Bridging Product-Led + Sales-Led Motions
StreamSets Transformer for Snowflake Integrated Campaign
Free trial users generated 26% more pipeline and converted at 4X the rate of traditional prospects. By integrating product-led growth with strategic sales engagement, we contributed $4.4M in pipeline and achieved 92% reach across targeted accounts in just 6 weeks.
The Challenge
StreamSets needed to reach data professionals at enterprise companies already using Snowflake who were looking to simplify complex data transformations.
The opportunity was significant, but success required overcoming several interconnected constraints that would test our ability to execute rapidly while maintaining quality.
Tight Timeline
Only 6 weeks to plan and execute around Snowflake Summit in June 2023. This compressed schedule demanded exceptional coordination across product, marketing, and sales teams while maintaining quality standards that enterprise buyers expect.
Crowded Market
Numerous data transformation tools competed for attention in an increasingly saturated landscape. Standing out required demonstrating clear differentiation and tangible value that resonated with sophisticated technical buyers evaluating multiple solutions.
Motion Tension
Sales-led outreach alone would not demonstrate product value quickly enough for today's self-directed buyers. Product-led growth alone would miss enterprise buying committee dynamics and the complex stakeholder relationships that drive deal closure at scale.
The Solution: Amplify Both Motions Simultaneously
We designed the campaign with three integrated pillars created a cohesive experience that met prospects wherever they were in their evaluation journey, allowing seamless movement between self-service exploration and sales-assisted guidance.
1. Frictionless Free Trial via Snowflake Partner Connect
We integrated directly into Snowflake's Partner Connect platform, allowing users to start transforming data within minutes without leaving their existing environment. This native integration removed traditional barriers while creating opportunities for strategic sales engagement at critical moments.
Product-Led Components
- Self-service activation with zero-friction onboarding
- Pre-built templates for common transformation scenarios
- Automated nurture sequences based on usage signals
- In-product guidance and contextual help resources
Sales-Led Components
- BDR outreach to engaged users at optimal moments
- Account-level tracking to identify buying committee expansion
- Sales triggers at product adoption milestones
- Executive engagement for strategic conversations
2. Event-Centered Engagement at Snowflake Summit
We built the campaign around Snowflake Summit, using the event as a catalyst for broader digital engagement that extended well beyond the conference itself. This created natural moments for both digital discovery and face-to-face relationship building.
Account-Based Advertising
Precision display campaigns across three regions targeting high-value accounts with coordinated messaging that drove Summit engagement and trial adoption.
LinkedIn Campaigns
Targeted campaigns reaching data and IT leaders at companies with Snowflake, leveraging platform capabilities for persona-specific messaging and engagement tracking.
Google Paid Search
Strategic keyword targeting for Summit attendees actively researching data transformation solutions, capturing high-intent traffic at critical decision moments.
On-Site Presence
Live demonstrations and product experiences at our Summit booth, creating memorable impressions and accelerating technical validation for prospects.
Customer Outreach
Pre-event engagement with existing customers using Snowflake, strengthening relationships and generating advocacy that amplified our presence.
3. Multi-Channel Content Supporting Both Motions
Content served self-directed evaluation and sales conversations equally, allowing prospects to move through their journey regardless of entry point. Each asset was designed to provide value independently while supporting integrated experiences across touchpoints.
Technical Documentation
Step-by-step Partner Connect setup guides with architecture diagrams, enabling rapid self-service implementation for technical evaluators.
Social Proof
Product pages featuring customer case studies and partner validation to build credibility and demonstrate proven enterprise value.
Guided Experiences
"Exploring StreamSets" tours with scheduled sessions providing structured product education for teams evaluating solutions.
Customer Stories
Webinars featuring real implementations and business outcomes, showing practical applications across industries and use cases.
Sales Enablement
Coordinated materials ensuring consistent messaging and positioning across all customer-facing interactions and channels.
Campaign Execution Timeline
Success required precise orchestration across six weeks, with each phase building momentum toward the next while maintaining consistent engagement across all channels. Our execution roadmap balanced pre-event awareness, Summit activation, trial launch, and sustained conversion activities.
1
Weeks 1-2: Pre-Summit Awareness
Launched paid campaigns across LinkedIn, Google, and display networks. Activated website overlays promoting Summit meetings and product demonstrations. Executed direct outreach to drive meeting bookings with high-value accounts, creating a qualified pipeline of engaged prospects before the event even began.
2
Week 3: Summit Engagement
Delivered on-site product demonstrations showcasing real-world transformation scenarios. Conducted guided product tours with technical deep-dives. Facilitated face-to-face meetings with decision-makers and influencers. Coordinated immediate BDR follow-up to hot leads, capitalizing on peak engagement moments.
