For most of the past 20 years, I’ve worked in SaaS. I’ve sold software, led sales organisations and helped technology companies develop their salespeople, processes and commercial strategies.
During that time, I’ve watched SaaS companies disrupt traditional industries, create entirely new markets and force established competitors to rethink how they operate.
But recently, I’ve started noticing something interesting.
Traditional B2B service companies are approaching me specifically for SaaS sales training.
Others don’t use those exact words, but once they start talking about discovery calls, product demos, sales methodologies and software sales playbooks, it’s fairly obvious what they’re trying to achieve.
They’re preparing to sell differently.
And I believe we’re seeing the beginning of a much bigger change.
AI is making it faster and easier to develop software, automate services and compete with established providers.
Companies that have traditionally sold people, expertise and professional services are starting to explore how they can package that knowledge into software.
But building the software is only half the challenge.
These companies also have to learn how to market, sell and retain customers in a commercial environment that SaaS companies have spent the past two decades learning to survive in.
And I think some traditional B2B companies are going to find that transition considerably harder than they expect.
SaaS Companies Learnt to Compete Because They Had No Choice
One of the biggest differences I’ve observed between traditional B2B organisations and SaaS companies is the competitive environment they’ve developed in.
Many established B2B industries have historically operated with relatively stable competition. A large company might have two or three major competitors it has been fighting with for decades.
There are often significant barriers to entry too. Capital. Infrastructure. Regulation. Specialist expertise. Established customer relationships.
SaaS has traditionally been a very different environment.
Technology made it possible for smaller companies to enter markets, challenge established vendors and introduce competing products without needing the same physical infrastructure or resources.
Competition is everywhere.
New competitors appear constantly, and this has forced SaaS companies to take sales development seriously, often long before they’ve reached the size of much older traditional businesses.
They need structured outbound prospecting, competitive positioning, qualification processes and effective sales training. They need to understand why buyers choose competing products, how to displace existing suppliers and how to demonstrate enough value to justify making a change.
They also need to think beyond the initial sale.
Acquiring a customer is expensive. Keeping them, getting them to adopt the product and convincing them to renew can be just as challenging.
I saw another version of this pressure during the global financial crisis in 2008.
I was selling software in an increasingly competitive market. Budgets were under pressure, and buyers were becoming far more selective about where they spent their money.
That period had a huge impact on how I understood value-based selling.
Having a better product or a longer list of features wasn’t enough. I needed to understand what the buyer was trying to achieve and demonstrate why the commercial value justified the investment.
None of these skills belong exclusively to SaaS. Good B2B salespeople across many industries have been applying them for decades.
But the competitive nature of SaaS has forced more companies to develop these capabilities systematically.
That doesn’t mean every SaaS company has brilliant sales processes. Far from it.
A considerable amount of my b2b sales consulting work has involved helping SaaS companies build the structures, playbooks and processes they were missing.
The difference is that SaaS companies have generally been under greater pressure to recognise those weaknesses and do something about them.
That same pressure is now arriving in traditional service industries.
AI Is Changing Who Traditional B2B Companies Compete Against
There’s an enormous amount of noise around AI.
Jobs are disappearing. Entire industries are supposedly about to collapse. Machines are going to replace everyone.
I’m not particularly interested in the more dramatic predictions.
I’ve spent enough time in the SaaS bubble to know that every week someone announces the next innovation that’s apparently going to change everything.
What makes AI interesting to me is the speed at which it’s allowing people and companies to work.
I recently spoke with the Chief Product Officer of a client who claimed his development team of nine people was now working at what he considered the speed and productivity of a 60-person team.
This gives you some idea of the scale of change certain organisations believe they’re already experiencing.
They hadn’t hired another 51 developers.
They were using AI tools like Claude to increase productivity of the team.
Now think about what that means for a traditional service company selling outsourced development teams, technical resources or another service built around human labour.
Historically, the outsourcing decision has often been relatively straightforward.
A company needs additional resources. Recruiting internally is expensive, slow and difficult. An external provider can supply experienced people, sometimes at a lower cost, while taking responsibility for recruitment, management and administration.
But what happens when AI allows that same company to complete considerably more work with the employees it already has?
Suddenly, one of the biggest competitors facing the service provider isn’t another outsourcing company.
It’s the client’s own internal team.
SaaS companies have dealt with a version of this problem for years.
It’s the classic build-versus-buy decision.
Why should a buyer pay for your software when their internal technology team believes it can build something similar?
Now imagine that argument spreading into professional services, outsourcing and other industries where AI can automate a meaningful share of the work.
The economics of building internally are changing.
Research from Thomson Reuters gives us some context. Its 2026 AI in Professional Services Report found that 40% of respondents said their organisations were using generative AI, up from 22% in 2025.
That doesn’t mean 40% of professional services companies are replacing external suppliers with AI.
