Expansion playbooks for product-led and sales-led motions
Expansion is a motion, not a hope. Here is how to design plays that compound in both PLG and sales-led environments.
Expansion is a designed motion
Expansion that happens by accident is unrepeatable. Expansion that happens by play is. The work is to specify, at the trigger level, what an expansion-ready account looks like, who is responsible, what is offered, and how the conversation opens.
Triggers that actually predict expansion readiness
Three trigger families do most of the work. Usage triggers: hitting entitlement ceilings, new-user spikes, new feature adoption. Outcome triggers: attainment of a business outcome that unlocks the case for the next workload. Relationship triggers: new exec sponsor, organisational change, budget cycle.
PLG vs sales-led — same plays, different choreography
In PLG motions, the trigger fires inside the product and the first action is usually a contextual prompt plus a low-friction self-serve path, with a sales-assist fallback. In sales-led motions, the same trigger fires into the CRM and routes to the account team, with a structured outreach motion. The play is the same; the choreography is different.
Make multi-threading the precondition, not the consequence
Expansion conversations that land with a single-threaded relationship close less and shrink more. Treat multi-threading as the precondition for serious expansion motion — and design CS plays that earn it well before the trigger fires.
Key takeaways
- Specify expansion plays at the trigger level — by accident is unrepeatable.
- Usage, outcome, and relationship triggers do most of the work.
- Same plays in PLG and sales-led; different choreography.
- Multi-thread before the expansion trigger fires, not after.
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