Jeff Bezos famously said, “Your margin is my opportunity.”
In the world of retail, that meant Amazon could undercut competitors by being more efficient
But as Tomasz Tunguz recently pointed out, in the world of software, the "margin" isn't being passed to the customer in the form of lower prices
Instead, it’s being set on fire to keep the engine running
The average SaaS company boasts a gross margin of 76%
That sounds like a goldmine
Yet, the median net income margin for these companies hovers near zero
Where is the money going?
It’s going to the "Company Bullhorn." It’s being swallowed by 40-60% spends on traditional Sales and Marketing, an outdated model of "buying growth" through cold outreach, expensive ads, and bloated SDR teams that the market is increasingly ignoring
The Extinction Event
We are currently witnessing a SaaS Extinction Event
The "subscription" model is under threat because the cost of acquiring that subscription has become unsustainable
When 75% of CMOs are under pressure to cut martech spend and buyers are hiding behind "digital dark matter," the old playbook of throwing more money at the problem is a suicide mission
If your net margin is zero because your CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) is through the roof, you aren't a tech company; you’re a lead-generation agency that happens to sell software
Social Selling: The Margin Reclaimer
This is where my view on Social Selling comes in
If "your margin is my opportunity," then my opportunity is to use social selling to reclaim the margin you’re wasting
Traditional sales models are high-friction and high-cost
Social selling is the "low-friction, high-trust" alternative
Here is why it is the only way to survive the extinction event:
From Bullhorn to Magnet: Instead of spending 50% of revenue on shouting at people who don't want to listen, social selling empowers your "FDEs" (Full Day Employees) to build reputations. Your CEO and your team’s digital footprint become a strategic asset that attracts leads, rather than chasing them
The "Trust" Arbitrage: In a world of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt), buyers don't want a demo; they want a guide. Social selling allows you to build that trust at scale for a fraction of the cost of a traditional BDR floor
Efficiency is the New Growth: If you can reduce your Sales & Marketing spend from 60% to 30% by leveraging social networks and authentic influence, you don't just “survive”, you become profitable
The Bottom Line
The SaaS companies that will survive the next five years aren't the ones with the biggest advertising budgets
They are the ones that realize the race to outspend everyone else is over
If you continue to use 1990s sales techniques to sell 2026 technology, you are the dinosaur watching the meteor hit
Your margin shouldn't be a sacrifice to the gods of "Customer Acquisition." It should be your profit. And the only way to protect that profit is to stop selling and start connecting
Is your margin my opportunity? Only if you keep selling the old way
unknownx500
