The Outcome Economy: A Seller’s Perspective
- Stuart Medhurst
- Feb 6
- 6 min read
Stratavus Outcome Economy Series - Post 3
The New Reality for Technology Sellers in the Outcome Economy
Being a technology seller has never been harder. Customers have more choice, markets are shifting fast and every decision is under scrutiny for value and impact.
At the same time, your core challenges remain the same: grow revenue from existing customers, reduce churn and improve net revenue retention (NRR) in an economy where switching has never been easier.
From Ownership to Consumption: Why SaaS Is Increasing Customer Churn Risk
The industry has moved from proprietary, heavily customised on‑premise systems to SaaS, subscription and broader consumption models. In the old world, customers invested heavily in infrastructure, customisation and internal know‑how which created natural lock‑in.
In the new world, much of that friction has vanished. Platforms are more standardised and more heterogeneous by design so they can be sold on subscription and consumption terms. The unintended consequence is that customers find it easier than ever to walk away.
If you want a picture of where software is heading, look at UK utilities or mobile contracts. As a consumer, you can often switch providers in minutes once a contract ends or a notice period is served. Barriers to churn still exist in the form of contracts, but as markets mature and competition increases, switching becomes the rational choice when value is unclear or current suppliers un-relatable.
We are moving towards a world where software behaves the same way: more commoditised, more comparable and easier to substitute. That reality is deeply unsettling for many vendors who still assume their product is “special” enough to prevent churn.
How AI Is Changing the Future of Buying Software
On top of that, AI is changing not just how customers use software but whether they buy it at all. Many organisations are actively exploring AI application development platforms such as N8N, UiPath or Base44 with a simple premise: “If we can describe what we need, the platform can help us build it.”
These customers have often struggled with traditional commercial applications. They have paid a lot, tolerated long implementation times and endured painful change management. Even with SaaS, they discover the model was designed primarily for vendor growth, not for reducing spend when requirements shrink.
It is usually easy to add new users but much harder to remove them, reclaim unused licenses or even get clear visibility into who is using what. When budgets are tight and AI offers a path to “build what we really need,” it is no surprise that buyers are questioning whether they need many of the traditional applications at all.
What the Outcome Economy Means for Sellers
This sounds bleak but it actually clarifies what great sellers must do in the outcome economy: create clarity and confidence for the customer. Most customers do not want to churn for the sake of it. They want value for money and help addressing the specific challenges they face.
Your starting point is to put the customer front and centre and understand what success looks like to them in concrete, business terms. Only from there can you determine what commercial model truly works for them: subscription, pure consumption, hybrid or something else.
Our Outcome-Driven Selling is about shifting the conversation from what your product does to the difference it makes for the customer’s business.
Instead of leading with a long list of features and product SKUs, you must balance two forces: the demands of your employer and the needs of your customer. That balance only holds if you design the deal and the adoption path around the outcomes your customer cares about most.
Why Sellers Must Be Present With Customers to Discover Real Outcomes
You cannot discover outcomes from behind a spreadsheet. You need to be physically and mentally present with your customers: visit their sites, walk their facilities and see their operations first‑hand. Many sellers I have managed rarely meet their customers face‑to‑face, relying instead on third parties, email and virtual meetings, this is not selling and I actively stopped these working practices.
Being present gives you a unique opportunity: you can challenge and reframe how the customer thinks about success. You can ask why they believe success looks the way it does, where those assumptions come from and whether they are still valid in the current environment.
You can then work with them to define how success will be measured. If current metrics are vague or hard to track, you co‑create a shared set of measurable success criteria that both sides commit to. Once you are anchored on this shared definition, you can map your capabilities to those outcomes in a way that is credible and aligned.
Qualifying Out: The Sales Discipline That Improves Win Rates and Trust
One of the most important disciplines in the outcome economy is the mindset of qualifying out rather than desperately qualifying in. Many sellers look for any reason to keep a deal alive and over‑promise along the way.
Instead, act as your own devil’s advocate. Ask yourself:
Can we genuinely help this customer achieve their stated outcomes?
Can we credibly manage and measure the agreed success criteria?
Is this the right solution and model for this specific customer?
If the honest answer is “no,” and the customer is not willing to move on their definition of success, you should qualify out.
Paradoxically, when you consistently apply this mindset and a deal remains in your pipeline, it is usually a very strong deal.
Why Lost Deals Are Your Greatest Source of Sales Insight
Sales teams love celebrating wins, but in the outcome economy you learn far more from losses. Over the last 20 years, one of the most valuable disciplines I have instilled in teams is the lost review.
We routinely label losses as “status quo” or “do nothing.” The story we tell ourselves is that the customer stayed with their existing solution or decided not to move forward due to budget, timing or internal politics. In reality, they almost always did something; they just did not do it with you.
Manufacturers might decide to invest in new machinery that increases production capacity. Logistics companies might choose to expand or renew their vehicle fleets because those assets are tangible and clearly tied to revenue and service levels. From their perspective, those investments delivered more visible business value than your proposal.
The uncomfortable truth is that many deals are not lost to the status quo at all. They are lost because we failed to articulate what success looks like in the customer’s terms and failed to prove that our solution would deliver that success better than competing uses of their capital.
Turning the Status Quo Into an Active Business Decision
If you consistently clarify outcomes, co‑define metrics and align your offer to those outcomes, you make it much harder for customers to hide behind a vague status quo. They will still make choices, but those choices will be informed.
Your job is not to eliminate alternatives; it is to ensure your proposal is evaluated on the basis of business impact, not just cost or feature checklists. That only happens when you relentlessly bring discussions back to:
What does success look like?
How will we measure it?
How does our approach change your business for the better?
Use Loss Reviews and References as Strategic Assets
In the outcome economy, you cannot afford to ignore two powerful assets: rigorous loss reviews and strong customer references.
Loss reviews force you to confront where you failed to connect the dots between your capabilities and the customer’s outcomes. Done well, they reshape how you qualify, how you run discovery and how you construct value narratives.
References prove that your promised outcomes are real. You should think about reference creation early in the sales process, not as an after-thought once the deal closes. When customers clearly understand why they adopted your offering and see daily value in their operations, it becomes far easier to ask them to act as sponsors and advocates.
Strong references support better NRR because they reflect customers who are achieving meaningful outcomes and are therefore more likely to renew, expand and champion you internally.
Landing and Expanding Through Proven Customer Outcomes
From this solid foundation of clearly defined outcomes, joint success criteria, and visible value, you can credibly “land and expand.”
You can ask questions such as:
Where else are your technical capabilities misaligned with your business needs?
Which teams or processes are still under‑served or inefficient?
How else can we help you remove friction or unlock growth?
This approach lets you engage other parts of the business from a position of customer sponsorship rather than vendor push. It also puts competitive pressure on rival suppliers because you are anchored in proven outcomes and supported by internal business outcome champions.
It all starts with one decision: put the customer front and centre, define success in their language and never lose sight of the outcomes you are there to deliver.
The Stratavus Outcome Economy Series
This is the third post in a five part series about the Outcome Economy. This series is a short introduction to The Outcome Economy
The Outcome Economy From A Sellers Perspective (this post)
What The Outcome Economy Looks Like In Practice
Many leaders recognise these patterns but struggle to shift them in practice. If you’re exploring what an outcome-led approach could look like in your environment, we’re always open to a conversation.
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