sales-led growth

Definition

A go-to-market strategy dependent on human sales teams to drive customer acquisition, typical in complex B2B products with long sales cycles. The opposite of letting the product sell itself.

Example Usage

Enterprise security requires sales-led growth since CISOs won't buy six-figure contracts through self-service.

Origin

Defined in contrast to 'product-led growth' in the mid-2010s

Fun Fact

Sales-led growth companies can have customer acquisition costs 5-10x higher than product-led but often command higher prices and retention.

Source: Go-to-market strategy terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

investment memo

An internal document where VCs justify their investment thesis to partners, typically written with supreme confidence that will be mocked at the next downturn. The receipts for future 'I told you so' moments.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

graduated rights

Term sheet provisions where investor rights decrease as the company hits performance milestones. A way to say 'we trust you more as you prove you're not incompetent.'

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

super pro rata

The right to invest more than your proportional share in a subsequent round, allowing early investors to increase their ownership. Pro rata's aggressive older sibling who always wants more.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

anti-dilution provisions

Protective clauses that let early investors maintain their ownership percentage when future rounds price lower, punishing founders for failing to maintain perpetual hockey stick growth. Comes in weighted-average and full-ratchet flavors of pain.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

voting rights

The power to vote on corporate matters, typically held by common stock and sometimes special classes of preferred stock. Theoretically democratic, practically controlled by whoever wrote the term sheet.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

note tsunami

The overwhelming wave of convertible notes and SAFEs that convert to equity during a priced round, often revealing a far more complex cap table than founders realized. The moment when chickens come home to roost, except the chickens are financial instruments.

🚀 Startup / VC

Translate This Term

See “sales-led growth” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Beginner

pending

The legal status of something that's been filed or initiated but not yet resolved—basically stuck in bureaucratic limb...