Short and sweet this time. I've been thinking about this question in a few ways recently and am putting my thoughts down in a public setting.
The more time I spend in marketing and growth land, the more true the old saying that B2C marketing is the forecast for B2B marketing becomes. Overall, I see much more that is similar than different. That being said, there are pretty important differences. I see believe this is an evolution in B2B motions that's just getting started (from sales led to product led).
Here are a few differences I've been noodling on:
Trust and transparency -
PLS is an exercise in trust, for both parties. From the vendor side, trust the customer is able to, then will initiate an interaction and self-serve the first few chapters. From the customer side, it's try before you buy. Also, you have to trust it's worth spending your time and energy using the product.
Bottom-up vs. top-down -
Starting with the practitioners and growing at the 'grassroots' level flips the traditional sales motion on it's head. PLS is a huge enabler for the bottom-up motion, which if done well, is very effective and hard to combat.
For top-down sales, often the barrier is adoption and buy in at the practitioner level. For bottom-up sales, often the barrier is adoption and buy in at the exec level. Which in my opinion is an easier problem to solve, because you already have their practitioners onboard.
Customer centric pricing -
Typically, product led motions have usage based pricing or pricing tethered to usage. Pay as you go type models, scaling up and down based on need. Traditional B2B SaaS is a contract, based on service tiers and/or seats. Sold on a sales cycle, person to person, with set renewal periods and the whole thing.
The major difference I see here is the customer centricity. First, usage based is better for customers, it's entirely tailored to them specifically. Second, it's a powerful forcing function for the company to continuously stay aligned with their customers and deliver increasing value.
Farming vs hunting -
Last thing I'll mention is selling motion for product led is more similar to farming, where traditional sales led is more similar to hunting. In marketing terms, inbound vs. outbound. Product led leverages much more first party data and is more about education than persuasion (if those are actually different dimensions). Product led sales requires engagement and distribution to work well and result in giving sales lay-ups.
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