The first contract is a bad place to sell the whole suite

I don’t like the urge to put every module into the first SaaS contract. A bigger number lands in the CRM, but somebody on the customer’s side then has to get all of it running.

A 2025 study in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science looked at 74,871 contracts from a travel, expense and invoice software provider. New customers who bought more add-ons were less likely to stay through onboarding. A separate survey of 297 managers pointed to perceived complexity as one possible explanation. The contracts are from one company’s 2015–18 deals, so I’d check my own onboarding numbers before changing a price book.

Among customers who got through onboarding, bigger bundles were associated with higher retention later. I’d be wary of putting that on a sales slide as proof they loved the suite. In the survey, more add-ons also went with higher perceived switching costs. Some customers may stay because leaving is a pain.

If I were marketing a suite, I’d lead with the first useful result and be plain about the setup it takes to get there. The extra modules can wait until the customer has a reason to use them. That might make the first contract smaller, and I can live with that. I don’t want to call an add-on a win just because somebody signed for it.