Future of SaaS: Software AND a Service
The next frontier of SaaS isn’t selling tools - it’s delivering outcomes through software AND the service that makes it work
For the last decade, SaaS has been about improve processes through tools.
You needed a tool to manage leads, host webinars, build automations - you subscribed, onboarded, and got to work. That model made sense when software was unique, headcount was available - and people needed tools to leverage.
But that era’s over.
We now have too many tools. We don’t want any more tools.
What we really want are outcomes - and while that’s always been true, we now simply don’t have the bandwidth to manage more tools to get there.
We need help from specialists - and it appears we are willing to pay for it.
The Great Commoditization of Software
We now live in an age of abundance. There’s a tool for everything - likely ten of them - and they’re all pretty good.
AI has leveled the playing field. Features that had unique IP and used to take teams of engineers months/years to build can now be generated and deployed in a week.
The result?
Software has become a commodity.
Charging $2,000 a month for access to a bit of code that others can replicate in months is no longer sustainable - unless you’ve built something insanely unique or insanely valuable (both of which are rare these days).
And the economics of SaaS only accelerate this race to the bottom.
Fixed costs are high, variable costs are near zero, and competition drives margins down. You can now buy phenomenal products for a few dollars a month.
So, what happens when everyone has access to incredible tools - but no one has time to use them properly?
That’s where the next revolution begins.
From Software as a Service → to Software AND a Service
The real opportunity isn’t in building more software.
It’s in leveraging the existing software to create more/better outcomes.
Businesses don’t want another login screen. They want results - more leads, faster turnaround, smoother operations, better governance.
Execution has become the bottleneck.
Let’s take an example: Clay - a brilliant data enrichment tool. It can find hyper-targeted prospects that tools like ZoomInfo or Apollo can’t touch. You can tell it to look for, say, people who are using your competitors and have recently complained about them online.
Powerful.
But to make Clay deliver actual sales outcomes, you need to spend time sourcing, testing, manage data flows, build automations, verify results, and feeding outputs into your outreach stack for actioning.
That’s a complex operational layer - one that (I guarantee) your marketing manager doesn’t have time for.
So instead of just paying for Clay, companies are now paying for Clay + expertise - agencies or operators who manage the workflows, maintain the databases, and ensure output consistency.
They source the contacts, vet them, prep them, and send them to the right sales person - all within the right systems.
The bill? Thousands a month.
The irony - it’s still cheaper (and far more effective) than a full-time hire or doing it yourself.
People who have been pushing back $100 prospecting tools, are coming in droves for this software AND a service and they are paying $1,000’s if not $10,000’s! (So it was never about the price).
That’s the shift.
We don’t need more software. We need people who can wield it effectively. We need solutions that delivery outcomes.
That’s the gapping hole in SaaS today.
Software Alone Doesn’t Solve Problems - Execution Does
This is the fundamental realization shaping the next phase of SaaS.
Tools don’t solve problems. People using tools well do.
Sales Market Fit is another example of those who understand this perfectly.
They built their consulting practice first — designing scalable, repeatable sales processes for B2B teams. Then they productized the knowledge into an AI product called DealBuddi.
The software wasn’t meant to replace their consulting — it was meant to extend it.
Sales Buddy sits inside a sales team’s workflow along side their sales team and acts like a digital coach. Nudging reps when they hit blockers, diagnosing deal friction, running practice role-plays, and reminding them of process steps specific to their company’s methodology.
This is not “sales software” - it’s sales enablement with software.
Similarly, companies like RedEye (which manage engineering drawings for large mining and infrastructure clients) now bundle their platform with ongoing drafting and data management services.
Instead of just selling the software as more tools that some users won’t touch, they sell software + unlimited drafting support — the execution muscle that keeps their drawings clean, up-to-date, and compliant.
That’s software AND a service.
The New Stack: Product, Execution, Governance
The old SaaS value chain was:
Product → Adoption → Scale
The new one looks more like:
Product → Execution → Governance
You can have the best CRM in the world, but if your data is messy and your team doesn’t use it properly, it’s worthless.
Execution (doing the work) and governance (keeping the system in order) are where value now lives.
And because AI has made individuals exponentially more productive, companies are running leaner - one person doing the work of three. That person doesn’t have time to manage a dozen tools.
They’ll happily pay a premium for software + operational support that actually gets the job done.
But they want it from an expert, who can deliver the results.
The Opportunity Ahead
In my opinion, although there will always be space for standard SaaS tools, their pricing will continue to drop as the market becomes more commoditized and accessible.
The high-ticket next generation of SaaS companies won’t look like traditional software vendors. They’ll look like hybrids — offering a subscription to both the tool and the team that operates it.
That might mean:
A marketing automation platform bundled with data analytics to keep things flowing the right way.
A data enrichment platform bundled with lead delivery and integration management.
A CRM bundled with admin and pipeline governance, and maybe event some optimization advice.
It’s not about “renting” software anymore.
It’s about buying outcomes.
We’re entering the era of Software AND a Service - where technology is the engine, but execution is the driver.
The companies that get this right will dominate the upcoming years of B2B SaaS.
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