What's up, it's Zayd.

We added self-serve to Valley last month and I was convinced it would kill our demo bookings.

Valley was 100% sales-led before this. Every user had to book a demo to get in. You couldn't even see the product without talking to us first.

Then we launched a $395/month base plan: self-serve, no demo required. Just sign up, pay via Stripe, start using it.

I thought that if 100 people took action before, now 70 would book demos and 30 would self-serve. Same total conversions, just split differently.

I ended up being completely wrong about how buyers actually make decisions.

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What Actually Happened

We still book 30+ inbound demos per week. Same as before.

PLUS 60-80 people now self-serve signup every week.

Rather than cannibalizing our demo pipeline, we're capturing an entirely new segment of people who would've never booked a call in the first place. These are people who:

• Want to try before they buy

• Hate sales calls

• Already know what they need

• Just want to get started immediately

These people weren't in our funnel before. They'd land on our site, see "Book a demo" as the only option, and bounce…now they convert.

The Part I'm Still Figuring Out

Here's what's messy: Self-serve conversions to paid aren't following the same pattern as demo bookings.

Demo → paid customer is pretty linear.

You book a call, we show you the product, you decide. The conversion math is straightforward.

Self-serve is all over the place. Some people sign up and convert in 48 hours. Others kick the tires for 3 weeks. Some never upgrade at all.

The path isn't linear, and the conversion rate isn't as high yet. We’re still collecting data on what % of self-serve signups become paying customers and how long that takes, but the volume increase is massive enough that it's worth the lower conversion rate.

We’d rather have 60 signups converting at 15% than 0 signups converting at 0%.

We made a bunch of other changes alongside the self-serve option that tripled our email collection:

• Way more CTAs across the site

• Gamified signup form

• Live Navattic demo (so people can see the product without talking to us)

• Newsletter signup options everywhere

• More visible pricing

Each of these probably contributed to the increase, so it’s hard to isolate what exactly caused what, but the overall effect was clear: more people in the funnel.

The Psychology of Buyer Segments

This is where the importance of understanding the psychology of buying behavior comes in.

Demo-First Buyers: Want to understand the product deeply before committing. Value hand-holding and personalized demos. Usually larger companies with more complex needs.

Self-Serve Buyers: Want to try it themselves first. Hate feeling sold to. Usually more technical, smaller teams, or agencies who know exactly what they need.

These are completely different people with different buying preferences, so we’ve been tracking them separately:

• Demo funnel: Website visit → Demo booking → Demo completion → Paid

• Self-serve funnel: Website visit → Signup → Active usage → Paid

The next question is: Does self-serve retain as well as sales-led?

It’s too early to have definitive data, but early signals suggest:

• Self-serve users who make it to "active" (our activation metric) retain just as well as demo users

• But more self-serve users churn before hitting "active"

So the challenge is activation. Getting self-serve signups to that "aha moment" where they see value.

That's where onboarding becomes critical.

Why We Were Wrong About Cannibalization

The cannibalization fear is super common. "If we let people sign up for free/cheap, why would they ever pay for the expensive thing?" but that's not how it works in practice.

The people who were going to book demos still book demos. They want the personalized attention, the custom walkthrough, the sales relationship. The people who self-serve were never going to book demos anyway. They'd rather figure it out themselves.

You have to reframe the concept of stealing from one group to serve the other to the notion that you're serving both groups the way they want to be served.

The Implementation Reality

If you're thinking about adding self-serve to a sales-led motion, here's what actually matters:

Activation Metrics: Define what "active" means for your product. Track how many self-serve users hit that milestone.

Onboarding Flow: Self-serve users need clear guidance on what to do first. Can't just dump them in the product and hope they figure it out.

Pricing Structure: Your self-serve tier should be valuable enough to get people in the door but limited enough that they want to upgrade.

Sales Team Buy-In: Your AEs need to see self-serve as expanding the funnel, not replacing their role. Otherwise they'll sabotage it.

The Valley Learnings

This whole experience taught us a lot about our buyers:

Some people want to talk to us. They value the expertise, the consultation, the relationship.

Other people just want to get started. They know what they need and don't want a sales process in the way.

Both are valid. Both convert. Both can be great customers.

The mistake is forcing everyone through the same funnel because it's "how you've always done it."

What's Next

The real challenge now isn't getting people in the door. We've got that figured out.

It's conversion and retention of this much larger top-of-funnel. Turning 60-80 weekly self-serve signups into paying customers at a rate that makes the economics work.

We're experimenting with:

• Better onboarding sequences

• In-product prompts at key moments

• Email nurture for inactive users

• Success milestones that trigger upgrade prompts

Still figuring out what works. But the volume is there. Now it's about conversion.

How I Can Help?

Let me book sales calls for you while you’re building your self-serve motion. Seriously.

I built Valley to be your automated SDR and empower AEs. Get started today and watch your calendar fill up with qualified leads.

How can we work together 🏔️

1. See more of Valley’s messaging examples, feel free to roast them: https://coolmessagebro.com/

2. Generate more demos for your company using LinkedIn: https://meetings.hubspot.com/zayd-from-valley/tryvalley
   

3. Become a Valley partner and get 20% recurring commission for every user you bring in: https://withvalley.notion.site/valley-affiliate-partner-program