If PLG represented the rebellion, sales-led growth was the establishment it rebelled against.

For decades, enterprise software meant sales-led. Oracle, Salesforce, SAP—these giants built empires on sophisticated sales organizations. The formula was proven: hire charismatic salespeople, build relationships with decision-makers, navigate complex procurement, and close six or seven-figure deals. A good enterprise rep didn't just sell software—they became a trusted advisor who wielded information as currency and relationships as leverage.

But the world that made this model dominant has fundamentally changed.

The Collapse of Sales as Information Broker

Sales teams historically thrived on information asymmetry—they knew competitive intel, pricing strategies, and success stories that prospects didn't. This knowledge gap justified their involvement and gave them leverage.

AI has obliterated this advantage. Buyers now arrive having already researched your product, analyzed competitors, and possibly tested your API. When information is universally accessible, you're paying someone $150K to tell prospects things they learned from your website five minutes ago.

Here's what makes this worse: sales quality degrades as you scale. Your first ten salespeople are exceptional. Your next hundred are average. Your next thousand are the people you could convince to join for variable comp. Every new hire dilutes your message and increases inconsistency. In a world where every interaction is reviewable, you can't afford this quality variance when your core value proposition has already evaporated.

Capital Intensity in a Tight Market

Sales-led growth requires armies of people: SDRs qualifying leads, AEs running demos, SEs building proofs of concept, CSMs preventing churn. Each hire is expensive, takes months to ramp, and scales linearly at best.

In an era where every company is scrutinizing burn and demanding efficient growth, this model is increasingly untenable. Buyers have endless options, shorter buying cycles, and tighter budgets. That expensive sales motion better convert—except it increasingly doesn't.

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