Modern revenue leaders face a frustrating paradox. We have more automation and data available than ever before, yet connecting with buyers feels harder.
Mass-customized emails are instantly ignored, and our ideal customers have become experts at tuning out the noise.
This has created a deep “authenticity chasm” that traditional GTM motions struggle to cross. What if the solution isn’t more tech, but a different philosophy altogether?
According to Dave Boyce, a five-time SaaS founder and the Executive Chairperson at Winning by Design, the answer is not to abandon technology. Instead, he argues we must shift our perspective from seller-focused automation to buyer-centric self-service.
This article, based on his insights from The Go-to-Market Podcast, explores how Product-Led Growth (PLG) principles resolve this conflict. We will explore how building GTM motions on genuine customer empathy and tangible value creates a stronger, more effective way to grow.
Why More Tech Led to Less Connection
To understand how we arrived at this authenticity chasm, we need to look at the evolution of our go-to-market tools. The journey was a constant drive for seller efficiency, but it came at a cost.
In the race for seller efficiency, we automated the human element out of sales and created a deep disconnect with buyers.
From Rolodex to Robots
As Dave Boyce recounted, the GTM toolkit has transformed dramatically over the decades. Many of us started with a Rolodex, a physical stack of cards on our desks.
Then came early digital CRMs like Act! and Goldmine, which were essentially electronic spreadsheets. A major shift occurred with enterprise systems like Siebel, and again with the move to the cloud, led by platforms like Salesforce.
This technology helped us keep track of our work, but the next wave promised to do the work for us. Marketing automation from Marketo and HubSpot, combined with sales engagement platforms like Outreach, enabled personalization at a massive scale.
With AI, we can now automatically generate content, create microsites, and even process inbound demand.
Every step was designed to make the seller’s life easier, but in our push for efficiency, we overlooked a critical question: what does this mean for the buyer?
When “Personalization at Scale” Became a Red Flag for Buyers
The backlash was inevitable. Buyers, including you and me, became experts at spotting the markers of inauthentic automation. We ignore calls from unknown numbers, delete unsolicited texts, and can instantly identify a mass-customized email from a spam engine.
As Dave noted, “we just, we’ve figured out how to tune it all out.”
This isn’t just a tactical problem; it signals a fundamental disconnect between how companies sell and how people want to buy.
The data confirms this growing gap. The 2025 Benchmarks Report shows that even after quotas were reduced, nearly 77% of sellers still missed their targets, indicating a deep-seated execution problem. Traditional sales motions are becoming less effective, forcing companies to find new, more authentic ways to connect with customers.
Shifting the Focus From Seller Convenience to Buyer Empowerment
The solution lies in a simple but profound reframing of the conversation. We must shift our focus from “automation,” which serves the seller, to “self-service,” which empowers the buyer. This pivot from seller convenience to buyer empowerment sets the stage for a more sustainable and effective GTM model: Product-Led Growth.
How Product-Led Growth Puts the Buyer First
Product-Led Growth (PLG) isn’t just a tactic; it’s a philosophy that starts with a deep understanding of the customer. It forces companies to deliver tangible value from the very first interaction, creating a powerful and resilient engine for growth.
Product-Led Growth flips the traditional model by delivering immediate value, forcing companies to earn trust through the product itself.
Freemium’s Billion-Dollar Lesson
Companies like Dropbox, Zoom, and Canva built billion-dollar businesses by giving their products away for free. The freemium model puts customer focus to the test. When you remove the salesperson from the initial conversation, the product must stand on its own.
It has to solve a real problem and deliver value so quickly that users want to keep using it. If it doesn’t, it will be abandoned.
This forces a level of empathy that is difficult to achieve in traditional sales models. As Dave explains, “So these freemium models really were forced to meet the customer on her own terms.
And really kind of enable what we’re calling self… you know, it started as freemium, then it went to self-service, and we called it product led growth.”
How Constraints Forged a PLG Pioneer: The Atlassian Story
The story of Atlassian, now a $54 billion public company, is a masterclass in PLG. As two developers in Australia, the founders couldn’t afford a sales team to sell their product, Jira.
They had only one option: build a product so good and intuitive that it sold itself. This constraint bred incredible innovation and forced a level of customer focus that became their greatest competitive advantage. This is a key step in unlocking product-led growth.
From Individual Adoption to Enterprise Scale
PLG motions, like those used by hyper-growth companies such as Copy.ai, often start with a single user. A manager facing a problem swipes a credit card to solve it, bypassing lengthy procurement cycles.
This initial adoption then expands organically as more team members discover the product’s value. This user-led adoption creates an efficient and scalable growth cycle that is far more durable than traditional top-down sales approaches.
Automate the Predictable, Humanize the Exceptional
Adopting a PLG and self-service mindset doesn’t mean eliminating your revenue teams. It means redefining their roles to focus on what humans do best: building relationships and solving complex problems.
The goal isn’t to replace humans with tech, but to automate repetitive tasks so your team can focus on high-impact, relationship-driven work.
The Future of Sales: Are Salespeople Still Necessary?
The answer is a definitive yes, but their function is evolving.
Dave cites the philosophy of author Will Guidara: “Automate the predictable so you can humanize the exceptional.” This is the new playbook for modern GTM teams.
The goal is to build systems that handle repetitive, low-value tasks, freeing up your people for high-impact, uniquely human work. This strategic alignment is where RevOps as a secret weapon for growth becomes a critical advantage.
Where Humans Win
The “exceptional” activities are those that require empathy, strategic thinking, and courage. Humans are needed to navigate complex multi-stakeholder deals, build deep personal relationships, and instill confidence in a buyer to make a major organizational change. These are tasks that robots, for now, cannot replicate.
In contrast, the “predictable” tasks are ripe for automation. Processing an order, sending renewal paperwork, providing basic product training, or handling initial lead qualification should all be systematized. This is where automating GTM operations becomes a critical lever for efficiency and scale.
Training the Next GTM Generation in an AI World
This shift raises a critical question: how do we train entry-level employees when their traditional tasks are automated?
Dave offers a historical parallel with the switchboard operator. When that job was automated in the early 20th century, it seemed like a massive displacement. Yet, we adapted. The focus for new talent will shift from performing manual tasks to operating the systems that perform them, prioritizing strategic thinking over repetition.
The future for new talent lies not in being the machine, but in operating the machine. Instead of performing repetitive manual tasks, they will become prompt engineers, data analysts, and GTM strategists.
This shifts the focus from manual reps to strategic thinking, preparing the next generation for an AI-driven world.
From Automation to Empowerment
The shift from seller-centric automation to buyer-centric Product-Led Growth is more than a trend. It’s a fundamental market change driven by customers who demand authenticity and immediate value. The endless push for seller efficiency has created a chasm that only genuine empathy can cross.
As Dave Boyce expertly articulates, the future of go-to-market is not a choice between technology and people. It is about leveraging technology to master the predictable so your team can humanize the exceptional. This is where you build lasting growth: in the complex, courageous, and uniquely human interactions that build trust and guide customers through critical decisions.
As you evaluate your own GTM motion, ask the critical question: Are our systems designed for our convenience or for our customer’s empowerment? The answer will define your ability to grow in the coming years. For a practical guide on putting these principles into action, Dave’s book, “FREEMIUM,” provides a clear roadmap.
