The temptation of being Sales-Led: Productize, don’t customize
The temptation of being Sales-Led: Productize, don’t customize
You're small and you are dealing with powerful clients, who have much deeper pockets than you have. How do you resist the temptation to go with whatever they demand to close the deal you desperatly need?
The path from startup or scale-up to unicorn is riddled with such challenges if you sell to the enterprise market.
During the CEO Summit 2024 in Amsterdam, Rahul Kejriwal, CEO of Cenosco and Patrick van Deven, Operating Partner at Fortino shared valuable insights on the topic “The temptation of being Sales-Led.” Below are five key takeaways.
1. Stick to scalable software
If your ambition is to build a great software, stay committed to it. Patrick: "At Fortino, we advocate for a product-centric approach. Building scalable software is expensive and challenging. However, once developed, incremental copies come at a small marginal cost. But this is only true for scalable and intuitive software. Customers must be able to work independently without extensive support, else the scalable model breaks.”
Measuring custom engineering work at a day rate misses the point. “Selling engineering work to each new client project, limits your capacity and growth prospects. It puts you in a worse of both world position: custom work at the price point of off-the-shelve software. Instead, think in terms of opportunity cost. Engineers are precious resources, worth €1 million ARR per head at scale—often more than many salespeople.”
2. Say “no” to custom work
The temptation to veer away from your product roadmap is ever-present. Rahul Kejriwal: "I understand the allure. You don’t need to flatly say ‘no.’ Instead, use the opportunity to explore the customer’s underlying pain points. Help them see why scalable software benefits them. For instance: ‘If we create a bespoke solution, you’ll miss out on future innovations,’ or ‘Our mission is to eliminate unnecessary complexity.’"
Rahul actively screens for sales candidates who align with this principle: "When interviewing account executive candidates, I ask: ‘If a customer offers €1 million in exchange for flexibility and major customizations, would you take the deal?’ Ninety percent say ‘yes,’ thinking small companies must cater to every demand. For me, this is a red flag—I don’t hire them."
Even during implementation, maintain your commitment to “no custom work". "Changes made to appease a customer during implementation—often without proper communication—lead to inevitable problems."
3. Navigate enterprise bureaucracies
Beyond a certain ARR threshold, achieving +100% growth often necessitates larger deals with enterprise customers. These deals invariably come with requests for customization. So, how do you navigate this without falling into the “sales-led” trap?
Patrick offers a perspective: "Mega-vendors became mega because they stuck to their scalable products. This rigidity can sometimes work in your favor. Some large enterprises actually prefer standardized, simpler products. One of our portfolio companies sold its off-the-shelf software to KLM. The airline leveraged the software’s limited options to streamline its processes. It was a win-win deal."
4. Gather customer feedback
“Productize, not customize” doesn’t mean neglecting customer input. On the contrary, customer feedback is critical to distinguishing between signals that drive innovation and one-off requests that don’t add long-term value.
Rahul emphasizes the importance of direct customer contact: "NPS is essential, but it’s only part of the picture. We also value on-the-ground insights. According to our ‘12 by 12’ program, every product leader must meet at least one customer per month—at their workplace, where our software is used, even if it’s in the middle of nowhere."
5. Protect the vision and your team
When you position yourself as a product company, you sell a vision—a dream of becoming the next Microsoft or Odoo. Deviating from this to pursue custom solutions can shatter that dream, leading to a demotivated and unfocused team.
Rahul: "We once lost one of our most talented senior developers because we pushed unrealistic customer demands onto him. In an environment where top developers are scarce, losing a great one can mean the difference between scaling successfully and failing."
Reinforce your team’s belief in the overarching vision by staying true to scalable solutions—and accelerate your growth in the process.
Rahul Kejriwal
Rahul Kejriwal became CEO of Cenosco in 2024. Previously, he led Bricsys, a global engineering design software company that he sold to the industrial technology giant Hexagon AB.
Renowned for driving rapid, profitable growth in the Enterprise SaaS industry, Rahul was welcomed by Cenosco Chairman Zvonimir Djerfi as the ideal leader to propel the company into its next growth phase.
Cenosco is a leading provider of Asset Integrity Management (AIM) software. Their comprehensive platform ensures integrity, reliability, and safety across asset-intensive industries.
