Your product isn't the problem but trust still is

Whether you’re already running a PLG motion or just starting to lean into it, the same friction points show up, especially when the deals get more complex. This post breaks down what’s really happening when PLG stalls, and how sales engineers can make or break the motion.

There’s a lot of hype around product-lead growth (PLG). It seems most want to believe in the myth (or dream) that if you build a beautiful PLG motion, B2B buyers will self-serve, onboard, and convert without ever talking to you, sales, and you get to wake up in the morning with new notifications from Stripe.

But, the reality is there’s an uncomfortable truth most are missing or avoiding altogether. Even the highest intent, PLG buyers are not always credit card swiping, self-serve buyers. Not in B2B and not when there is an inherent amount of complexity or dollars on the line.

Signals are critical in all aspects of marketing and sales.

From knowing who watched your product Loom video, read your case studies, whitepapers, to who is poking around in silence on your website, maybe even following your Linkedin company page and content. Or best case, started a free trial. 

Then in most cases, there’s this inevitable silence. You’re then left wondering and guessing what happened? 

It’s most likely not because your onboarding is broken. 

It’s also most likely not because your product isn’t great or a fit for them. 

It is, however, more likely that in the world of high-stakes B2B buying, clarity doesn’t always exude confidence. 

According to Gartner, 77% of B2B buyers said their last software vendor purchase was complex. Here’s another stat for you from a recent OpenView study, 53% of PLG companies still rely on a human touch for enterprise conversion. 

So, what’s the point? Complex B2B enterprise buyers still want and need to establish trust with a vendor. Gartner's research highlights that even when enterprise buyers are willing to purchase, organizational processes and multiple stakeholder concerns add complexity to the buying journey, necessitating human assistance.

The false binary: PLG ≠ Humans

There’s this subtle, and frankly deadly, assumption basked into a lot of product-led thinking. If a B2B buyer/prospect talks to the sales team, we failed the entire PLG motion. 

That’s simply not true. Yet, many teams spend countless hours researching, optimizing, debating over what is broken or where the PLG motion failed. The reality? It most likely didn’t. This false binary is blocking teams more than we realize. 

The truth? PLG and sales-assisted motions don’t compete. They compound. 

Product-led motions are entry points in the B2B space. It warms the prospect and buyer up, it educates them, and gives them a taste of what your product can do to solve their problem and eliminate the pain they’re experiencing. For complex organizations and products where integrations, data migration and cross functional impact like presales to post-sales handoffs, trial isn't a decision.

Pro insight: A trial isn’t a decision. Decision comes from confidence and confidence comes from trust. This is where the human touch still matters. 

This isn’t just an opinion, it’s backed by the numbers. OpenView’s product benchmark report shows that only about 12-17% of B2B buyers who start a PLG free trial actually convert. So, if you’re gating access to your sales engineers and solutions architects thinking that your product will do 100% of the selling, you’re not being more product-led. You are however being less buyer-led.

Bonus: Three silent questions every PLG buyer is asking: 

1. Have you solved this exact pain before?

2. What’s the most common mistake people are making?

3. What happens after I buy?

The reality? If you’re not answering those questions, expect the momentum to stall, even if your product is seemingly perfect for them. Most buyers do their research and now they want a clear and concise strategy.

What enterprise B2B buyers actually want 

Not all buyers are created equal. Sure, some teams can swipe a credit card, invite their team, and figure out how to adopt the product as they go, but that’s not really the enterprise buyer. 

Enterprise buyers don’t just want to know if your product does what you say it can do. They want to believe and know confidently you understand their challenge and understand the scope and impact of their decision. Most of us would like to believe that B2B purchases are all about ROI and logic. But what if that’s only half the story? Research suggests up to 95% of decisions (yes, even in boardrooms) happen in the subconscious. In fact, B2B buyers can be more emotionally invested in their vendors than consumers because the stakes (and personal career risks) are much higher.

Simply put, enterprise buyers are not just buying the features of your product. They’re buying: 

• Post-sale support

• Technical capability

• Technical compatibility

• Internal stakeholder alignment 

• The pain it removes from their world and the teams they lead

• The confidence you’ve done this before and working with you isn’t going to put their internal political capital at risk

• The hope that regardless of employee growth/attrition (buyer or vendor) someone will have a sustainable system of record to know the context of why you started working together in the first place

For teams that are not fully PLG, this is where the warning signs begin. For the teams who have been doing PLG for a while, this probably sounds familiar. 

Enterprise buyers also want clear and direct information. No fluff, no BS, just the facts and reality of what they’re considering investing in. In PLG motions, there’s a habit of inundating the buyer with a mountain of features and function to try and win them over in the buying journey. Reality? Challenger’s recent research stated that enterprise buyers are not paralyzed by a lack of information. They are, however, paralyzed by too much information. Between too much information and internal conflicting priorities and voices, most teams are not actually helping remove the right type of friction for the buyer. 

