Distribution > Product: why marketing is a day-one decision
The default playbook goes like this. You build for months, and then you go look for "someone for marketing". Three LinkedIn posts later, it is over.
I have seen this so often. Your channel is a day-one decision, not something you think about after the launch. Distribution has to be part of every product iteration, from the begining.
The motion comes before the code
Every product grows on exactly one of three motions: product-led, sales-led or enterprise. The one you pick decides your price, your channels and what you build first. And thats why it has to come before the code.
A PLG product needs fast time-to-value, a good onboarding and upgrade triggers inside the app. A sales-led product needs a strong demo and a trial or proof of concept. An enterprise product has to be professional grade, with security and compliance. These are product decisions. Not some marketing tasks you put on top at the end.
Your price comes out of your motion
You can not pick a price on its own. PLG works with $10 to $50 per user per month, because winning a user costs almost nothing. Sales-led needs at least a few thousand per account per year to pay the rep. Enterprise needs high five figures and more to carry cycles that run over quarters.
If you build first and think about the channel later, you can end up with a product where the price can not pay for the only channel that would sell it. And then you have a real problem.
The motion also decides your channels
PLG lives on SEO, content, communities and product loops. SLG lives on LinkedIn, cold outbound and demos. Enterprise lives on events, referrals, analysts and partnerships.
SEO and content compound over time. Slow at the start, cheap once they scale. If you only start with them after the launch, you loose months that you never get back.
The market decides if there is demand at all
In a Red Ocean the demand is already there, you only redirect it. In a Blue Ocean you first have to create the demand and teach the market what it should want. That changes everything. A self-serve product in a market without demand has an empty funnel, no matter how good the product is.
Validate the distribution before you build
Build the cheapest thing that gets you a real reaction. Only write code when the reaction is there.
- ▸A smoke test, so a landing page that promises the thing, with a sign-up or a "buy" button. Then count who clicks.
- ▸A prototype, a clickable mockup or a short Loom of the flow. Not one line of real code.
- ▸Concierge, you do the job by hand for the first users. If they pay you for doing it manually, the product is worth to build.
Test fast, kill fast
Signal is there? Now build. Signal is not there? You just saved yourself months. Thats the whole point. Test fast, kill fast, no drama.