As businesses constantly seek ways to drive growth and gain a competitive edge, the product-led growth strategy emerges as one of the most popular paradigms for forward-thinking enterprises. However, this can only be accomplished if companies are aware of and able to track the most important factors contributing to product-led growth. This is where PQAs, or Product Qualified Accounts, come in.
In a PLG framework, PQAs play a crucial role since they reveal whether or not a product is successfully meeting the needs of its target audience and whether or not those target consumers will ultimately become paying clients. Considering the PLG market grew from $21B in 2016 to $687B in 2020, it’s something you just have to consider.
Deploying PQA in Different Phases of the Customer Journey
In both onboarding and expansion scenarios, PQAs can aid in accurately targeting upselling and cross-selling campaigns, which can be critical in driving growth and success for a product-led growth strategy.
When it comes to onboarding, it is important to consider both user-level and company onboarding. A key aspect of this is determining if the account has added teammates, which is a simple yet essential question to ask. PQAs can be particularly effective in onboarding when an account has reached a certain PQA score and is ready for more personalized onboarding by Sales or CSM. Factors such as firmographic information, including company size, can significantly determine if a custom onboarding experience is warranted.
Similarly, PQAs can be leveraged in expansion efforts, with different variables factoring into the scoring model. For example, the frequency of adding new users to the team may be considered in scoring an expansion PQA instead of the time the team takes to complete onboarding for an onboarding PQA.
Achieving Better Product-led Growth with PQAs
By leveraging PQAs, businesses can identify areas where their product is falling short and take action to improve the user experience, drive engagement, and increase conversion rates.
Higher Conversion Rates
Since PQAs have previously experienced the product’s advantages, they are more likely to convert into paying customers. They are conversant with the product, comprehend the value it provides, and have already entered the deliberation phase of the purchasing process. Hence, their conversion rate is greater than that of conventional leads, who are still in the stage of the purchase process known as awareness.
Improved Customer Retention
PQAs are already pleased with the offering, which results in higher client retention rates. Customers who are pleased with a product are more likely to continue using that product, renew their subscriptions to it, and gesturing that product to others. This will increase client loyalty, leading to more revenue for the firm.
Faster Sales Cycle
Since PQAs have previously used the product and are familiar with its benefits, their sales cycle is significantly shorter. They have a higher propensity to make a purchase choice quickly and go farther down the sales funnel as a result. This results in a more rapid revenue increase and a more effective sales procedure.
How PQAs Enhance Capabilities for Product Development
PQAs are responsible for providing the product development team with insightful input. The product development team may enhance the product and produce a better user experience by first understanding how consumers use it and what they find useful. This results in a product that is more likely to satisfy the wants and preferences of the consumer, which in turn boosts the client’s satisfaction and loyalty to the brand.
Using first-party product data to identify strong customer interest and intent signals, OpenView Partners prioritized their sales efforts and allocated their resources more effectively. This allows them to focus on the accounts with the highest potential value, which in turn can lead to greater customer acquisition and retention rates. Their approach involved splitting accounts into high and low-fit categories based on firmographics (e.g., company size, industry) and product signals or intent (e.g., how frequently a customer uses a particular feature). In this manner, the reps were able to prioritize their efforts by identifying the accounts with the best fit and highest signals, allowing them to focus on those accounts first.
Bottom Line
When deployed effectively, PQAs provide insightful input to product development teams, resulting in better products that satisfy the wants and preferences of consumers, boosting client satisfaction and loyalty to the brand. PQAs also lead to higher conversion rates, improved customer retention, faster sales cycles, and enhanced capabilities for product development.