It does show how quickly the technology is entering these industries.
And the commercial consequences are becoming harder to ignore.
Traditional service companies are now facing competition from existing rivals, new AI-enabled businesses and, increasingly, the internal capabilities of their own customers.
For many of them, continuing to sell services in exactly the same way they always have is going to become increasingly difficult.
Building Software Is Only Half the Commercial Transition
One response I’m already seeing is traditional service companies developing their own software products.
Instead of simply selling people to deliver a service, they’re exploring how to package their expertise, processes and AI agents into products customers can buy through recurring subscriptions or similar commercial models.
For certain companies, I think that’s a sensible direction.
But launching software introduces a completely different set of commercial challenges.
Take a company that’s spent 20 years selling outsourced development teams.
Its salespeople might be excellent. They may have strong relationships with enterprise customers, understand complex negotiations and know exactly how to navigate lengthy purchasing processes.
That doesn’t automatically mean they’ll know how to sell an enterprise software platform.
The fundamentals of good B2B selling still apply.
But the sales process can look very different.
Software salespeople need to know how to run effective product demonstrations, connect individual features to commercial outcomes and qualify both business and technical requirements.
They may need to engage information security teams, CTOs, IT departments, procurement and the people responsible for integrating the software into existing systems.
They also need to understand how the buyer plans to implement the product, drive adoption and measure whether it’s actually delivering value.
Then comes what happens after the contract is signed.
Imagine a company supplying 50 developers to a client.
Over time, those developers become familiar with the client’s systems, processes and working practices. Relationships form. Specialist knowledge accumulates.
Replacing the team can become extremely disruptive.
Now imagine the same provider replaces those 50 developers with a software platform delivering 50 AI agents.
Even if the software performs a similar amount of work, the buyer may perceive the relationship differently.
Replacing software might feel considerably easier than replacing an entire team of people.
Of course, software can become deeply embedded too. Integrations, data, workflows and implementation costs can make switching extremely difficult.
But the perceived difference in replaceability creates another commercial challenge.
The provider has to keep demonstrating why its solution deserves to stay.
Especially when competitors are developing alternatives and the buyer’s own technology team may believe it can build something internally.
SaaS companies know that problem well.
And it’s why moving from services into software requires far more than changing the sales presentation.
The Bigger Challenge Is Building the Commercial Operation Around the Product
I suspect one of the most significant changes we’ll see over the next few years will happen in commercial leadership.
When a traditional service company introduces software products, somebody has to build the commercial operation around them.
That means understanding the target market, developing the positioning, defining the sales process, establishing qualification standards, selecting technology and creating sales playbooks.
Marketing has to adapt too.
How the company creates demand, communicates value and engages potential buyers may be very different from the approach it previously used to sell services.
Then there’s the obvious question.
What do you do with the sales team?
Do you retrain your existing salespeople or recruit experienced software sellers?
I don’t believe there’s one correct answer.
Some experienced service salespeople will make the transition brilliantly. Others will find it considerably harder.
Having trained and coached more than 10,000 salespeople, one thing I’ve learnt is that changing established selling behaviour can be bloody difficult.
It’s not always about teaching somebody a few new skills.
Sometimes you’re challenging behaviours and beliefs they’ve developed over 10 or 15 years of selling successfully in a particular way.
That takes time.
It takes coaching.
And most importantly, it takes a genuine willingness to change.
Recruiting experienced software salespeople may therefore be the faster route for companies that want to establish a new sales operation.
For larger organisations, there’s another option.
Build a dedicated software sales team while maintaining the existing services business.
I’ve already seen traditional companies moving in this direction and bringing in commercial leaders with technology sales experience to build new operations.
I suspect we’ll see much more of it.
But simply hiring a few experienced SaaS salespeople won’t solve everything.
They still need an organisation capable of supporting them.
Traditional Sales Teams May Also Be Behind on Sales Technology
One gap I’ve already noticed is sales technology.
I coached an experienced enterprise B2B salesperson who was considering moving into SaaS after more than a decade in traditional B2B sales.
What surprised me was how little exposure they’d had to the sales and marketing technology that many SaaS salespeople use every day.
Even relatively established tools for outbound email sequencing were unfamiliar.
When you’ve spent 20 years in SaaS, it’s easy to forget that not every sales organisation operates inside the same technology bubble.
Large traditional companies can have extensive procurement requirements, rigid technology policies and lengthy approval processes for introducing new systems.
Some of those controls exist for perfectly good reasons, particularly around security and compliance.
But they can also make it extremely difficult for sales teams to adopt tools that smaller and faster competitors are already using.
That becomes a much bigger problem when technology is allowing those competitors to move faster than ever.
Which is why I don’t think the transition towards software sales can be solved with another training workshop.
Training matters.
But the company also needs the right commercial leadership, processes, systems, technology and people around it.
