The Funnel is flat. Your GTM strategy should be too.
A new playbook for AI-first, PLG-powered SaaS growth in 2025
Once upon a time, the buyer journey was simple.
First, you grabbed their attention.
Then, you nurtured their interest.
Finally, you closed the deal.
Neat. Predictable. Linear. It made sense on paper… and for a while, it worked.
But today’s buyers don’t move stage-by-stage like chess pieces.
They’re mid-scroll, mid-stream, mid-search — bouncing between researching, comparing, shopping, and deciding — all at once.
💡 Welcome to the Flat Funnel Era.
According to Forrester, 74% of B2B buyers now do more than half their research online before talking to Sales.
McKinsey found that over two-thirds of the B2B buying journey happens digitally.
Gartner says buyers spend just 17% of their time meeting with suppliers. The rest? They're figuring it out on their own.
The funnel didn’t just flatten. It cracked wide open.
So what is a flat GTM strategy?
It’s a go-to-market approach built for nonlinear, AI-accelerated, product-led buyer journeys.
(You heard it first here!)
BCG research shows modern journeys revolve around four behaviours: streaming, scrolling, searching, shopping.
Buyers move through them — not in sequence — but in overlap.
So if your campaigns still assume people are progressing step-by-step… you’re already behind.
Because what got you here won’t get you there.
AI didn’t just change marketing. It changed buyers.
AI speeds up how decisions get made.
It raises the bar for personalisation.
And it’s flooding the research phase with more choices, more noise, and more expectations.
For SaaS teams, this means one thing: evolve or get left behind.
In this new world, Product-Led Growth (PLG) isn’t a campaign.
It’s your product, your go-to-market, your culture — fused together and built for today’s buyer.
Today, silos between Sales, Marketing, Product, and Engineering are a growth killer.
It’s time for the generalists to shine!
Why PLG is more relevant than ever
Today’s users want outcomes. Now.
(And yes — AI has made them even more impatient.)
They expect:
In-product proof of value before they talk to anyone
Contextual help when and where they need it
Seamless flows, not friction-filled demos
If they don’t get it? They bounce — and unsubscribe while they’re at it.
The best PLG teams in 2025 are doing three things:
✅ Nailing Activation (first value < 7 days)
✅ Letting the product talk (walkthroughs, tooltips, AI-generated nudges)
✅ Using AI to personalise flows and predict churn
Modern onboarding isn’t a Welcome email:
It’s native, contextual, and outcome-driven.
No pop-ups. No irrelevant emails. Just value based.
It’s native, contextual, and outcome-driven.
Example: Calendly doesn’t dump you into a dashboard. It shows a 30-second guide to your first event — instant win and exactly tied into what you signed up for.
Self-serve help > unsolicited pop-ups.
Triggered by actions, not time.
Native inside the app, not via spammy emails
Outcome-focused, not feature-focused
Modern Sales is product-powered:
Jump in after product signals
Expand based on value seen, not value promised
The sequence:
Activate → Spot power users → Surface PQLs → Expand intelligently
This way, Sales becomes the amplifier of product success… not the narrator trying to "convince" users.
Sales and product must be in lockstep
Whether you're shifting your sales-led SaaS to a product-led model, or your upmarket PLG motion is stalling, you’re likely sitting on untapped revenue inside your existing customer base.
Green light = Number of seats + product usage + fit within the ICP
Now, here’s where it gets interesting: to land enterprise deals, ask these questions:
Who was the first user?
Who was the second?
By doing this, you can reverse-engineer the experience and pinpoint your ICP.
You’ll arm Sales with key insights:
product usage
psychographics
firmographics
technographics
All fed straight into the Sales playbook.
The glue here? Product marketing. Strong, strategic, embedded.
8 ways to use AI for your flat GTM strategy
Predict future needs and churn
Segment users with real-time precision
Personalise onboarding and support
Uncover upsell and partnership triggers
Run smarter campaigns, faster
Engage users 24/7 with AI assistants
Adjust pricing dynamically based on usage
Synthesise feedback into instant experiments
Try tools like GA4, Einstein, H2O.ai, Drift, and Amazon Personalize
Get closer to your users. Not just your KPIs.
You don’t need more leads. You need more right-fit users who stick, grow, and advocate.
Too many teams optimise for the wrong metrics: more MQLs, lower CAC, and higher clickthroughs. Then they wonder why churn rises or expansion stalls.
Then they wonder why churn is creeping up or why expansion stalls.
Old: MQLs. Leads. Clicks.
Now: AARRR. NDR. GRR. CAC:LTV.
PLG metrics to care about
PLG metrics are much more than acquisition. It’s about measuring value realisation, product usage, and organic growth.
In other words, "Pirate Metrics" - AARRR:
Acquisition: Website visits, self-serve signups
Activation: % hitting value moment < 7 days
Retention: Weekly/monthly active usage
Referral: NPS, invite loops
Revenue: Free-to-paid conversion, expansion triggers
NDR (Net Dollar Retention): Measures revenue expansion minus contraction and churn within your existing customer base.
GRR (Gross Revenue Retention): Tracks the percentage of revenue retained from existing customers, factoring in churn and downgrades.
A low GRR = churn problems.
A high GRR = product-market fitCAC to LTV Ratio: Aim for 1:3. If it costs you £1 to acquire a user, they better bring £3+ in lifetime value.
Your best campaigns come from your best customers
When you build around what your users are actually trying to achieve — not what you think they want, everything compounds:
Activation gets easier
Expansion feels natural
Advocacy happens without a nudge
Here’s a play:
Interview your top 20 happiest users.
Drop transcripts into GPT-4.
Extract:
Jobs-to-be-done
Actual language
Key "aha" moments
Turn it into:
Onboarding scripts
Product messaging
Campaign ideas
Expansion plays
Your roadmap is hiding in plain sight — inside your customer stories.
The Flat GTM playbook
To recap, here’s how modern SaaS teams are growing in 2025:
Product-market alignment: Show the "Before & After". Segment by real workflows.
Data-driven personalisation: Trigger help, emails, sales based on actions, not assumptions.
Predictive GTM tactics: Forecast expansions. Adapt pricing dynamically.
Smarter Sales & Partnerships: Act on usage. Go deeper with integration plays.
AI-powered content: Replace case studies with walkthroughs, outcomes, micro-stories.
Continuous feedback loops: AI = faster learnings → better product.
AI fluency across teams: Build generalists who connect dots, not silos.
If the Funnel is flat, your strategy must evolve.
The companies winning in 2025 won’t be the ones shouting the loudest.
They’ll be the ones showing the fastest path to real outcomes.
You’re not selling a tool.
You’re selling a transformation.
So ditch the PDFs. Skip the slogans. And please, don’t ever say "streamline your workflows" again.
Instead:
💬 Show, don’t tell
📈 Learn fast
🏗️ Build for the real world
If you’re serious about leaving old-school SaaS GTM behind:
Get yourself a generalist
Get closer to your users
Build your Flat GTM Strategy
Because the world has changed. Your playbook should too.
See you for more actionable tips next week on how to actually execute this thing!