3
Weeks 4-5: Free Trial Launch
Published comprehensive setup guides and best practices documentation. Activated prominent homepage promotions driving Partner Connect trials. Launched sophisticated automated nurture sequences triggered by specific usage patterns. Coordinated targeted BDR outreach based on real-time product engagement signals and account scoring.
4
Week 6+: Sustained Conversion
Continued optimized paid media campaigns with refined targeting based on early learnings. Ran multiple webinar sessions across time zones to accommodate global audience. Equipped sales teams with comprehensive enablement materials. Executed systematic marketing qualified account handoffs with complete engagement history and scoring data.
Coordination Excellence: Each phase was designed to fuel the next, creating compounding momentum rather than discrete activities. Teams across product, marketing, and sales maintained daily synchronization to optimize performance in real-time.
Results That Validated the Approach
Pipeline Impact
$4.4M
Pipeline Contribution
Total attributed pipeline generated by Q4 2023
26%
More Pipeline
Free trial accounts vs. target accounts not part of the campaign
4X
Improved Conversion
Trial users compared to standard lead flow
23%
Improved Velocity
Sales cycles shorted by 23%
Free trial accounts dramatically outperformed traditional prospects across every meaningful dimension. The 4X increase in conversion rate difference reflects how product experience reduces buyer uncertainty and accelerates decision-making. Sales cycles shortened by an average of 23% when prospects had hands-on product familiarity, allowing sales teams to focus conversations on business outcomes rather than technical validation.
Account Engagement
92%
Account Reach
Coverage across targeted accounts
80%
Multi-Stakeholder
MQAs with 5+ stakeholders engaged
84%
Persona Diversity
Accounts with 3+ distinct personas
Multi-channel approach ensured comprehensive coverage with unprecedented depth. The 92% reach across targeted accounts meant our message reached decision-makers and influencers at virtually every target account. Even more impressive, 80% of marketing qualified accounts included 5 or more engaged stakeholders, creating the buying committee consensus required for enterprise deals.
Geographic expansion exceeded expectations, with particularly strong top-of-funnel growth in EMEA and Asia-Pacific demonstrating successful international reach despite compressed timelines and localization requirements.
Conversion Quality
The campaign intentionally traded lead quantity for quality, focusing resources on accounts with genuine fit and engagement signals. This strategic choice paid dividends through more qualified prospects, reduced sales friction from product experience, and sales teams able to focus on accounts showing genuine engagement rather than chasing unqualified volume.
Higher conversion rates despite lower overall volume validated our quality-over-quantity approach. Sales teams reported significantly more productive conversations, shorter qualification cycles, and stronger executive involvement compared to typical inbound leads. The product experience created educated buyers who understood technical capabilities and were ready to discuss strategic implementation.
5 Key Takeaways: "Product Qualified Accounts" Amplifies Sales Effectiveness
Product-Led Growth Amplifies Sales Effectiveness
Trial users (Product Qualified Accounts) who engaged with sales converted at the highest rates, demonstrating how product experience and sales guidance reinforce each other. Product experience gave sales teams concrete starting points for business outcome conversations instead of beginning with technical validation. The hands-on familiarity reduced buyer uncertainty and shortened qualification cycles significantly.
Partner Ecosystem Integration Accelerates Adoption
Snowflake Partner Connect reduced friction by meeting prospects in their existing workflow, proving more valuable than standalone trial pages. Native integration removed setup barriers and demonstrated immediate value within familiar environments. This ecosystem approach created trust through established partner relationships while enabling rapid time-to-value.
Targeted Reach Beats Broad Volume
Achieving 92% reach across a defined account list enabled focused sales effort and meaningful engagement measurement. Rather than chasing high lead volumes with low conversion, we prioritized depth of engagement across prioritized accounts. This precision targeting allowed personalized messaging and coordinated multi-threading across buying committees.
Events Create Momentum for Digital Channels
Snowflake Summit provided a catalyst and credibility anchor, while digital tactics sustained impact before, during, and after the event. The event created natural conversation starters and urgency, which digital channels amplified and extended. This integrated approach maximized event ROI by converting brief interactions into sustained engagement.
Regional Execution Requires Local Flexibility
Success across three regions required adapted messaging, localized timing, and distributed budget authority. What worked in North America needed modification for EMEA and Asia-Pacific markets. Local teams needed autonomy to adjust tactics while maintaining strategic alignment, respecting cultural nuances and buying behaviors across geographies.
Critical Success Factor: These insights aren't independent—they work together as a system. Product-led tactics created opportunities for sales engagement. Partner integration enabled product-led growth. Events catalyzed both motions simultaneously. Regional flexibility ensured global execution excellence.
