards common goals and driving sustained growth.