A B2B vertical that automatically unlocks new distribution channels!?
How Miro's strategy with Consultants & Agencies unlocked massive PLG growth
I vividly recall the moment back in July 2020, during the early months of remote work due to the pandemic, when at Miro in my team we started deliberately addressing this vertical by working a program to support these consultants in excelling with their clients, which we expected in turn would boost Miro's visibility among potential enterprise clients.
Just six weeks, in August 2020 we launched first agency-program - "Miro Experts" with 28 agencies on board, all eager to champion Miro and contribute to its growth.
This initiative marked the beginning of our focused engagement with this vertical, which would later become a cornerstone of Miro's growth strategy and significantly fuel our PLG expansion.
Why Consultants & Agencies vertical is so special for Miro
Many large enterprises rely on professional service providers, such as consultants and agencies, for various projects. Imagine these providers not only using your product but integrating it into their client projects. This transforms them from mere customers into advocates for your product, introducing it to large enterprises without any direct solicitation from us. This is truly remarkable.
The Consultant and Agencies vertical serves a dual role for Miro: they are both a client vertical and a distribution channel.
This vertical checks multiple boxes for contributing to Miro’s PLG:
Multiplying Reach: Consultants routinely incorporate Miro into their work, showcasing it to their clients in the process.
Enterprise Gateway: These professionals, even at smaller scales, often engage with enterprise-level clients, offering a valuable entry point.
Annual Client Refresh: Given the nature of consultancy, professionals frequently onboard new clients, expanding the potential for Miro's adoption.
Innovation Agents: Consultants are known for their innovative approaches, aligning with Miro’s vision of being a hub for innovation.
Starting Point for Enterprise Adoption: It sometimes only takes one successful consultant project to initiate broader enterprise adoption.
For example one of the first significant enterprise deal for Miro originated from a small boutique consultancy. This relationship began with a single team product usage and led to a first Miro substantial enterprise deal in less than a year.
So, essentially, this vertical not only contributes direct revenue but also drives indirect revenue from the clients they influence.
Direct Revenue: This comes from ARR generated by consultants' paid subscriptions (both HT and SS).
Indirect Revenue: This is the ARR from paid accounts influenced by external consultants domains.
This vertical, therefore, plays a crucial role in broadening Miro's reach and influence within the enterprise sector, making it an invaluable part of Miro's growth strategy.
Major clusters within this vertical for Miro
At Miro we referred to this group as Professional Service Providers (PSP), and the definition was:
"Professional Service Providers (PSP) is an umbrella term used to refer to companies with knowledge workers, that use their expertise to provide bespoke services to their clients."
However, it's essential to recognize that not every consultant or agency will boost your product's growth. To find the best partners, we dive into our product usage data, looking for patterns.
At Miro, we focused on accounts that brought in external collaborators and exposed our product to new corporate accounts NCA (excluding those using free email services). This analysis helped us identify certain types of consultants and agencies that were a particularly good fit:
👩🎓 Management consulting
👨💻 IT consulting
🦹♀️ Marketing and advertising agencies
👩🏻🎨 Design agencies and Architecture
We then categorized these into 3 main clusters interesting for us:
Cluster 1 and 2: Individuals and Small to Medium-Sized Firms: These were grouped into the Self-Serve (SS) PSP cluster.
Cluster 3: Large Firms: These were classified as part of the High Touch (HT) PSP cluster.
This system helps us customize our approach for each group, maximizing growth and partnership potential.
Strategies Miro tried for this vertical
Miro embraces a culture of experimentation, especially with this vertical, trying various strategies, some of which continue, some have evolved, and some ended. Here are some strategies Miro has used:
Special Pricing Plan: This is a common approach, particularly effective when consultants are among your early adopters. A special plan is justified if their use cases differ significantly from other customers, and your current offerings don't meet these unique needs.
Miro had a “Consultant Plan” for years before integrating it into a broader “Professional” plan as the company and its features expanded.
Marketing Partner Program:
Creating a marketing partner program tailored to this vertical is a straightforward yet effective approach. The first step involves conducting thorough research on various consultants to identify 3-5 benefits that would provide the most value to them. These benefits can be diverse, ranging from features within the product, like unique functionalities or free seats, to benefits outside the product, such as co-marketing opportunities, exclusive onboarding materials, and invitations to special events.