Replicable Framework
This campaign architecture can adapt to other product launches and go-to-market initiatives. The framework balances structured methodology with flexibility for market-specific requirements, creating a blueprint that scales across different products, markets, and customer segments.
01
Foundation: Define Ideal Customer Profile
Establish precise targeting criteria across firmographic attributes (company size, industry, growth stage), technographic signals (existing stack, adoption patterns), demographic factors (roles, seniority, influence), and behavioral indicators (engagement patterns, buying signals, pain points). This foundation ensures all downstream activities focus on accounts with genuine fit and potential.
02
Product-Led Layer: Enable Self-Service
Create frictionless trial experiences with minimal barriers to entry. Implement automated nurture sequences that respond to actual usage patterns and engagement signals. Provide comprehensive in-product guidance that helps users achieve quick wins. Develop usage-based scoring models that identify high-intent users ready for sales engagement.
03
Sales-Led Layer: Strategic Engagement
Deploy account-based targeting that coordinates across channels and touchpoints. Execute coordinated BDR outreach at optimal moments based on product signals. Facilitate executive engagement for strategic business conversations. Create aligned sales enablement that leverages product insights and maintains consistent positioning across all interactions.
04
Integrated Channels: Orchestrate Touchpoints
Establish event presence that creates catalyst moments and credibility. Launch account-based advertising with coordinated messaging across platforms. Develop content serving both self-service evaluation and sales-assisted conversations. Build social reinforcement through customer advocacy, partner validation, and thought leadership that amplifies reach and builds trust.
05
Measurement: Track Holistic Performance
Implement account-level tracking that reveals engagement patterns across product and sales touchpoints. Use multi-touch attribution understanding the full journey to conversion. Analyze sales velocity by source to identify highest-performing channels and combinations. Compare regional performance to optimize resource allocation and identify scaling opportunities.
Implementation Principles
- Start integrated: Design both motions together from inception rather than layering one onto the other after launch
- Instrument deeply: Track engagement across all touchpoints to identify winning combinations and optimization opportunities
- Align definitions: Ensure product, marketing, and sales teams share common views of target accounts, qualification criteria, and success milestones
- Test and learn: Build feedback loops that enable rapid iteration and continuous improvement throughout campaign execution
- Scale thoughtfully: Validate in one region before expanding, adapting for local requirements while maintaining strategic consistency
The framework's power lies in its systematic approach while maintaining flexibility for specific market conditions, product capabilities, and organizational readiness. Each layer reinforces the others, creating compounding returns as the system matures and teams develop expertise in integrated execution.
Final Perspective
This campaign succeeded because we recognized that data professionals want hands-on evaluation while enterprise buyers need strategic guidance. Rather than forcing a choice between these preferences, we designed an integrated approach serving both needs simultaneously. The result was more qualified pipeline, shortened sales cycles, and a repeatable model for future launches.
Design for Integration from the Start
The highest-performing campaigns plan both product-led and sales-led motions together rather than retrofitting one onto the other. This requires cross-functional collaboration from the earliest planning stages, with product, marketing, and sales leaders contributing to strategy development and execution design.
Instrument for Continuous Learning
Track account engagement across product and sales touchpoints to identify winning combinations and optimization opportunities. Build dashboards that reveal patterns invisible in siloed reporting. Use insights to iterate rapidly and double down on what works while pruning underperforming tactics.
Align Teams Around Shared Definitions
Product, marketing, and sales need common views of target accounts, qualification criteria, and conversion milestones. Misalignment creates friction, missed handoffs, and suboptimal experiences. Invest in shared language, coordinated processes, and integrated systems that enable seamless collaboration.
The Path Forward
When these elements work together—integrated design, comprehensive instrumentation, and team alignment—the result is a more efficient path to revenue that respects how modern buyers prefer to engage. Enterprise buyers increasingly expect the freedom to explore products independently while having access to expert guidance when needed. Meeting these expectations requires sophisticated orchestration across product, marketing, and sales.
Happy to help. :)
This success is a story of alignment and collaboration. It wasn't about optimizing individual channels, but transforming the entire GTM ecosystem. This integrated approach proves sustainable B2B growth demands excellence across demand generation, sales enablement, and operational infrastructure.
I'm Monica Wright, founder of Wanjo Consulting. With 20+ of in-house building martech foundations and leading demand generation and ABM, I’m going solo to solve the challenges of go-to-market teams – generating measurable and sustainable growth.
Whether you're looking for GTM consulting, marketing leadership expertise or or just want to connect, I'd love to hear from you.