In B2B SaaS, there are only three ways to grow.

Today, I’m taking you on a tour of all three in our red double-decker bus. At each stop, the bus doors open onto a different company. A different motion. A different world.

Buckle up. It’s going to be a fast ride.

*beep beep*

Your first stop: Pure Sales-Led Growth (SLG)

The doors open and you walk into a glass-walled office.

Rows of desks. Headsets on. Everyone is talking. The energy is electric, competitive, alive. On the wall, a leaderboard tracks exactly who is winning.

A sales rep just hung up a call, turned to the person next to them and high-fived. A demo just got booked.

Across the room, a senior AE is pulling on his jacket. He’s taking a prospect to a game tonight. Relationship first. Deal later.

And over by the window, a rep just closed a tab. A lead came in — small company, real need, real budget. But the ACV doesn’t justify the time. The rep moves on.

That small account, and the thousands like it, will never make it into this pipeline. Not because they don’t need the product. Because the motion can’t serve them profitably.

That’s the ceiling. I’ve been inside a pure SLG B2B SaaS where it wasn’t one passed-on account. It was an entire market the motion was never built to reach.

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*beep beep*

Time to get back on the red double-decker bus!

Your next stop: Pure Product-Led Growth (PLG)

The doors open and you enter an open-plan office. Bright walls. Whiteboards covered in funnel metrics, customer personas and campaign names.

A growth marketer just let out a quiet yes. The campaign she launched last week already drove users to their activation moment, and several of them converted to an annual paid plan this morning.

Across the room, a community manager is scrolling through the company’s social feed, smiling. Reposts and tags from small businesses who love their product.

The community is growing itself.

And in the corner, a customer support rep is staring at a ticket. A large enterprise account signed up three weeks ago. They need a security review. A data compliance document. A proposal for their leadership team.

The support rep looks around. “What do we do with this?”

People shrug.

That large account will walk away. And the revenue it represents will go with it. Because the motion was never built to serve them.

That’s the ceiling. I’ve been inside a pure PLG B2B SaaS where it wasn’t one lost enterprise deal. It was an entire market, knocking on the door with no one to answer.

*beep beep*

Time to hop back on the red double-decker bus!

Your final stop of the day: Hybrid Product-Led and Sales-Led Growth (Hybrid PLG)

The bus doors open, and you enter an office with natural light everywhere. Living moss walls. Light wood panelling.

In the centre of the floor, a small team is gathered on the couches around a coffee table, clapping. They’re reviewing overnight wins:

Several small accounts reached value on their own. A few already converted to a paid plan. And two mid-market accounts that came in through the free trial? They’re now in conversation with sales.

In a nearby pod, an AE is wrapping up a call. A mid-market prospect has been deep in the product for two weeks and wants it rolled out across their entire department. The AE is making it happen.

And in the booth, a CS manager is creating an offer for an enterprise account. Their teams have been trialing a new feature, loving what they see, and are ready to expand. She hits send, closes her laptop, and grabs her gym bag. It’s 4pm. She has a class at 4:30.

Every size of account. Every segment of the market. Nothing left on the table.

I’ve built Hybrid PLG motions for B2B SaaS companies where small accounts converted on their own, mid-market got a warm call, and enterprise got a proactive expansion offer.

If your product can serve all three, then the motion to reach all three already exists.

Pure SLG leaves small accounts on the table. Pure PLG leaves large accounts on the table. Hybrid PLG serves the full spectrum.

It’s why you find Hybrid PLG inside the long-standing, category-leading B2B SaaS companies:

HubSpot offers free CRM tools while a sales team focuses on enterprise expansion. Atlassian lets small teams adopt Jira self-serve while enterprise deployments go through sales. Zendesk offers a free trial that creates product signals their sales team acts on for mid-market and enterprise accounts.

The accounts left on the table? For most B2B SaaS companies, that’s millions in reachable revenue.

One motion. The full spectrum of accounts served. You’re already closer than you think.

Portia

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this tour as much as I enjoyed writing it for you. And in case you were wondering who else was on the bus:

You’ve got VPs of Growth, SVPs of RevOps, CMOs, and scaling B2B SaaS CEOs riding alongside you. Good company for a fast ride.

Know a senior B2B SaaS growth leader who belongs on this bus? Forward this email to them.

P.P.S. A few of you have asked how to share these issues. Now you can.

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