# Growing when AI shrinks software projects | Rapid Product Growth

> When AI cuts a five-month build to five weeks, you need more deals, better unit economics, an offer tied to revenue and a pipeline you can turn up. The math inside.

Source: https://rapidproductgrowth.com/guides/selling-when-ai-shrinks-projects/

[Guides](https://rapidproductgrowth.com/guides/) / When AI shrinks projects

## How do you grow when AI shrinks your project sizes?

By

Jean-Michel Moreau

, founder, Rapid Product Growth

Updated Nov 2026 · 7 min read

Short answer

Win more deals, and make each one worth more to you. When AI turns a five-month build into a five-week one, a $60k project can become a $15k one, and the same revenue takes four times the deals. That calls for an offer tied to a revenue or profit result, contracts big enough to pay back acquisition, and a pipeline you can turn up.

1. [What AI did to deal size](#s1)
2. [The new deal math](#s2)
3. [An offer worth more than the hours](#s3)
4. [A pipeline you can turn up](#s4)

## What AI did to deal size

AI cut the hours a build takes, and fixed-scope prices fell with them.

Projects that took five months now take five weeks. If you priced by effort, your price followed the effort down. Founders tell us the same story on almost every discovery call.

- “And, you know, what used to be 60K is now 15K just for the nature of what we do.”
- “I think our normal ticket size prior to maybe the last couple of years was around a quarter million ... we’re probably going to sign more projects that are between 50 and 100 grand”
- “We started as a software development company and we still do custom software dev. But that work has obviously fell off with the use of AI.”

Principal and head of client acquisition, custom and AI software firms. RPG discovery calls, Oct to Nov 2026.

Note 1

The buyer still needs someone to scope, build, integrate and own the system. What changed is how many hours that takes, and so what an hourly quote looks like.

Fig. 1

One square is one signed deal. The $60k to $15k drop is one founder’s own example. The deal counts are simple division.

## The new deal math

At a quarter of the deal size, you need four times the deals, and each deal carries less gross profit to pay for winning it.

Two things get harder at once. You need more signed clients to hold revenue flat. And each client leaves less margin to pay for finding them.

Do this math on gross profit, not contract value. A $35k contract at a 40% gross margin leaves $14,000 to pay for winning the client: ad spend, agency or team fees and sales time all come out of it. A $15k project at the same margin leaves well under half that, for the same sales calls. That is why we don’t take on firms whose contracts are under $35k in every segment.

> “software development costs have just plummeted in the last year, but no one’s really done that new math equation”

Note 2

The one comparison that matters: what it costs to win a customer against what that customer is worth to you over time. A small first project is fine if the relationship behind it is big.

## An offer worth more than the hours

Sell a business result the buyer can put a number on, not the hours AI just took out of the build.

If the buyer sees a build, they compare your quote with what AI tools cost. If they see more revenue or more profit, they compare your price with that number. The second comparison is the one you want.

This is also the hard part, and founders say so.

- “We are sort of figuring out, hey, what is our service anymore, right? Back in the days, OK, you need a React-based application, we’ll do it. ... What do we do now? I don’t know.”
- “we don’t necessarily want to lead with AI either, because I understand that, look, everyone’s probably taking that same position, so it doesn’t really make you different.”

Founders, custom software firms. RPG discovery calls, Oct to Nov 2026.

We rebuild the offer with you in a workshop in week 1. We decide together which buyer you want and make them an offer tied to a result. Once they’re on a call, your team recommends the right build.

Note 3

“AI-powered” is not an offer. Every competitor says it. The result is what the buyer pays for.

Offer priced on effort

- We build anything under the sun.
- Quote based on hours and team size.
- Lead with AI.
- Tell us your problem and we’ll scope it.

Offer priced on the result

- One type of buyer, one result tied to revenue or profit.
- Price set against what that result is worth.
- AI is how you deliver faster, not what you sell.
- A clear first step the buyer can say yes to on the call.

## A pipeline you can turn up

More deals means more sales calls, so you need a source of calls you can scale on purpose.

Referrals won’t quadruple because your deal size fell. A paid offer to cold buyers can, because you set the budget and the qualification bar. Our SDRs call every new lead within 5 minutes, and an expert sales trainer reviews your recorded calls so more of them close. The full flow is on [how it works](https://rapidproductgrowth.com/how-it-works/).

In the dev-shop and software funnels we run (including our own), a booked call costs about $620 in ad spend, typically $500 to $910, and the first booked call comes in about a week. Costs usually drop as campaigns learn: after the first month, cost per booked call fell by a median 43%; the best two-month stretch was 46% cheaper than the first month. That comes from moving budget to what works, so we watch cost per held call every week.

Booked call

$500 to $910

Held call

$780 to $1,020

Fig. 2

Ad spend per booked call (median about $620) and per held call (median about $850). Bars show the typical range, ticks the median. Source: RPG funnel data: dev shops and custom software firms we run funnels for, plus our own funnel. Dec 2025 to Oct 2026. Medians and middle 50%.

Note 4

These are ad-spend costs only. Our fee is separate, and part of it can move onto your new deals, so we get paid when you do.

## Typical numbers

4x

Deals for the same revenue

When a $60k project becomes a $15k one.

$620

Median ad spend per booked call

Typically $500 to $910.

~1 week

To the first booked call

All within two weeks. First held sales calls in 14 to 30 days.

43%

Cheaper per booked call after the first month

Median. The best two-month stretch was 46% cheaper than the first month.

## Common questions

**Is AI killing custom software agencies?**

It is killing hourly pricing on builds. Buyers still need someone to scope, build, integrate and own the system, and many would rather pay a firm than learn it themselves. Firms that sell a business result keep more of the value. Firms that sell hours watch their price follow the hours down.

**How many more sales calls do we need?**

Start from your own close rate. If your deal size fell to a quarter, you need four times the deals, and so roughly four times the held calls at the same close rate. About 2 in 3 booked calls happen (64%) in the funnels we run, so book more than you need.

**Should we lead with AI in our marketing?**

No. Every competitor says AI, so it doesn’t set you apart. Lead with the result the buyer wants, like more revenue, lower cost or a process that no longer needs three people. Use AI on the call to explain how you deliver it faster.

**Can paid acquisition work if our projects are now small?**

Only if a customer is worth $35k or more to you. A booked call costs about $620 in ad spend and a held call about $850 at the median. A $15k one-off project leaves too little gross profit to pay for those calls plus fees and sales time. Firms that make it work sell the result plus the ongoing work behind it, so the customer is worth more than the first build.

**How fast can we add pipeline?**

Setup takes the first weeks: the offer workshop in week 1, the ads, the 2-minute video, the book-a-call page and sales training by week 3. Once ads go live, the first booked call comes in about a week (all within two weeks), and the first held sales calls take place in 14 to 30 days.

## Sources and method

- RPG funnel data: dev shops and custom software firms we run funnels for, plus our own funnel. Dec 2025 to Oct 2026. Medians and middle 50%.
- One value per funnel, then the median and middle 50% (25th to 75th percentile) across funnels. Spam and test bookings removed.
- Deal sizes ($60k to $15k, a quarter million to $50k to $100k) are prospects’ own words, not RPG data. Fig. 1 is simple division. The $35k contract and 40% gross margin are assumptions.
- Quotes: RPG discovery calls with founders and executives, Oct to Nov 2026. Anonymized, labelled by role.

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