Over the past year and a half, more SaaS companies have started layering product-led growth (PLG) on top of their traditional sales-led growth (SLG) models. And it makes sense: PLG drives efficient, scalable top-of-funnel growth, while SLG helps close big-ticket deals.
On paper, everyone wins..
As Niclas Lilja, CEO and founder of Younium, points out about emerging hybrid growth models in B2B SaaS,“The more varied the growth options, the greater the likelihood of your business thriving… Combining product-led (PLG) and sales-led (SLG) growth offers your business a real chance to stay lean and agile.”
“But this SaaS growth trend is also the most unexplored”, he adds.
It’s not just strategy — it’s Ops
Running PLG and SLG at the same time introduces tension between teams, systems and goals. The biggest pitfall is letting the two motions compete instead of complementing each other.
There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for hybrid growth. The best approach is iterative and feedback-driven — not a rigid plan in a spreadsheet.
“Today, companies are still finding their footing. That’s why the ability to run data-backed experiments and evolve your finance tech stack is key to long-term success,” Lilja adds.
Go hybrid with intent
It is tempting to “go hybrid” by simply hiding a few enterprise features and calling it a product-led motion. But that’s not PLG — that is just window dressing. True product-led growth requires thoughtful design, not just stripped-down UI.
To do it right, SaaS companies need to go deeper:
- Experiment intentionally — PLG isn’t a one-time launch, it’s an ongoing process of iteration and feedback.
- Know your audience — different segments respond to different motions. One size doesn’t fit all.
- Design distinct pricing and packaging — each motion needs its own model. What works for enterprise won’t work for self-serve.
Hybrid growth works best when each motion is treated with intention and not as an afterthought.
Once you’ve set the purpose, identify your primary growth engine — the motion that’s already driving the bulk of your traction. The goal isn’t to replace it, but to build around it. Protect what’s working and introduce new motions that enhance your core strategy.
Don’t go all in — begin with a small, clearly defined customer or product segment where you can safely experiment; a narrow, well-defined segment such as a specific persona, product line or use case. Design tailored processes around that motion and test it in isolation before scaling. Use data to guide these tests forward, not gut feelings.
Metrics matter
In hybrid growth, tracking the right SaaS metrics is essential. Focus on three:
- Recurring revenue by segment (PLG vs. SLG)
- Retention by cohorts (how different motions impact behavior)
- ARPU by plan (real value across tiers + upsell signals)
These are standard metrics; but in a hybrid setup, how you interpret them changes. PLG scales from small. SLG starts big. Your data must reflect both.
From metrics to movement
Understand your product’s growth DNA. Are your roots more PLG, more SLG, or somewhere in between? That baseline will shape how you evolve. Then, run regular cohort analyses — because there will be behavior shifts when you introduce new motions. Don’t treat your entire customer base the same; segment it intentionally, and apply the right motion to the right users.
Finally, stop trying to manage this complexity in spreadsheets. A solid subscription management platform gives you a unified view of product usage, billing and customer behavior so you can spot what’s working and what’s lagging and make data-backed decisions faster.
It’s not about blending PLG and SLG into one. It’s about using both — on purpose.
This is where a subscription management solution like Younium can significantly aid your efforts. Collating subscription data (from different sources) in one place, enables you to justify what is working and identify what is not working, see where to invest more, go faster and go slower.
“As a result, it becomes possible to really analyse the data and draw conclusions from it,” Lilja says.
You switched to hybrid pricing — now what?
While hybrid growth offers customers flexibility — through usage-based pricing, modular add-ons, multiple entry points — and opens up new revenue opportunities for SaaS companies, it’s a massive headache for finance teams.
Mixing subscriptions with variable usage, tiered plans and one-off services overwhelms traditional finance systems. PLG introduces billing volatility and usage spikes. SLG brings long cycles and custom contracts. Together, they pull your revenue engine in opposite directions — and many legacy tools are not built to handle that kind of complexity.
The result? Product, billing and CRM systems that don’t sync. Finance teams are buried in spreadsheets, chasing down data and watching forecasts shift — not because of actual performance but because the tooling can’t keep up.
What looks like innovation from the outside often leads to messy, unpredictable revenue and misaligned data behind the scenes.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. The solution lies in scaling your finance systems as your company scales. Younium as a modern, flexible subscription management platform is built for this reality: it flexes with hybrid pricing models, centralises data across PLG and SLG motions, and gives finance teams real-time visibility into what’s actually happening across the business.
Hybrid growth isn’t easy — but with the right mindset, metrics and tech, it’s more than doable. And the companies that figure it out early will have an edge.
Fix it with the right stack
Scaling hybrid growth requires scaling your systems with it.
Younium is a purpose-built subscription management platform for B2B SaaS. It helps you:
- Centralise subscription data across systems
- Run data-backed experiments with pre-calculated insights
- Automate billing and invoicing (even across hybrid models)
- Integrate with ERPs to deliver clean, standardised data
- Use AI for conversational insights and surface actions faster
“With one source of truth, you can finally justify what’s working, fix what’s not and make smarter decisions faster,”— Niclas Lilja
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