SaaS has fundamentally changed buyer behaviour, yet many sales models remain rooted in traditional technology selling.
Historically, technology buying involved long cycles, formal evaluations, and extensive seller involvement. SaaS disrupted this by lowering barriers to entry, enabling trials, and shifting control toward the buyer.
This shift was documented in The New B2B Buying Journey published by Gartner in 2019. While this research predates the post-pandemic acceleration of digital buying, its conclusions have proven durable — buyers increasingly complete evaluation before engaging sales.
More recent McKinsey research, The New B2B Growth Equation (2023), reinforces that digital-first buying, self-service evaluation, and post-sale value realisation are now central to SaaS success.
For leadership teams, the implication is critical: SaaS growth depends on adoption, retention, and expansion, not just acquisition. Sales strategy must reflect that reality.
If your sales model still reflects traditional technology selling while your customers are behaving like SaaS buyers, the team at Apex Sales Performance Ltd can help you reassess and realign for sustainable growth.