We stopped selling to SaaS companies and started selling to IT departments. Here's what changed.

We built an AI assistant that sits inside web apps and guides users in real time. No ticket, no support queue. The idea was obvious: sell to SaaS companies as they have support teams, they feel the pain, the product fits.

Except it didn't work as well as expected.

The people who wanted it weren't always the people who could buy it, and the people who could buy it had twelve other priorities. Even small SaaS teams run procurement cycles, roadmap reviews, "let's revisit next quarter."

So we rethought distribution.

We rebuilt it as a browser extension. Instead of embedding into one specific app, it overlays on any web interface. Which meant we could talk to IT directors who manage 5-6 internal tools and sell them one license for all of them.

what got better:

• Deal size went up. A DSI buying it for 6 apps pays more than a startup buying it for one, and IT has its own budget line separate from product.

• The pitch is simpler. "Your teams use Salesforce, your ERP, your ticketing tool, your intranet. One integration covers all of them."

• We stopped fighting product roadmaps for budget.

what got harder:

• Security scrutiny is brutal. An extension that touches every tab a company uses triggers audits, architecture reviews, pen testing. We're working through all of it but it takes time we hadn't planned for.

• Sales cycles got longer. Enterprise IT moves slowly, and we went from "hard to close" to "will probably close, in four months."

We're three months into this and it's working better. Conversations are "how do we make this work" now instead of "interesting, let's stay in touch."