Product-led growth (PLG) fails when teams copy consumer funnels onto enterprise buyers. A self-serve signup is not a motion if the product cannot deliver value before procurement arrives. Track the path from first value to paid expansion—and be honest when a human still has to help.
The core PLG loop
- Signup quality: work emails vs disposable, ICP fit score.
- Activation: the moment the product does the job (not “completed profile”).
- Time-to-value: median hours from signup to activation.
- PQL: accounts that crossed a usage threshold correlated with conversion.
- Self-serve conversion & sales-assist win rate on those PQLs.
- Expansion: seat or usage growth in days 30–180.
Example activation definitions (do not copy blindly)
| Product type | Weak activation | Stronger activation |
|---|---|---|
| Analytics SaaS | Created an account | Shared a dashboard with a teammate |
| Devtools | Generated an API key | First successful production call |
| Collaboration | Invited a user | A second team completed a weekly ritual |
| ERP-adjacent SaaS | Connected a sandbox | Reconciled a real sample file |
Sales-assist is not a betrayal of PLG
In B2B, security questionnaires and SSO still exist. The metric to watch is whether AEs spend time on PQLs or on cold accounts that never activated. If sales ignores product signals, you have two companies wearing one logo.
Conclusion
B2B PLG lives in activation quality, time-to-value, PQL hygiene, and expansion—not in top-of-funnel vanity. Define the job-to-be-done moment, instrument it, and align sales to those signals. That metric system will outperform another landing-page experiment.