Product-qualified leads can be the unifying metric for teams executing on a Product-Led Sales motion. Not only do PQLs convert better than MQLs, but they are calculated using real product usage data, so you can understand why an opportunity is qualified (not just taking a stab in the dark).Â
We broke down the basics of building a PQL metric in our Definitive Guide to PQLs series (go read that first if you havenât yet âď¸). Now, we will focus on HOW teams can leverage PQLs to drive actions within their sales, marketing, or customer success workflows.Â
In this blog weâll break down:
- Refresher on what is a PQL
- Segmenting PQLsÂ
- How to set up workflows to convert PQLsÂ
- Operationalizing those workflows in your toolsÂ
TL;DR of a PQL
PQLs are users that experienced your productâs core value, match your ICP, and/or have shown purchase intent. PQLs can be broken down into 3 categories:
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A user or account (or even a team or workspace) becomes a PQL when they hit a combination of the above signals to indicate that the go-to-market team should take action. Exactly what those PQLs are depends on the type of company, the companyâs goals and the customer segment that the company is targeting.
This leads me to a very important topic for PQLs: Segmentation. Segmentation and PQLs go hand in hand - youâll need to segment PQLs in order to establish who owns what leads and how the PQLs should be operationalized within your workflows.
Time to pay close attention, because segmentation is the one of the most important parts of defining and operationalizing PQLs.
Segmenting PQLs: Who owns whatâŚ
So, what do we mean by segmenting PQLs?Â
Segmentation helps you define the who, what, and how: who should you target, what message should you use with the specific audience, and how the message will be communicated. Without a segmentation strategy, PQLs will become a free-for-all or, even worse, a vanity metric that sits on the proverbial shelf.
You may choose to segment PQLs based on the target market (eg. SMB, mid-market, enterprise). Or, you might choose to segment based on who owns the PQL (eg. sales-ready, sales-assist ready). Or, maybe youâll segment based on a company goal (eg. free-to-paid conversion).Â
Below weâll walk through 3 ways to segment PQLs:
- Sales-readiness: sales, sales-assist, etc.
- Product-Led Sales goals: seat expansion, free trial conversion, etc.
- Target market: company size (SMB, mid-market, enterprise), industry, geography, etc.
#1 Sales ReadinessÂ

We recommend that PLG companies segment customers by sales-readiness as it helps go-to-market teams know which specific team-member should be responsible for which account/user and how to interact with that opportunity. You can better align your sales resources to each of these cohorts.
To segment by sales readiness, use the above matrix: map your accounts/users by product usage signals on the x-axis and customer fit signals on the y-axis.Â
- Top right: Sales-ready PQLs âĄď¸ Account Executive: These are top accounts/users that match your ICP and have very high product usage. These should be the top priority for your sales team.Â
- Top left: Sales-assist ready âĄď¸ Sales-assist/product specialist/onboarding team: These opportunities align to your ICP, but are not yet at the product engagement threshold that warrants a sales conversation. Your sales-assist (or equivalent) team should engage with these PQLs to educate/enable the user on the product to unblock them and showcase the value of features beyond the paywall. Use this opportunity to deepen their engagement with the product as well as capture any feedback that might be useful to your product and/or growth team.
- Bottom right: Keep warm âĄď¸ SDR/BDR or Product/Marketing: These opportunities have high product usage, but low customer fit. This could drive various next steps for your team. If this is a new use case that your company is interested in exploring, a SDR/BDR should engage to qualify the opportunity and uncover potential new adjacent business opportunities. Or, if this is a lead that has not yet met the customer fit threshold (eg. you donât want a sales team to engage until they have 500 employees), then you should funnel the lead back to marketing & product to nurture until they become a customer fit.
- Sales never touch âĄď¸ Product/Marketing: These leads have not shown any meaningful product engagement nor do they fit your ICP. You should not spend any sales resources on these leads and leave it up to the self-serve product and marketing channels to either nurture them back into play or let them churn.Â
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#2 Product-Led Sales Goals â
Another way to segment PQLs is by aligning them to your Product-Led Sales goals. We personally love using this strategy to identify your first set of PQLs at Pocus - oftentimes these goals naturally align to different teams and workflows that already exist in your GTM motion.Â
Here are some examples of PLS goals weâve seen recently from Pocus customers:
- Enterprise consolidation
- Seat expansionÂ
- Free trial conversionÂ
- Startup program partnersÂ
- Free to enterprise conversion
Letâs take one of the above examples and define the PQL.
Example PLS goal: Free trial conversion PQL
Example Definition: Signed up for a free trial, fits ideal customer profile, and significant usage in the product.
Example Signals:
- The account is NOT paid customer
- A user signed up for free trial
- Userâs role is an ideal customer fit
- Userâs industry is a target industry
- User invited 10+ teammates
- Accountâs daily usage increased by 30%
Example owner: Account Executive
So, every time an opportunity hits a combination of the above signals, the free trial conversion PQL should be surfaced to the Account Executive. The AE will understand why they are getting this lead (to convert from free to paid), who the user is, and how the user has already engaged with the product to better inform their sales strategy.
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#3 Market or Customer Segmentsâ
Most SaaS companies have already thought about their customer segments and target markets like SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise, or specific industries or geographies.Â
If your existing GTM motion is segmented based on the target market, an easy way to keep things simple with PQLs would be to also align them to these targets.Â
For example, an enterprise PQL may have a different set of customer fit and product usage signals than your SMB PQL. The enterprise PQL should be routed to the enterprise AE and the SMB PQL routed to the SMB AE. The routing of these PQLs will also depend on what resources you have already aligned to these market segments.Â
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Convert PQLs into opportunities
Now that we know how to segment our PQLs, what playbooks do we run to convert these hot leads into revenue? Without a plan of action, PQLs become just another vanity metric. So, we break down how to action your PQLs by function.
As we know, Product-Led Sales is a team sport, so sometimes just an outreach sequence from your sales team may not be enough. You might want to layer in product engagement, email marketing, ad retargeting, and more. Below youâll find potential workflows for sales, marketing, and operations teams.Â
Sales â
The most effective way for sales to convert PQLs into revenue is not necessarily to sell but to help. In a Product-Led Sales world, weâve taken the core principles of consultative selling and supercharged them. The sales team should reach out to their PQLs when:
- Users appear to be stuck or blocked from reaching value orÂ
- There is an opportunity to add more value (ie. try new features, expand within the team, etc.)
- The user has hit a paywall and is ready for a sales conversation
Actions a salesperson can take or automate:
- Get notified when a PQL takes meaningful action in the productÂ
- Use that information in a personalized email to the PQL
Some SaaS businesses really understand how to be timely and personalized. Throughout this post, Iâll include an example email (anonymized of course) that Iâve received recently that really hit their mark.Â
Example of personalized email to an expansion PQL who might want to add more usersâŚ

