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Why the Legacy Analyst Model is Misaligned with Cybersecurity Buyer and Vendor Needs

Why the Legacy Analyst Model is Misaligned with Cybersecurity Buyer and Vendor Needs

Legacy analyst firms aren’t disappearing, but...vendors are starting to re-evaluate their spending.

Dani Woolf
14 Mar • Read Time: 7 minutes

I spent years (Over 15 to be exact) playing the B2B marketing game:

Pushing out campaigns, trying to hit growth targets that felt more like a fever dream than an actual strategy.

And like every other cybersecurity marketer, I was told to rely on analyst firms to understand “the market.”

But something never sat right with me.

I was tasked with tripling growth, yet I had no direct line to my buyers.

The conversations that actually mattered—the ones where buyers shared real frustrations, skepticism, and needs—were being filtered through analysts who had their own biases, their own incentives, and, let’s be real, their own limitations.

I got tired of the waiting.

Tired of reading sanitized reports that made it seem like buyers made rational, linear decisions.

Tired of watching vendors throw six figures at analysts just to buy their way into a category.

Tired of seeing entire teams build go-to-market strategies on secondhand interpretations of buyer sentiment.

So I left.

I quit my cushy marketing leadership job and built Audience 1st to change how we do buyer research in cybersecurity.

And now, with CyberSynapse, I’m done sitting back while vendors waste time waiting for a magic quadrant ranking that doesn’t even guarantee buyer trust.

Before we dive in, don’t forget to subscribe to join 1700+ cybersecurity marketers and sales pros mastering customer research. You’ll get notified whenever a new episode and buyer insights summary drops.

Insights and Key Takeaways

The Problem with the Legacy Analyst Model

For decades, cybersecurity vendors have relied on analyst firms to tell them how buyers think, what they want, and where the market is going.

These firms built an entire pay-to-play system where vendors had to convince analysts they were worthy of being included in their reports.

Buyers, on the other hand, were told to trust these reports to make purchasing decisions.

And here’s where it all falls apart.

The lag is unbearable.

A Magic Quadrant or a Forrester Wave takes months—sometimes half a year—to produce.

The cybersecurity market shifts weekly.

A report based on data from six months ago is already obsolete.

The insights are filtered and generic.

Analysts don’t sit in the same trenches as buyers.

They don’t deal with procurement hell, product frustrations, or vendor ghosting on a day to day basis.

They take a small sample of buyers, mix in their own perspective, and give vendors broad-stroke insights that are too high-level to act on.

It’s designed to favor the big guys or gals.

The bigger your budget, the louder your voice.

Enterprise vendors with money and PR muscle will always have an advantage over startups trying to break in.

❝

“The vendors had to go to the analyst firms and say, ‘Tell me what you're hearing.’ And the end users had to go to the analyst firms and say, ‘Tell me what you're hearing.’ What you were really getting was the interpretation of the analyst firm.”

Jeffrey Wheatman

So what do we do instead?

Buyers don’t care about analyst reports as much as vendors think they do.

After interviewing hundreds of security practitioners—from CISOs to security engineers—one thing became painfully clear:

CISOs are tired of seeing the same names in the “leaders” quadrant.

Practitioners don’t trust high-level reports that don’t reflect their real-world pain points.
Buyers want conversations, peer insights, and real-world validation—not some abstract positioning doc written in a boardroom.

So I built CyberSynapse to cut through the noise.

Instead of vendors waiting for analysts to tell them what buyers want, we built a platform where they can talk to buyers directly.

Here’s why direct buyer conversations matter:

Real-time insights – No waiting for an analyst report. Vendors can speak to buyers in real time and adjust their messaging, product roadmap, and GTM strategy instantly.
Granular, tactical feedback – Instead of broad market trends, vendors get actual use-case insights from the buyers who would (or wouldn’t) pay for their product.
Trust & relationship-building – Instead of relying on reports to “guess” buyer sentiment, vendors build real trust with their audience, making sales cycles shorter and more effective.

As I said in the podcast:

❝

“If you're someone who needs quick feedback, more granular use cases specific to different go-to-market motions, it’s really hard to scale research with analysts.”

The vendors winning in today’s market aren’t just relying on high-level reports.

They’re embedding themselves into buyer conversations, asking the tough questions, and adapting in real-time.

Legacy analyst firms aren’t disappearing, but…

Vendors are starting to re-evaluate their spending.

Many cybersecurity vendors are slashing their analyst budgets because the ROI isn’t there.

As I’ve seen firsthand:

Six-figure spend on an analyst firm ≠ Guaranteed buyer trust or increased sales
20-30 buyer interviews per year = Actionable insights that actually drive decisions

I get it—some companies still need that analyst credibility to play the long game.

But as I told Jeffrey on the podcast:

❝

“At the minimum, I urge for a hybrid model. At the maximum, I say go all-in on buyer conversations and customer conversations always on.”

What Needs to Change: Actionable Steps for Cybersecurity Vendors

So, where do we go from here?

Step 1: Shift Some Budget from Analyst Firms to Direct Buyer Research

Keep the analysts for high-level market landscape assessments if you need to, but stop treating them as the primary source of truth.

Step 2: Embed Buyer Conversations into Your GTM Strategy

Don’t rely on once-a-year analyst reports. Talk to buyers every quarter, at minimum.

Make buyer research a cross-functional priority—not just marketing’s job.

Step 3: Start Small, but Start Now

Have 10-15 structured buyer conversations per quarter.
Talk to a mix of roles—practitioners, CISOs, procurement.
Ask open-ended questions—not leading ones that confirm your biases.

At CyberSynapse, we’re giving vendors on-demand access to real buyers—without the analyst filter, the waiting period, or the six-figure price tag.

Final Thoughts: Are you willing to adapt?

If you’re a cybersecurity vendor still clinging to analyst reports as your primary source of buyer insights, ask yourself:

Are you actually getting tactical, actionable feedback?
Are you connecting with the right buyers, or just the ones analysts think matter?
How much time and money are you wasting on filtered, delayed insights?

Buyers aren’t waiting for the next analyst report to make decisions.

They’re talking to their peers.
They’re checking practitioner-led communities.
They’re looking for real conversations, not just rankings.

Are you ready to meet them where they are?

Join the shift.

Start talking to buyers today.

Check out CyberSynapse and stop waiting for analyst firms to tell you what your market wants.

Until next time,
Dani

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