Traditional B2B Companies Have Something SaaS Startups Would Love
So far, I’ve focused mainly on the challenges traditional service companies face.
But there’s another side to this.
And it’s probably the part I find most interesting.
Traditional B2B companies may have a substantial competitive advantage over the SaaS startups trying to disrupt them.
Industry knowledge.
One of the hardest challenges for a SaaS startup is developing a product for an industry it doesn’t completely understand.
The founders might be brilliant technologists with an innovative idea.
That doesn’t mean they understand the buyers, the industry’s working practices or which problems customers are genuinely willing to pay to solve.
They can spend years refining their product, gathering feedback, adjusting their positioning and trying to establish product-market fit.
Now compare that with an established service company that’s spent 20 years working directly with customers in the same industry.
It already understands the problems because it’s been solving them.
It knows how customers operate.
It understands how they make purchasing decisions.
It knows where the biggest frustrations are.
And it may already have longstanding relationships with hundreds of customers who can help it develop, test and adopt new products.
That’s an enormous advantage.
Rather than building software around assumptions about what an industry needs, these companies can develop products informed by years of direct commercial and operational experience.
Of course, knowing an industry doesn’t automatically make a company good at building or selling software.
But combine deep industry knowledge with the right technology, product development capability and commercial leadership, and things become considerably more interesting.
For years, SaaS companies have been created specifically to disrupt established industries.
Now some of those established companies have the opportunity to use the same technologies and commercial models to compete back.
And I don’t think the answer is for them to blindly copy how SaaS companies operate.
There’s a good chance both sides have something to learn from each other.
Final Thoughts
If I were advising the CEO of a traditional B2B service company already feeling competitive pressure from AI, my advice would be straightforward.
Start building.
That doesn’t necessarily mean building an enormous software platform tomorrow.
It doesn’t mean creating a huge new department or launching an expensive transformation programme because everybody else is talking about AI.
It means putting the right people together, exploring the commercial opportunities and testing how your industry knowledge could be turned into products and services that take advantage of the technology.
The bigger mistake would be spending another 12 months debating whether AI is going to affect your business while your competitors are already experimenting with how to use it.
We’re already seeing established companies take software and digital capabilities seriously.
In October 2026, Reuters reported that Schneider Electric had announced an agreement to acquire software company PTC, strengthening its software and digital capabilities.
Not every business needs to make acquisitions.
And not every traditional service company needs to become a SaaS company.
But standing still while competitors change their business models carries its own risks.
I don’t believe AI is going to destroy every traditional service industry. Nor do I believe every company needs to turn itself into a software business.
What I do believe is that the speed of competition has fundamentally changed.
SaaS companies have spent the past two decades learning to operate in markets where new competitors, changing technology and demanding buyers are part of everyday life.
Many traditional service companies are now starting to experience those same pressures.
The good news is that they already have something many technology startups would kill for.
Customers.
Relationships.
And years of hard-earned industry knowledge.
The question is whether they can combine those strengths with modern technology and commercial practices quickly enough.
For years, SaaS companies have been disrupting traditional B2B industries.
I think we’re now entering a period where some of those traditional companies might finally start giving them a run for their money.
About the Author
I’m David Craig White, a British B2B sales trainer, coach and consultant with more than 20 years’ experience helping sales teams get results.
When I’m not writing B2B sales articles, I’m providing B2B sales training, coaching and sales consulting to B2B sales teams, sales leaders and business owners.
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Frequently Asked Questions
AI is changing competition in traditional B2B industries by making it easier for companies to automate services, develop software and increase productivity. Established service providers increasingly face competition not only from new technology businesses but also from customers using AI to perform work internally.
Selling SaaS typically involves demonstrating software capabilities, qualifying technical and commercial requirements, and proving the value of a subscription-based product. Traditional B2B services often rely more heavily on selling expertise, people and delivery capabilities. Both require strong commercial skills, but SaaS sales also place considerable emphasis on product adoption, renewals and ongoing customer value.
Traditional B2B salespeople can successfully transition into SaaS sales, particularly when they already have strong discovery, qualification and relationship-building skills. However, they may need additional training in software demonstrations, technical buying processes, subscription models and sales technology. Changing established selling habits can also require ongoing coaching.
Traditional service companies should consider developing SaaS products when their industry expertise and customer relationships reveal problems that software could solve commercially. However, building software is only part of the challenge. Companies must also develop the sales processes, positioning, technical capabilities and customer retention strategies needed to support a software business.
A traditional B2B company should decide between retraining existing salespeople and hiring experienced SaaS sellers based on its commercial objectives, available skills and the speed of the transition. Retraining can preserve valuable industry knowledge and customer relationships, while experienced SaaS salespeople may help establish a new software sales operation more quickly. Some organisations may benefit from building a dedicated SaaS team alongside their existing services business.