Notes from my podcast conversation with Don van der Does, General Manager Netherlands of Wonderful.
The window is shrinking, not growing
When Don and I had dinner a few months before the recording, he put the window at twelve to eighteen months: the time large enterprises have left before they pick their partner for agentic AI. On the podcast I asked whether that still held. His answer: twelve months.
His reasoning is simple. Every serious company now feels pressure, from its own leadership, its board or its investors, to show real results with AI. So they are all choosing a partner. And it is first come, first served. Whoever gets in and delivers is in the saddle for the rest of that transformation. Don admitted that Wonderful is sometimes already too late at certain accounts.
Now put your sales cycle next to it
Here is the part that should make you uncomfortable. I asked Don how long his deals take. The fastest one closed in about ten weeks. The longest has been running since his first day. The average: six to nine months.
"I think we currently still have a window of twelve months." — Don van der Does
Put those two numbers side by side. A twelve-month window and a six-to-nine-month sales cycle leave you a few months to start conversations that can still close in time. Whatever is not in your pipeline today will not count when the window shuts. As I said to Don during the recording: your pipeline needs to be overflowing right now. His answer: "Correct."
Sales isn't where the real pressure sits
What surprised me is that Don doesn't see sales as the main bottleneck. The pressure, he says, is arguably even higher on product development and on last-mile delivery. You can sell something beautifully, but in the end the return on investment has to show up. That is exactly where the market is asking the hardest questions right now. Getting in first only counts if you deliver once you're in.
What this means for founders
Do the sum for your own market. Estimate the window in which your buyers will make their choice, and set it against your real average sales cycle, not your best deal.
Treat pipeline as a deadline, not a funnel. If the window is shorter than two sales cycles, every quarter you wait costs you accounts you can't win back.
Plan delivery as hard as you plan sales. Getting in early only locks you in if you prove ROI quickly.
Assume someone is already in. Even a company growing as fast as Wonderful is sometimes too late. Find out where you stand per account.
Listen to the full conversation with Don van der Does on the We Love SaaS podcast.