The real friction is in the uncertainty, political risk, the complexity of gaining internal budget, and consensus and alignment. This is exactly where the sales engineer shows up, not just as the product expert but as the trust and confidence builder. 

The sales engineer isn’t there to pitch, their value comes in the shape of creating trust in the “we’ve seen this before, here’s how we helped XYZ company solve this problem”. In that moment, the SE becomes the buyer’s internal ally, a supporter who is helping them sell the solution inside their own company. 

What happens when SEs join early

Bringing an SE into the conversation with the buyer is a lot like walking a tightrope. Too early and you risk wasting the SEs time on unqualified leads. Too late and now you’re playing defense trying to catch up while chasing buyer concerns (real or perceived) and instead of shaping the narrative, success path, and outcomes.

Pro Insight: The ideal time to bring in the SE is right before the first deep customer facing technical conversation and after buying intent is clear. 

Here’s why. When you bring in the SE at the right stage, the deal gets even more real. You’re not just framing a tight scope for a POC, you’re enabling the buyer to become the internal hero of their org, arming them to champion your product as the solution to the real pain they’re working to remove.

The AE owns the why.

The SE owns the how.

Together they own the confidence of the deal.

The only way to really maximize and scale this is to give AEs, SEs, CSMs, and leadership a shared operating system (OS) like Opine. Not just a Slack, Notion doc, email chain, and god forbid a spreadsheet. We don’t think Daniel Bicklin and Bob Frankston (inventors of the spreadsheet) ever intended for such a critical activity like a POC to be managed in something made in 1979. 

It’s not just about bringing the SE early, it’s about creating a repeatable winning process. Also one that inevitably sets up post-sales to keep the buyer happy enough to renew and eliminate churn risk.

How do you scale SE involvement? 

I think we can all agree that most Account Executives (AEs) still treat SEs like specialists. The “oh shit” backup support for those “this got technical” moments. The difference between those orgs and those who are out performing others? The AE and SE work in harmony as a strategic duo, not in separate silos. They align on the “why” and “how” of the deal before the buyer even knows what to ask. 

The effect? Early alignment on the customer’s desired outcomes and a deep understanding of the pain they’re feeling tightens the narrative. The tighter the narrative the tighter the proof-of-concept (POC) or proof-of-value (POV). The tighter the scope, the higher the chance the deal doesn’t drag on and lose momentum or increase in scope. 

It’s no surprise that most buyers don’t always trust sales people. They do however, tend to trust SEs not because they are less biased but because they know they’re closer to the truth. Said differently, SEs speak the language of empathy, confidence, and technical assurance. Calming fears and translating technical concerns and human risks into clear resolutions. That transparency builds momentum. 

The best SEs leverage transparency. Helping remove doubt along the journey to a closed-won deal. They do this by leveraging the right tooling. Bringing the buyer in closer and along for the ride. Buyer portals where success criteria are measured and evaluated by the buyer, clear project plans and timelines, along with automatic stakeholder updates allow and enable both the vendor and buyer to have a successful outcome. 

How do you do this? This is exactly what Opine does. Opine creates a single place for the buyer (and stakeholders), presales and post-sales team to manage and understand the deal. From an SE perspective, Opine allows the SE to focus on building trust, turning that buyer into the internal champion. It removes the mundane, trivial tasks from their daily workflow enabling them to do what matters most, keep the deal moving forward while strengthening the level of confidence and trust along the way. Curious why a CRM isn’t good enough? Read this. 

From the internal sales leadership perspective, Opine helps them understand the performance, challenges and opportunities of their SE org (and post-sales). Understanding the deep analytics involved in activity tracking across their SEs to the cost of the sale, what playbooks are working best, and the insights on how to quantifiably optimize their team, POCs, and accelerate their technical-win rate to closed-won revenue. Imagine being able to forecast with more precision and less “my gut says…”. Short story, Opine enables the sales leader(s) to have authority, transparency into their team and more insights enabling additional control over their sales outcomes.

From the buyer’s perspective, Opine enables them to have a single place to the road map of the POC. Think of this view as the legendary Dominos Pizza Tracker. The buyer is always aware of the latest activity, actions completed or to be done, scope, and timelines. This enables confidence in the buyer that you’re organized, thorough, and actually know that you’ve done this before. 

Whether you're PLG-native or just testing the self-serve waters, here's what this all adds up to:

• PLG ≠ no humans. They’re buying political safety, implementation certainty, and proof/reassurance you’ve done this before.

• Product-led growth is powerful, but it’s not a magic bullet (especially for the complex B2B enterprise buyer. 

• Give the buyer confidence not just features.

• Don’t let your deals in the pipeline lose momentum, turn into a long and hard fought battle. 

• Bring your SE in at the right stage.

• AEs, SEs, and CMSs need to win together.

• Finally, to scale all of this, you cannot rely the old ways of doing things. Asking your 1990 For Bronco to get the same fuel efficiency as one from 2025 is, well, absurd. You should approach your tech stack with the same mindset.

Want to see what your SE org would look like with this kind of leverage? 

Experience the power of Opine, here.