Four motions, four reading paths.
Each motion is a different shape of B2B sales — different cycle length, different buying-committee structure, different upstream infrastructure, different role for the founder. Same library chapters, but the reading order and the framing change.
Pick the motion you're running now. If you're between motions (founder-led-to-AE-led, or PLG adding outbound), read both — the transition chapters live in both paths.
The motion is whoever's closing the deal. If you're closing, you're founder-led — regardless of what your website says. If your product produces signed contracts without a human conversation, you're PLG. If a hired AE owns the pipeline end-to-end, you're AE-led. If your first 3-5 customers are running structured exchanges with you, you're design-partner-led.
Founder-led sales
You're the only seller. You close 20-35% of deals; an early AE would close 5-15% of the same ones. Discovery, multi-thread, the AE transition decision.
Pre-PMF and post-PMF through your first AE hire.
Design-partner-led
The YC-canonical path to product-market fit and your first 3-5 enterprise logos. Recruiting math, agreement structure, running the program, converting to paid, the case-study handoff.
Pre-PMF B2B SaaS into mid-market or enterprise. Not for PLG or transactional SMB.
AE-led sales
First AE through a 10-AE team. The transition decision and 90-day ramp, multi-segment cohort design, hardened deliverability, multi-thread by default, formal proposal architecture.
Post-PMF when your bandwidth is the bottleneck. Not before $500K ARR.
PLG with sales-assist
Where the sales-led library applies to product-led growth — first-party signal mining, expansion nurture, the manual sales-assist layer, the bridge when PLG layers cold outbound on the self-serve funnel.
Post-PMF PLG companies adding sales-assist or outbound to self-serve.