Journey to Extreme Productized Services through a First Principles Checklist

I firmly believe that great productization of services stems from deliberate alignment with First Principles. Put another way:

Great productization is forged through past experiences and mistakes.

However, only the most committed founders—those who can say “no, we don’t” to buyers countless times—will succeed in achieving Extreme Productized Services.

Productization is a commitment to First Principles. Let me share my experiences and mistakes along the way.

Agency 1: Failure to Systematize – The Founder Bottleneck

My first agency, Sales for Life, pioneered social selling training. Outwardly, it appeared successful: 600 global customers, including Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, and Thomson Reuters, and $3 million in consistent annual revenue for eight years.

The problem? I allowed the product to become a custom solution.

When I started the agency, my vision was to create sales training-in-a-box. We were pioneers of virtual instructor-led training, learning management systems, and language translation—enabling us to train clients worldwide from Toronto. This created immense demand for our services.

Unfortunately, greed overtook the vision. Initially, our average sales price (ASP) of $25,000–$50,000 positioned us comfortably within departmental budgets. Customers knew that at this price, integrating our methodology into their systems wouldn’t happen. I even had a literal cookie box on my desk with our logo to remind employees: We sell only one thing repeatedly.

But then, clients offered $100,000–$250,000 contracts to integrate our social selling methods into their existing processes (e.g., Franklin Covey, Miller Heiman). We took the bait.  We also allowed customers to dictate the Terms of Payment.  Huge mistake.  Our Accounts Receivables started to balloon.  Our working capital requirements and constraints swell as we take on more business.  This started to choke us out. Over time, our ASP tripled or quadrupled, but we closed fewer new deals.

The fallout:

1. Stress on service delivery: My team didn’t understand the intricacies of other sales methodology systems as I did.
2. Financial strain: I became the bottleneck, handling rainmaking and service delivery.
3. Stalled growth: Despite $3 million in revenue, the company plateaued for years.

Agency 2: Failure to Stay Convicted – The Founder Bent, Then Broke

My second agency, Pipeline Signals, was a chance to apply lessons learned. We pioneered sales intelligence focused on job change alerts from LinkedIn, scaling to $1 million ARR in under two years.

The problem? I wasn’t confident enough to stay committed to First Principles.

Pipeline Signals was meant to evolve from services into a SaaS company. Initially, we operated as a highly productized service—a “mechanical turk”—while building the software platform.

I resolved not to repeat the mistakes of Sales for Life:

• Maintain positive cash flow without delayed accounts receivables.
• Remove myself from service delivery.
• Build a technical team from the start.
• We quickly gained traction, creating sales-qualified leads (SQLs) for eager customers. 

But I made a critical mistake: I bent a First Principle.  Just 1 time!

The mistake: Larger clients insisted on invoicing instead of credit card payments. I caved. Within six months, half of our customers were on invoicing terms, leading to:

1. Cash flow issues: Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) jumped to 30–90 days, and eventually led to $100,000 in bad debt.
2. Unmanageable processes: In Canada, ACH alternatives are cumbersome.  Wires are complex and take forever.  I was drowning in chasing AR.

Additionally, I delayed transitioning from service to SaaS, allowing technical challenges to stall scalability. Customers saw consistent outputs, but our gross margins and long-term competitiveness suffered.

Allowing my First Principles to be broken just one time is like making excuses as to why you can tell a “white lie”.  It seems acceptable at the time, but then you become a repeat offender.

Agency 3 – First Principles from DAY 1.

With Get Levrg Inc., I committed to unwavering adherence to First Principles. These principles became my Ten Commandments—rules that could never be broken.

1. 100% Recurring Revenue

Recurring revenue businesses in my industry trade at 10x EBITA and 2–3x ARR at scale. I wanted to build a business with compounding monthly value, not one dependent on chasing new customers.  Our services are 100% recurring revenue.

2. Positive Cash Flow and Zero DSO

Starting with $10,000, Get Levrg grew to $1 million ARR in under 12 months without outside capital. Every customer pays upfront via credit card ($2,000–$5,000/month), ensuring no cash flow constraints.

3. Rapid Sales Cycles

With a semi-complex sale ($25,000–$50,000 annually), we achieved a 12.6-day sales cycle at a 45% close rate.  This is the typical sales cycle velocity of a product 1/10 our value. This efficiency stems from:

• Avoiding “vaporware” pitches.  No high-level PowerPoint BS.
• We us a one-page demo experience to guide prospects through the buying journey (Why, How, Who, What’s Next) that is a tangible product experience.

4. Onboarding Without the Founder

Our onboarding process is fully automated, allowing the service team to launch projects post-payment without my involvement. Transparency (using the Onboarding page) sets onboarding expectations.

5. The Cookie Box: Systems that are Paint-by-Numbers – Every deliverable is documented in a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). This enables junior associates to execute without customization, maintaining consistency and scalability.

6. Sell Outcomes, Not Time – creating natural Up-Sell / Cross-Sell – We focus on deliverables, not hours, avoiding deferred liabilities or dissatisfaction from unused time. This outcome-based model simplifies upselling and aligns customer expectations.

The Future of Extreme Productized Services

In 2025, we’re developing a modular buying process, enabling customers to throttle outcomes on/off and up/down. This hybrid model combines guaranteed recurring revenue (baseline subscription) with usage-based pricing for growth potential, paving the way for continued innovation.

Conclusion

Extreme Productized Services require relentless adherence to First Principles. My journey through three agencies taught me hard lessons, but it’s these experiences that forged the systems, strategies, and mindset I follow today.