Good to Great SaaS

You're not losing because
your product is weak.
You're losing because you're playing by
rules you didn't set.

Most SaaS companies don't stall because of execution. They stall because buyers evaluate them on someone else's terms — terms that guarantee they'll always be compared, always be negotiated against, and never be chosen for what they're actually worth.

When AI makes every product buildable, feature differentiation collapses. The only leverage left is changing the terms of evaluation entirely.

Let's Talk

If three or more of these are true, keep reading.

  • Deals are won or lost on price or features — not on a fundamentally different understanding of the problem
  • You're growing, but it feels harder than it should — pipeline is there but win rates won't move
  • Sales, marketing, and product tell slightly different versions of what the company actually does
  • Procurement shows up early. Discounting has become the default way to close
  • You know you're better than your competitors — but the market doesn't seem to know it
You're being shopped instead of chosen. That's not a product problem. That's not a sales problem. You're competing on someone else's terms — and no amount of better execution fixes that.

The Diagnosis

Most SaaS companies stall because they've inherited the wrong rules.

As categories mature, a shared belief forms about what the category "is" and what success looks like. Investors trust it. Boards demand it. Competitors copy it.

And good companies — often without noticing — start speaking the same language, chasing the same metrics, and competing on the same terms as whoever set the rules first.

That's the Followers Trap. Once you accept the category leader's assumptions, you can only win by being a better follower. You compete on feature parity, price, and relationships — not on a fundamentally different understanding of what the problem actually is.

The fix is not better messaging. It's not a rebrand. It's changing the terms of evaluation entirely — which requires a strategic move, not a new slide deck.

Stage 1
Product-Market Fit
New product enters a category and wins early by selling unique features. Differentiation is obvious. Sales is straightforward.
Stage 2
Grown Up
The company sells "business value" but still ladders down to product to justify it. Buyers still evaluate it as a product. Commoditization begins. Most companies live here permanently.
The Unlock
Evolved
The company identifies the real executive challenge and ladders up to it with a unique POV. Buyers stop comparing and start choosing. Price-taker becomes price-maker.

Every year you stay in the Followers Trap is another year of lower-quality logos, discount-driven closes, and a valuation that reflects a feature tool — not a category move. The window to reset doesn't stay open forever. New entrants come in cheaper. Procurement gets more sophisticated. The category belief hardens. The best time to change the terms is before the market decides them for you.

The Framework

Category leaders don't execute better inside the existing rules. They change the rules.

01
Strategic Move

A structural change in how you position in the market — not messaging. A reframe of the problem, a recombination of mature capabilities, or a shift in business model. The move creates real leverage that competitors inside the old rules can't replicate.

02
New Narrative

The belief shift that changes how buyers evaluate you — and makes the move feel inevitable. Not a tagline. A new logic for the problem that buyers didn't have language for until you gave it to them. Portable enough to repeat without slides.

03
Proof

The evidence that makes the new belief safe to adopt under real buying pressure. Different moves require different proof. Without the right proof architecture, even the best narrative collapses at the first deal that gets hard.

The right category reset doesn't just change how buyers evaluate you — it changes what investors pay for you.

Want to go deeper before reaching out?

Mike Brady
Mike Brady
Founder, Good to Great SaaS

Mike Brady

Most founders don't have a product problem or a sales problem. They have a belief problem — and no one has told them yet.

In 2016 I joined Piano to build a customer success team. Within weeks I realized the real problem wasn't product adoption — it was that the entire category had the wrong understanding of what publishers were trying to accomplish. Vendors were selling better paywalls. Publishers needed a fundamentally different model for reader revenue.

I built the reframe — "Don't monetize your content. Monetize your loyal audience." — built a 25-person team around proving it, and helped close deals that shouldn't have been possible by the old logic. A four-year, $1M partnership in Spain. A $750k deal in Ukraine where the average deal size had been $30k.

Then I left before the proof was fully institutionalized. And Piano went back to selling product.

That experience — what worked, what didn't, and why — is the origin of this practice. I've spent 30 years in digital products and strategy. I work with a small number of Reset Zone founders each year who are ready to stop competing on someone else's terms.

The Engagement

The Reset is where clarity begins.

A company-specific application of the framework to your category, your position, and your available move. It turns "we should probably rethink our positioning" into a strategic call your whole leadership team can act on.

In the 6–12 months after a Reset

— Deals close on the strength of the idea, not on discounted pricing.

— You're talking directly with the C-Suite.

— Sales, marketing, and product are finally pulling in the same direction.

This is for you if

— You're willing to change how you structure and sell, not just rewrite the website.

— You're ready to make a move before the market decides the terms for you.

This is not for you if

— You're looking for a messaging refresh or a new tagline.

— You need to see results before you're willing to change the story.

1
Category Mapping
We map your category — the inherited belief, where the seams are cracking, and where each player sits in the Reset Zone.
2
Your Available Move
We identify which strategic move is actually available to you right now — given your product, your proof, and your market timing. Not what's theoretically possible. What you can execute.
3
The New Narrative
We write the belief shift — the new logic for your category that makes your move feel inevitable to buyers, investors, and your own team.
4
Proof Architecture
We define exactly what proof you need to make the new belief stick — and what you already have that counts toward it.
Format
Written memo + working sessions
Duration
4 weeks
Investment
$50,000
Deliverable
Category map, strategic move, new narrative, proof architecture
Who it's for
Founders in the Reset Zone — $5M–$50M ARR — ready to stop being shopped
Availability
Limited — a few engagements per year
Before the Memo

Every engagement starts with a single diagnostic conversation — 30 minutes to confirm the fit and the move. If it's not right, I'll tell you that too.

Let's Talk

If you recognized yourself
in this page, reach out.

I only work with a small number of founders each year — because this work only matters if we go deep. The right ones know it when they see it. A 30-minute diagnostic costs nothing and will tell us both whether a reset is the right move.

Or reach out directly at mikebrady@g2gsaas.com