How to steal customers from your B2B SaaS competitors

Fathom is delivering a masterclass on how to steal customers from your B2B competitors like Gong, Chorus, Fireflies, and Otter by systematically dismantling the friction of switching using the "Contract Buyout" method.

Most B2B buyers hate switching software. They fear data loss. They fear the learning curve. But mostly, they fear the "sunk cost" of their current contract.

Fathom built a conquesting funnel designed to neutralize these fears. They don't just ask you to switch. They buy you out.

Here is the breakdown of their competitor displacement strategy.

1. Call out the enemy

The funnel starts by asking users to identify their current provider.

This does two things.

First, it segments the audience immediately. If a user selects "Gong" or "Chorus", Fathom identifies a high-value displacement opportunity. These are expensive, enterprise-grade tools.

Second, it validates the user's intent. This isn't a generic sign-up; it's a "switch" flow. By listing specific competitors, Fathom positions themselves as a direct, viable alternative to the market leaders.

2. Remove the sunk cost fallacy

This is where the magic happens.

The biggest friction point in switching software isn't money. It's data.

"What happens to my last three years of call recordings?"

Fathom kills this objection instantly. They offer to migrate recordings and data for free. By taking the heavy lifting off the customer's plate, they neutralize the technical lock-in that keeps unhappy customers tethered to legacy providers.

3. Calculate the LTV (The Math)

Before Fathom agrees to buy out a contract, they need to know if you are worth it.

They ask three specific questions to calculate the unit economics. The first is seat count. Are you paying for 5 seats or 100? This helps them filter out low-value prospects immediately.

Next, they determine the liability. Do they need to cover 1 month or 6 months of costs?

This is a real-time LTV (Lifetime Value) vs. CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) calculation. If you have 100 seats and 3 months left on your contract, Fathom knows the LTV of acquiring you is massive. Covering your remaining contract cost is a drop in the bucket compared to the long-term revenue.

Finally, they check for expansion revenue. A company with 200+ employees that only has 10 seats currently is a prime target for "Land and Expand".

4. The Pareto Efficiency (The Whale Hunt)

Once the data is collected, they ask for the email. This enters the prospect into the CRM with all the rich data collected in the previous steps.

This final screen is the most brilliant part of the flow.

It is highly probable that this screen only appears dynamically for the "whales".

If you selected "1-5 seats" earlier, you likely get directed to a self-serve checkout or an automated email sequence. But if you selected "100+ seats" or a large organization size, Fathom rolls out the red carpet. They push you directly to an Account Executive's calendar.

This is Pareto sales in action. Fathom focuses 80% of their human sales effort on the 20% of customers who provide the highest revenue.

The arbitrage opportunity

This strategy works because Fathom operates on a massive price arbitrage compared to the incumbent, Gong.

Fathom is approximately 90% cheaper than Gong. This price gap allows them to absorb the cost of buying out a competitor's contract while still remaining profitable in year one.

The math is simple:

• Gong: A 50-person team pays roughly $100,000+ per year (factoring in seat costs and platform fees).

• Fathom: That same 50-person team pays roughly $9,000 to $12,600 per year.

If a customer is paying Gong $100k, Fathom can easily afford to give them 3 months of free service (costing Fathom a few thousand dollars in LTV) to steal the account.

The customer saves nearly $90,000. Fathom gains a customer for life.

The anatomy of a takeover

To steal customers from your B2B competitors, you cannot just offer a better feature set. You have to remove the handcuffs.

Fathom's strategy creates a frictionless path:

• Technical freedom: We will move your data for you.

• Financial freedom: We will pay out your contract.

• VIP Routing: If you are big enough, we will talk to you immediately.

They turned a complex, painful switching process into a no-brainer. That is how you win market share in a red ocean.

Top Tweets of the day

1/

Seems to be right lol!

2/

That's because for poor people, its majority of their net worth.

For rich people, its just 0.1% of their net worth.

This is why B2B rocks since you are taking money from a corporation, not a person.

3/

I love this: "When you can do a few thing very well, you can afford a lot of mistakes."

Peter Thiel loves to say competition is for losers (or to say another way build monopolies) for this very reason.

Rabbit Holes

1. Claude Code Skills: Automate Everything You Do

2. Gen X Spending Habits

3. Claude Code Cheat Sheet

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