---
title: "How Important is Your Software to Your Customer? It's Time to Find Out."
description: "Learn how software companies can survive budget cuts by proving ROI and TCO. Key insights on selling mission-critical SaaS during recession and 20% budget reductions."
categories: ["sales","startups","marketing"]
keywords: ["Theory Ventures","Tomasz Tunguz","SaaS sales","total cost of ownership","software ROI","budget cuts in software","mission-critical software","ideal customer profile","software automation","recession impact on SaaS"]
ai_summary: "Discover how software companies can demonstrate value and adapt sales strategies during budget cuts and economic downturns."
date: 2022-07-22
lastmod: 2026-07-31
canonical_url: https://www.tomtunguz.com/doing-more-with-less/
author: "Tomasz Tunguz"
---

"We need to start doing more with less. Finance told us our budget is decreasing by 20%."

This sentence echoes in conference rooms across many software buyers today, irrespective of whether the business is healthy. Boards push prudence during a time of recession, which cascades through the organization.

Management teams expect to reduce operating expense by [20% predominantly through headcount reductions or hiring freezes](https://tomtunguz.com/2022-market-survey-results/) - everyone from sardine startups to public megalodons. 

Account executives selling mission-critical software should breathe easy. Software does more with less. Software automates manual work, provides leverage, and the total cost is often less than a headcount.  

Though that may be true, the recession brings change. Product marketing & sales pitches will focus more on TCO (total cost of ownership) than on revenue generation for the first time in a decade, & return as a critical part of [equipping champions to navigate procurement](https://tomtunguz.com/equipping-your-champions/). AEs must convince the buyer can achieve their goals with software instead of a new hire. 

Doing more with less also means jettisoning non-essential software. Budgets will shift to higher priority tools as finance demands managers rationalize their spend. 

Have you asked your customer to stack rank their software needs? and where your product fits in? The answer may vary by customer segment and may inform the go-to-market strategy for the next few quarters.

Narrowing the sales & marketing focus to core ICP (ideal customer profiles) improves efficiency & mitigates churn. It may be worth [tracking new bookings in the ICP as a percentage of total bookings](https://tomtunguz.com/lessons-from-watching-a-great-ceo-operate/) to ensure team alignment. 

Doing more with less means finding customers who benefit disproportionately from your software.