Before founding Aspen GTM, we successfully led strategic SaaS deals—well before the 2021 peak and through the market turbulence that followed. We watched as B2B buyers quietly shifted toward requiring more deals to be clearly justified investments, with more financial scrutiny and FP&A/CFO oversight. And it was happening everywhere—from medium to large enterprise, and from SLED to FED.
The market forced a SaaS industry reboot
Surface-level ROI and NPV figures built primarily on non-cash benefits started fueling executive debate instead of buy-in.
Tech solution proposals that once earned customer praise started hitting a wall in the new world of increased finance oversight. Without a "people+process+tech" cost-benefit analysis, true total cost of ownership was anyone's best guess—and that eroded executive confidence.
High initial contract values with full-scope seat counts became harder to close because cash benefits were unclear, and more executives "right-sized" initial deals down to essentially paid pilots.
Land and expand motions stalled because those executives that right-sized down initial contracts weren't presented clear cash benefits in post-sales to justify putting more cash into the investment.
We were lucky to get ahead of that reboot
We were extremely lucky to have continued success with our deals despite this new normal because we happened to double down on what we now call "investment leadership" well before 2021. More importantly, we were in a unique position where
we had the right leaders and peers who supported our disruptive idea of no more "software selling," and no more "value theater"—and it worked.
We challenged ourselves to not just align with buyer expectations, but deeply interlock with the customer across people, process, tech, and finance. We forced ourselves to not just sell software, but lead investments. We didn’t just pitch, we partnered. It worked, increasing executive buy-in, close rate, initial deal size, expansion size, and customer advocacy—regardless of the economic environment. We decided to build Aspen GTM so SaaS professionals could achieve that same level of success without needing years of skills development, or a dedicated strategic deal team.
