Announcing The PQL Builder

There aren’t many ideas with more hype in software than product led growth (PLG). To some it’s a panacea: the SaaS go-to-market model that doesn’t need sales. To others it’s something that’s over-discussed and under-utilized. When we look at our own position on PLG it’s somewhere between the extremes. It’s not a panacea (hardly anything ever actually turns out to be one), but it does represent a fundamental shift in how software is bought and sold. More specifically, we believe PLG, and the product qualified lead (PQL), represent the next wave of qualification motions for B2B businesses. It might not make for as good a billboard as NO MORE SALESPEOPLE or VIRAL B2B PRODUCTS ARE THE FUTURE but that isn’t what is actually going on, so if you hear it, tell those people to stuff it. 

PQL belongs alongside MQL, and SQL. PQL comes at a moment in time when customers want to do more of their own qualification in the sales process in the form of trials, free usage, and proof of concept. The tradeoff is the customer needs to give the B2B company their data and this is where sales has leverage to qualify, convert and expand that customer more efficiently than ever before. It is a great time to be alive if you are a seller, buyer, or builder in a B2B environment. 

What should our PQL be? 

This is one of the top questions we get. We do our best to help customers think through their PQL with our Milestones product. We tend to start with customers by talking about their Minimum Viable Milestones (MVM). 

The PQL Builder

Today we are announcing the PQL Builder, which gives you the opportunity to think through what your PQL might be and actually publish it out for consumption with your team as a way to spark conversation.

It is available here. We try to loosely guide you through how to think about building your PQL and then we present you with an emailed report when you submit. We welcome your feedback and appreciate you helping us build the best PQL builder possible. 

Want to learn more about how to build PQLs and how to think through how to make your SQL and MQL more data-driven as well? Check out our guides on Milestones! 

We've written extensively about Milestones on our blog. Here are a few good posts to start with:

• A Guide to Building Milestones: an overview of what Milestones are and how to go about designing your own.
• A Guide to Product Qualified Leads (PQL): a deep dive into the ins and outs of Product-Qualified Leads (PQLs).
• PQLs, EQLs, and Milestones for Product-Led Growth: more detail on building good Milestones plus a conversation with a customer.