How to Turn Your Best Customers into a Predictable Revenue Flywheel

“Only a few hundred companies have ever truly nailed the pure PLG motion. Eventually, almost everyone pivots toward a hybrid or sales-led growth model.”
– Jordan Crawford on Florin Tatulea’s podcast

Why Product-Led Growth Alone Isn't Enough

With PLGTM Conference approaching, Product-Led Growth (PLG) is trending again. It’s fast, efficient, and scalable—until it isn’t.

Let’s ask a simple question:
Would you rather build a business with...

• Option A: High revenue but high churn?

• Option B: Lower churn and higher lifetime value (LTV)?

A major SaaS company recently downsized after betting too heavily on Option A. The story? Early freemium growth didn’t translate to durable, high-value customers.

A well-known SaaS company just downsized its business because it relied too heavily on Option 1. The attached image is a screenshot of DMs with their former Head of Product (with her permission)

Why Product-Led Growth Alone Isn't Enough

With PLGTM Conference approaching, Product-Led Growth (PLG) is trending again. It’s fast, efficient, and scalable—until it isn’t.

Let’s ask a simple question:
Would you rather build a business with...

• Option A: High revenue but high churn?

• Option B: Lower churn and higher lifetime value (LTV)?

A major SaaS company recently downsized after betting too heavily on Option A. The story? Early freemium growth didn’t translate to durable, high-value customers.

Here’s the typical PLG lifecycle:

1. 🚀 Rapid user acquisition and initial revenue spikes.

2. 💰 VC funding secured based on these promising metrics.

3. 📉 Churn sets in—freemium users fail to convert into long-term, high-value accounts.

4. 💼 Scramble for a sales team—but it’s too late or too expensive.

The Hidden Growth Opportunity: Turn Customers Into Your GTM Engine

💡 What if your best users could drive qualified growth—without hiring dozens of SDRs or relying only on inbounds?

Maximus Greenwald, CEO of Warmly, generated $500K in revenue in one month by treating his customers like an extension of his GTM team.

“No one trusts G2 anyways, but they will trust an actual public post with their name tied to it.” – Maximus Greenwald

This is where customer-led growth comes in. When implemented well, it creates a referral flywheel that:

• Drives qualified pipeline

• Improves close rates

• Reduces CAC

• Builds social proof at scale

Why Referral Channels Are Still Undervalued

Referrals consistently outperform other channels in terms of conversion rate and deal quality.

Yet they remain one of the most underutilized and unpredictable growth levers.

Let’s change that.

How to Build a Scalable, Predictable Referral Engine

🧪 Experiment #1: Turn Power Users into Social Proof in Outbound

Company Type: Series C SaaS Company
Goal: Increase outbound conversion with PLG insights

Steps Taken:

✅ Identified most active product users
✅ Used their names (with permission) as social proof in outbound emails
✅ Targeted former colleagues of those users

Email Template:

"Hi James — Saw you worked with Scott at Figma. Scott is one of our most active users automating marketing ops with [Product]. Want a link to check it out?"

Results (first 24 hours):

• 4% reply rate

• 2% booked meetings (4X industry standard)

• Ongoing: Each month, a new cohort of power users gets activated as outbound assets

🧪 Experiment #2: Activate a Handpicked Referral Cohort

Company Type: Invite-only membership organization
Goal: Convert lapsed leads via trusted introductions

Steps Taken:

✅ Selected 10 existing members to act as referrers
✅ Ran outbound referral campaigns targeting lapsed leads
✅ Compared against traditional outbound to the same list

Results:

• 3.5X higher lead-to-MQL conversion from referred contacts

• Referred leads had shorter sales cycles and higher win rates

The Takeaway: Don’t Choose Between PLG and SLG—Blend Them

The best go-to-market strategies today combine Product-Led Growth, Sales-Led Growth, and now, Customer-Led Growth.

Instead of chasing cold leads or relying entirely on inbounds:

• 🔁 Close the customer loop

• 🧠 Use insights from your best users in outbound

• 💬 Let customers sell for you—with consent, proof, and strategy

Ready to Build Your Own Referral Flywheel?

Within two weeks, we can help your team design and implement a repeatable referral system like this—tailored to your GTM motion.

Subscribe to MoxieGTM

By Richard F. Purcell · Launched 2 years ago

The newsletter for the busiest, most sophisticated GTM leaders. Discover step-by-step instructions for implementing unconventional GTM experiments, drawn directly from the operators who ran each campaign.

By subscribing, I agree to Terms of Use, and acknowledge its Information Collection Notice and Privacy Policy.