Is Your SaaS Sales Strategy Future-Proof?

Spoiler: Probably Not.

I met a sales leader a few months ago that told me that he didn't believe in AI.

Like seriously, believes that it is a fad. He's also going to be looking for a job soon, so...

The GTM SaaS landscape is changing faster than most of us can keep up with (as an aside, I've been thinking about building a ProductHunt for GTM tools - let me know if that would be interesting).

But my point about not believing in AI is that AI, automation, and evolving buyer behaviors are quickly turning traditional sales strategies into relics of the past.

🚨 Newsflash: What worked in 2015 doesn't work today.

Yet, I keep seeing the same mistakes over and over.

I was working with a founder recently, one that is using that 2015 sales playbook, and they were being 'left behind'. Basically, it was a lot of spray and pray emails that were using the same two templates out of Outreach, phone calls that weren't being answered (but god forbid you invest in something like Orum 🥇), and not even willing to experiment with new things.

If you’re not leveraging data, AI, and a customer-centric mindset, you won't scale, you will only scramble.

So let's look at that.

1. AI Isn’t Coming—It’s Here (and you’re late)
Leaders need to stop treating AI like some futuristic sci-fi idea or some novelty that only goes surface level deep.

If you’re not already using AI to hyper-personalize your outreach, you’re missing the boat. Your prospects are overwhelmed with generic, one-size-fits-all pitches. Tools like @copy.ai (and there are dozens of them) give you the power to make every email, every call, every message feel like it was written just for them.

Personalization at scale is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.

2. Customers Don’t Care About Your Demo—They Want Solutions
Eric Marcoullier gives a great talk called "Your Product Doesn't Fucking Matter". This is often a shock to technical founders and, in fact, when I joined Cloudinary, we had to rewrite the demo script to get away from being so feature focused.

We simplified the demo by focusing less on features and more on solving real problems. The team was shocked at how fast the needle moved when they started talking about outcomes instead of demos.

3. One-Off Deals Are Cute—Long-Term Partnerships Are Gold
If your entire strategy is built around closing deals and moving on, you’re playing the short game (I've got another post in mind about how flipping deals once they are closed is a terrible idea).

In 2024 and beyond, SaaS sales will be won by those who focus on building long-term partnerships. Repeat business, upsells, referrals—that’s where the real money is - both for the company and in commission dollars.

We can’t predict the future, but we can certainly prepare for it. So, how are you future-proofing your SaaS GTM strategy?

Let’s hear it! What are you doing to stay ahead? Drop your thoughts below! 👇