Slack deliberately avoided sales outreach to community workspaces despite high user counts
Kim Graves · 20Sales: How to Layer Enterprise Sales on PLG | How to Sell AI Tools To Enterprises That Are Scared | Should Reps Own Their Own Pipeline | Mistakes All Founders Make When Moving From Founder-Led to Rep-Led Sales with Kim Graves · Jun 27, 2025 · at 14:46
Kim Graves, GTM leader at Notion and former sales leader at Slack, details how Slack defined its target customer segments for sales outreach.
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“And so at Slack, we saw that our biggest workspaces were actually communities. They were professional networks that were using Slack to trade best practices. There were student groups that were using Slack to work on projects. And the sales team was tempted to sell them because our sales team was using product-led growth signals and seeing what are the biggest workspaces because lots of active members translate translated to lots of licenses. And it was very important that we actually remained focused on the biggest customers that had the most value from the product. And so that wasn't necessarily communities because when you think of communities, It's a very different post sales motion. The values that you're seeking are different than if you were selling to a company. It would have led your product roadmap in a very different direction because you would have had to invest in features like inappropriate message flagging within a community. Those groups also don't have a lot of money. And so while they might have had a lot of licenses, there's not a lot of budget to unlock there. And so we made a very deliberate decision to not focus on communities.”
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