OnboardingEmerging Pattern

Replace salespeople with product advocates who support customers then route them back to self-service

Instead of sales reps pushing deals, create advocates focused on customer success who answer questions, remove obstacles, then send customers back to self-service flows. This one-to-many model is more cost-effective while maintaining quality support.

When to use

When you have a product that can be self-served but customers occasionally need help understanding features, pricing, or implementation

Don't do this

Using support interactions as sales opportunities, which creates friction and erodes trust in the self-service model

2 Founders Who Did This

1
Atlassianby Jay Simons

Created product advocates instead of salespeople, measured by customer volume and satisfaction rather than closed deals. When customers asked about pricing, they added it to the website rather than routing to sales

Result:Maintained self-service model that served 5,000 new customers per quarter while keeping sales and marketing spend at 19% of revenue vs industry norm of 40-50%
See Atlassian growth story →
2
Atlassianby Mike Cannon-Brookes & Scott Farquhar

Replaced salespeople with product advocates who supported customers then routed them back to self-service purchasing. Acquired first 50,000 customers with no modified license agreements.

Result:$50M+ ARR with 20,000+ customers before any VC, proving self-service enterprise can work at scale
See Atlassian growth story →