The end of sales and marketing-led growth: what you need to know

Sales and marketing-led growth are heading for a cliff, and every GTM leader knows it. The lead generation channels (email, phone, and InMail) are seeing exponentially diminishing returns. 

Let's face it-- buyers are fatigued. It now takes 34 touches to get a response with cold outreach, and that's just a response - not even an MQL or SQL. 

Most companies have woken up to this reality and are beginning to look at other, newer channels like: 

• Product-led growth: methodology in which user acquisition, expansion, conversion, and retention are all driven primarily by the product itself, offering a freemium version that anyone within a company can adopt. 
• Partner-led growth: selling-through channel partners that resell your product or selling- with alliance partners. 
• Community-led growth: turning a product's users into its best advocates, who go on to share their product experiences with their peers.

We can’t discount any of these channels. They are extremely powerful and can drastically decrease your customer acquisition costs if executed well. 

Enter…

Now, what is Relationship-led growth? It’s the exchange of introductions with trusted relationships to reach the people you want to meet. 

The beauty of relationship-led growth (RLG) is that it is a much faster time to value than the other growth strategies described above. For example, product-led growth often takes substantial investment and time to get off the ground. Users expect a well-polished product that is an order of magnitude better than most top-down alternatives. Partner-led growth also takes a lot of effort and resources and is often best suited for companies that have nailed sales and marketing-led growth strategies. 

It also has various applications aside from just go-to-market. One can use RLG to: make a key hire, land your next job, connect with investors, build partnerships, and network with peers. The reality is that RLG doesn’t just stop there - there are an infinite number of use cases with RLG. 

Most companies have realized that sales and marketing-led growth are no longer viable options for the future. The market has become too competitive, and customers are more challenging to reach than ever. Relationship-led growth may be the answer if you’re looking for a way to stay ahead of the curve. Relationship-led growth is an untapped channel with a very fast time to value.

At Circle of Trust, we can help you get started on this new path today. Want to learn more? Visit our website or contact us for more information.