At Miro, we pictured value creation through our agency program, like a flywheel benefiting Miro, the Professional Service Providers (PSP), and our customers:Miro Experts Directory - Our Value Creation Flywheel
For Miro: This directory serves as an acceleration tool. Externally, it boosts Miro adoption by offering a selection of different experts on demand. Internally, we utilize these experts during the sales process as external service providers, enhancing our sales pitch with practical expertise and examples.
For PSPs (Consultants and Agencies): Being listed in the directory and having a dedicated page is a powerful way to generate demand and create new opportunities. This visibility in the Miro community is instrumental in driving their own business growth.
For Customers: The experts provide an enriched experience on top of the product. They introduce innovative ways to use Miro, thereby enhancing the overall customer experience and satisfaction.
An unexpected insight gained from developing this program at Miro was regarding monetary incentives. We found that referral fees or similar financial rewards were not particularly important for SS Consultants. Generally, these consultants are already well-compensated for their services and value other forms of engagement more. In Miro’s case, the most significant value we could offer was exposure to our own client base and community, effectively giving them avenues to acquire new clients through their association with us.
This model of a marketing partner program is not unique to Miro; similar programs with their own unique twists can be seen in companies like Notion, Mailchimp, Asana and Webflow Experts. Each of these programs has its own flavor, tailored to the specific needs of the company and its partners, but the underlying principle remains the same: creating mutual value that drives growth for both the company and its consultants or agency partners.
Consultant Community: Creating a dedicated community for consultants allows them to share their expertise, engage with each other on collaborative projects and enhances their engagement with Miro.
Collaborate on Content Creation: Consultants, in their thought leadership activities, often produce various types of content such as videos, articles, and case studies, even without being prompted. Content creation is part of their strategy to generate demand for their services. They naturally feel inspired to create content as it showcases their expertise and how they utilize your product. The range of content they produce is usually diverse, including practical case studies, "how-to" articles, both short and lengthy videos, and also templates.
In Miro, consultants have been major contributors to our Miro template library, known as the Miroverse. Their involvement has been instrumental, not just in terms of quantity but also in the variety and quality of the templates provided. This contribution from the consultant vertical not only enriches the Miroverse but also demonstrates the innovative ways consultants are using Miro in their work.
Assist with Expansion and Sales: Miro partnered with selected trusted consultants to help expand enterprise accounts or acquire new ones, leveraging their expertise and relationships.
Key learnings
As you can probably guess, there were made some mistakes. Especially in a condition of hypergrowth. Here are key learnings:
Clarity on Ownership: The professional services vertical isn't a one-department endeavor; it demands coordinated efforts across the company. Establishing this clear ownership and aligning our leadership team was a significant challenge at Miro, but it's an essential step to prevent strategic missteps.
Focus on One Thing at a Time: Miro's initial attempts were scattered, trying to seize every opportunity in this vertical simultaneously. It's a classic mistake of having too many irons in the fire can dampen the potential for growth. We learned to resist the allure of pursuing every new opportunity and instead focused our resources on nurturing key areas within the consultant and agency space. This focused approach proved crucial in enhancing the effectiveness of our efforts.
Patience in Community Building: Cultivating a community, particularly with professionals like consultants and agencies, requires a long-term commitment. At Miro, we realized that these relationships need to be developed organically and cannot be hurried or approached transactionally. Genuine community building involves nurturing authentic connections, consistently providing value, and patiently fostering these relationships over time. Patience and perseverance are crucial, as the most substantial communities are built on a foundation of trust and mutual benefit.
Conclusion: Harness mutual growth
The success of consultants with their clients directly mirrors your success with those same clients. This interconnection is why I find this vertical particularly compelling. The more proficient consultants are in using our product, the broader the exposure and adoption among enterprise clients. It’s a genuine win-win scenario for both our company and the consultants, a dynamic that is drawing increasing attention from many new B2B PLG products. They recognize the value of this vertical and are actively engaging with it.
The essence of consultants and agencies is their inherent ability to be vocal and viral about the products they use.
Your aim is to magnify this trait. Their role extends beyond mere usage; they actively enrich the product’s ecosystem, bringing in valuable perspectives, resources, and a wealth of practical applications. Their contributions, from in-depth templates to real-world case studies, elevate the product’s utility for all users.
Example of non-sponsored video casestudy created by one of Miro Experts:
In summary, engaging effectively with consultants and agencies is a great part of strategy in your PLG journey. It’s an investment that goes beyond immediate returns, laying the foundation for long-term growth and establishing your product as a staple in the professional landscape.