Let’s say the quiet part out loud: “We can’t afford it now” is code for “we don’t want to be accountable for a bet.” Meanwhile, your growth is flat, your top customer sneezes and you catch pneumonia, and your flagship product is two releases behind the market. If you’re a mid-market software, services, tech, or complex industrial firm, here’s the uncomfortable truth: timidity is more expensive than investment.
Want the receipts and playbooks? Grab the white paper (linked below). Want the blunt version? Read on.
1) Downturns Are Discount Seasons for Market Share
When competitors hit the brakes, hit the gas—intelligently. Talent is cheaper, attention is cheaper, acquisitions are cheaper, and customers are actually listening. If you’re cutting sales/marketing/R&D “until things improve,” you’re volunteering to finish behind the folks who didn’t. Play offense while everyone else defends — or enjoy being “stable” while your relevance quietly evaporates.
Straight talk: If your paid media CPC is falling and your pipeline still isn’t rising, the problem isn’t the economy. It’s your conviction (and maybe your product—see #3).
2) The Best Fix Is Prevention: Invest Before You Need To
The only thing riskier than investing during good times is not investing during good times. Diversify customers, product lines, and industries before the plateau, not after it. The cash you “saved” by under-investing will be burned later in discounts, churn, and desperate M&A. Fix the roof when the sun is shining—not when the storm is already in your server room.
Blunt rule: If your top 5 customers account for more than a third of revenue and you’re “waiting for next year” to fund new logos or new offerings, you’re not conservative—you’re gambling.
3) Don’t Try to Out-Sell a Mediocre Product
You can’t “manifest” growth with headcount. Pressure-test your offering before you scale go-to-market. Talk to lost deals. Invite brutal feedback. Benchmark against the best. If the product is thin, fix it first. Otherwise, you’re funding a beautiful outbound machine that perfectly advertises your weaknesses at scale.
No-fluff test: If you wouldn’t buy your own product at your current price and roadmap, why should anyone else?
4) Half Measures Are Whole Failures
Hiring two hunters with no SDRs, no campaigns, no content, and no product tweaks is not a strategy—it’s a spreadsheet cosplay of a strategy. Either fund the complete system (product, marketing, SDR, enablement, success) long enough to reach escape velocity, or don’t start yet. Small bets yield small outcomes—and big skepticism when you try again later.
Reality check: If the real bet needs $3M and 12 months, stop kidding yourself with $300K and two quarters. Save. Then swing.
One More Thing Boards Shouldn’t Ignore
If one senior leader keeps blocking sensible bets while everyone else aligns, look for a horizon problem (bonuses, options, exit timing). You need a team that intends to be there when the payoff lands. If someone’s optimizing the quarter while you’re building the next three years, that’s not prudence—that’s a governance risk.
Choose Your Hard
- Hard now: Invest with discipline, take heat for a few quarters, align incentives, and build a real growth engine.
- Hard forever: Explain to employees, customers, and investors why you “prudently” starved the future.
If you’re serious about getting unstuck—and not just looking busy—read the full white paper for data, case studies, and a step-by-step on how mid-market winners actually do this: investing during downturns, avoiding the trap in good times, pressure-testing the offer, funding the whole system, and aligning leadership to long-term value.