What this email does well:
- Waited to reach out until I already experienced the value of the productÂ
- Focused messaging on helping me get more value while subtly hinting at expansion
- Used a very tactical example of a new feature (eg. new workflow) I might find useful based on my existing use case
The salesperson on the other side of this email had some great insight about how Iâve been using their product and used that to create a well-timed and engaging email.
Are you thinking âok this sounds great in theory, but how do I actually operationalize this?â
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How Pocus can helpâ
With Pocus, sales teams can easily identify PQLs and get deeper insights about those leads (eg. how are they engaging with the product). Once a salesperson is ready to engage with the PQL, they can automate the above actions directly in the Pocus platform. With Pocusâ no-code automation builder, you can give your sales team the ability to create the ideal workflow to convert new PQLs.
Here are just a few examples of the sales automation you can build in Pocus:
When an opportunity becomes a PQL, you can automaticallyâŚÂ
âĄď¸ Receive Slack notifications when there is a change in the PQLâs product usageÂ
âĄď¸ Create tasks or opportunities in Salesforce
âĄď¸ Launch outreach sequences in your preferred tools
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Marketing â
PQLs have been a game-changer for marketing teams at PLG companies. Marketers no longer have to rely solely on marketing behavior to gauge what to communicate, when, and how with customers (đ say goodbye to only relying on MQLs).Â
Marketers get a lot more insight into a user from their product usage, which can assist in creating well-crafted email sequences during critical moments like free trials and upgrades.Â
Email sequences are by far the most popular use case and marketing tends to own all automated email to customers.Â
For example, most marketing teams will own comms during the free trial or onboarding experience for a new user. Hereâs a great example of an email to send when youâre trying to entice a new user during the free trial.
Examples of an email to send to a âFree Trial PQLâ whose trial is ending soonâŚ

What this email does well:
- Very clear messaging about my trial endingÂ
- Personalized based on premium features I usedÂ
- Clear CTA on what to do nextÂ
Examples of an email to send when the user hits a paywall or plan limitâŚ

What this email does well:
- Doesnât immediately push you towards an upgrade and instead offers a way to keep your existing planÂ
- Includes CTA for an upgradeÂ
- Short and sweet
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How Pocus can helpâ
With Pocus, marketing teams can use the same PQL cohorts as their sales counterparts to automate email sequences in their preferred platforms.Â
âĄď¸ Trigger a specific onboarding email in marketing automation platforms (MAP) like Hubspot and Marketo
âĄď¸ Add a PQL to a specific list in your MAP
âĄď¸ Retarget ads to a free trial PQL whose usage recently dropped offÂ
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Managing PQLs with Pocus
If you got through all of this and are feeling overwhelmed about how youâre going to define and action PQLs⌠donât worry, Pocus has you covered!
Pocus helps you manage and operationalize your PQLs⌠without relying on engineers or data scientists.Â
Letâs break it downâŚ
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Step 1: Define PQLs
Pocus will combine your customer fit, product usage, and buying intent data into one holistic view of your customer. Based on your data and PLS goals, Pocus will recommend PQL scores.
Step 2: Iterate on PQLs
PQLs are both art and science. Pocus will suggest PQLs based on data, but the experts (YOU!) will need to iterate on the PQLs based on qualitative data and constantly evolving business strategy. Pocus provides you transparency into how the PQL is calculated with the ability to update the model without relying on data scientists. Say goodbye to black-box lead scores.
Step 3: Surface PQLs
As discussed above, different PQLs should be surfaced to different team members. Pocus will bubble up the relevant PQL to the right team based on market, PLS goal, or owner at the right time. Pocus will not just tell you who the PQL is, but why they are a PQL so that you can take the next best action.
Step 4: Action PQLs
After you receive the PQL and understand why they are a PQL, you can take the right action from within Pocus, whether that is sending an email, funneling the lead into a marketing sequence, or updating a field in Salesforce.
Step 5: Measure Impact + Experiment with additional PQLs
PQL experimentation is never complete! There is always more to learn with more PLS goals, target markets, and new sales hires. Pocus allows you to experiment with new PQLs and how that would impact your lead funnel and workflow.