1. Why should I care about a "land and expand" motion?
Here’s why it’s a big deal:
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2. Examples of companies with a "Land and Expand" model
Here are a few examples of companies that have mastered this strategy to achieve massive growth:
3. How to monitor competitors for a "Land and Expand" motion
Detecting a "land and expand" motion early requires tracking subtle signals across your competitor's pricing, product, and messaging. This playbook automates that process by monitoring for the key indicators of this strategy.
By activating this playbook, you are automatically tracking the following signals:
New Entry-Level Tiers: We continuously monitor your competitors' pricing pages for new, low-cost packages or free trials aimed at individual teams, which are classic signals of a "land" tactic.
Departmental Messaging: The playbook analyzes your competitors' websites for shifts in messaging that target individual users or specific departments rather than enterprise-wide buyers.
Sales Team Intelligence: You will receive alerts when intel suggests a competitor is successfully pursuing small pilot deals within your key accounts, indicating their strategy may be working.
4. Playbook Response Options
4.1 Disrupt the "Land" with Strategic Giveaways
ⓘ Best for: When you need to immediately counter a competitor's entry into high-value accounts and can afford a short-term, potentially unprofitable defensive move to protect a strategic customer relationship. | ||
Goal: Neutralize the competitor's entry-level win rate in key target accounts and block their initial beachhead. | ||
Strategic Rationale: This is a simple, tactical move to stop the bleeding in strategic accounts. While it can devalue your offering and is not a scalable long-term strategy, it's effective at preventing a competitor from getting a foothold from which to expand. |
Identify High-Value "Beachhead" Accounts (Sales & RevOps).
Create a prioritized list of target enterprise accounts where the competitor is likely to attempt a "land," based on your existing pipeline and strategic importance.
Define the "Strategic Giveaway" Offer (Marketing & Sales).
Define a specific, high-value offer to neutralize the competitor's entry-level product (e.g., a free, full-featured pilot for 3 months; a free-forever version for teams under 5).
Create Rules of Engagement for the Offer (Sales Leadership).
Document the exact criteria a deal must meet to be eligible for the offer to prevent overuse and ensure it is only deployed in highly competitive, strategic situations.
Train Sales on How and When to Deploy the Offer (Sales Enablement).
Conduct training on positioning the offer as a strategic partnership to ensure the customer starts with the right enterprise-ready platform from day one.
Proactively Message Key Accounts with the Offer (Account Management).
For your top target accounts, have the assigned Account Manager proactively reach out to key contacts, letting them know this strategic starter package is available to any team in their organization.
Track Offer Usage and Its Impact on Win Rates (RevOps).
Create a dashboard to monitor how often the offer is used and the win rate for deals where the offer is deployed versus where it is not.
4.2 Expose the "Expand" Cost with a TCO Attack
ⓘ Best for: When your solution has a more transparent, long-term value proposition and you are selling to sophisticated buyers (e.g., IT, Procurement, Finance) who care about Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) over the initial price. | ||
Goal: Win larger, enterprise-wide deals by shifting the conversation from starting price to the high future costs of the competitor's "expand" phase. | ||
Strategic Rationale: This strategy protects your premium positioning by arming enterprise buyers against deceptive "Land and Trap" tactics. Its primary risk is that the message won't resonate with departmental buyers who have small, isolated budgets and are focused only on short-term needs. |
Map the Competitor's "Land to Expand" Journey & Costs (CI Manager).
Create a visual map showing the typical customer journey from the competitor's cheap "land" product to the expensive "expand" stage, highlighting all feature-gates and pricing triggers.
Build the "Hidden Costs" TCO Calculator (PMM).
Create an interactive tool that models the total cost of ownership for the competitor's solution over a 3-year period, including the initial low price and all subsequent forced upgrade costs.
Create the "Don't Get Trapped" Sales Asset (PMM).
Design a short, visual sales presentation or one-pager that educates enterprise buyers on how to spot and avoid "Land and Trap" tactics, positioning your transparent pricing as the superior alternative.
Train Sales on the TCO Narrative (Sales Enablement).
Conduct a training session focused on teaching reps how to pivot the conversation from starting price to total cost of ownership, role-playing with the new asset and calculator.
Publish "Air Cover" Content on Hidden Platform Costs (Content Marketing).
Write and promote a thought leadership blog post on topics like "The Hidden Costs of 'Cheap' Business Software" or "How to Calculate the True TCO of a SaaS Platform."
Monitor Deal Conversations for TCO Mentions (RevOps & Sales).
Use a conversation intelligence tool to track how often "TCO," "total cost," and "hidden fees" are mentioned in competitive sales calls.
4.3 Adopt a Competing "Land" Motion
ⓘ Best for: When you are ready for a long-term, strategic shift to a high-volume GTM motion and are willing to invest significant resources in changing your product, marketing, and sales approach to fight fire with fire. | ||
Goal: Create a new pipeline of product-qualified leads (PQLs) and compete directly with the competitor by adopting the same successful strategy. | ||
Strategic Rationale: This is a major operational shift that opens up a new, long-term growth driver. However, it requires significant investment and carries a high risk of cannibalizing your own enterprise deals or failing if not executed with full commitment. |
Scope the Minimal Viable Product (MVP) for the "Land" Offer (Product & PMM).
Define the absolute minimum feature set required for a new, low-cost or free version of your product that can effectively compete with the competitor's entry-level offer and provide a path to upsell.
Design the Low-Touch GTM and Onboarding Journey (Marketing & Growth).
Map out the entire self-service customer journey for this new offer, from initial awareness and sign-up to automated email onboarding.
Create a Product-Qualified Lead (PQL) Definition (Marketing Ops & Sales).
Define the specific in-product user actions that will qualify a user as a PQL, ready for sales outreach about upgrading to an enterprise plan.
Develop the "Land" Offer and Self-Service Systems (Engineering).
Build the feature-limited version of the product and the necessary back-end systems for self-service sign-up, billing, and user management.
Launch the Offer to a Pilot Customer Segment (Product & Marketing).
Launch the new offer to a limited, targeted segment of the market to test the onboarding flow, user engagement, and PQL conversion model before a full public launch.
Measure Adoption, PQL Conversion, and Pipeline Impact (Analytics).
Create a dashboard to track the performance of the new "Land" motion, including sign-ups, activation rate, PQL conversion rate, and the value of sales pipeline generated.