The GTM Gauntlet in Cybersecurity: What We're Still Getting Wrong

Most Marketers Are Still Tourists in Security

Marketers who drop into this space from adjacent industries underestimate the nuance and psychology of the security buyer. They fall into two traps:

They rely on third-hand personas from analyst firms, and never talk directly to practitioners.

They over-index on buzzwords and features, forgetting that practitioners don’t trust what they don’t understand - and neither do their CISOs.

You can’t fake buyer intimacy. You have to earn it.

The marketers who succeed in this space are the ones who go all in.

Not as voyeurs. As participants.

They embed themselves in communities. They build actual friendships with practitioners.

They know the Slack groups, the jokes, the pain, the language.

The CISO Is Not Your Only Buyer

Security orgs are not monoliths. Practitioners - SOC leads, detection engineers, identity architects - are increasingly the ones who shape tool selection.

They might not sign the PO, but they influence it. Heavily.

We’ve trained generations of marketers to market up, not across. That’s a problem.

Because many CISOs today are not technical - and they depend on their teams to vet vendors.

A marketing strategy that fails to engage the user behind the keyboard will fail.

Imposter Syndrome Is a Two-Way Street

There’s a myth that non-technical GTM pros should tread lightly around security audiences. That’s a mistake.

Everyone in this ecosystem - yes, even seasoned CISOs - feels out of their depth sometimes.

The cloud-native shift, the rapid evolution of AI, the pace of attacker innovation...no one has it all figured out.

The differentiator isn't technical bravado. It’s honest curiosity. That’s what builds trust.

Show up with humility. Ask better questions. Share what you're learning, not just what you're selling.

VC Pressure Is Fueling GTM Delusion

Founders are building startups with a 12–18 month acquisition runway - and security buyers know it.

We’ve created a trust gap by flooding the market with feature companies trying to fake platform maturity.

The result? Buyers wait. They stall. They assume you'll fold or get acquired.

If your go-to-market playbook depends on manufactured urgency and not demonstrable value, revisit your playbook.

Community Is a Trust Channel - Not a Tactic

Cybersecurity GTM is influence by proximity. Trust by association. Value by word of mouth.

Real community isn’t a Discord channel or a LinkedIn post. It’s a web of practitioner-led, peer-endorsed relationships built over time.

Those communities now talk. They swap notes. They screenshot bad emails. They remember which vendors treated them like humans - and which ones didn’t.

Ignore that at your peril.

Conferences Are Broken, But Presence Still Matters

Being at RSAC doesn’t mean you matter. But being absent and irrelevant is worse.

The smart teams are shifting from booth flexing to experience design - offsite lounges, intimate practitioner panels, and value-first engagement.

If you’re doing what everyone else is doing, you’ve already lost.

Obsession with Customer Success Is the Litmus Test

There’s one consistent founder trait that signals whether a company has a shot: obsessive focus on the customer’s outcome.

If a founder isn’t willing to listen to hard truths from users, they’re not building a company. They’re playing startup.

The Future: Simpler Language, Sharper Focus, Deeper Roots

We don’t need more GTM innovation. We need better GTM fundamentals.

Simpler language, stripped of ego and abstraction.

Sharper ICP focus with practitioner-first entry points.

Deeper, durable relationships with the humans behind the deals.

Security is an arms race, yes. But it’s also a trust economy.

The winners will be the ones who understand both.

Until next time,
Dani