Many cybersecurity sales happen when the buyer is in crisis mode. A breach occurs, compliance deadlines are approaching, or a new regulation requires urgent budget approval.
Vendors rush in with their technical demos and competitive pricing, hoping to win deals before prospects have time to think too deeply about alternatives.
The problem with this type of crisis-driven sales is that relationships built under pressure rarely last. When the immediate pain subsides and the waters start to calm, clients may start questioning whether they made the right choice. They begin shopping around, comparing alternatives, and treating you like any other vendor rather than a trusted partner.
Successful cybersecurity companies actively try to avoid this cycle and customer churn by actively building relationships with prospects long before these urgent needs arise. They invest in connections and credibility during the quiet periods, so when buying decisions happen, they’re already the obvious choice.
Why Early Relationship Building Matters in Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity buying decisions are quite complicated. The main challenge is that the various stakeholders and key decision makers who control the budgets care about different things. The technical roles, think CSOs, care about different things than finance leaders. Compliance teams have their own priorities. Everyone involved knows that getting it wrong could have serious consequences, but most lack the deep technical knowledge needed to assess different products and solutions properly.
This creates an opportunity for companies that are willing to help prospects learn and understand before they need to make a purchase. When someone already trusts your expertise and knows how you think about problems, those complex buying decisions become much easier.
It’s important to keep in mind that most of your prospects are constantly getting pitched by vendors, reading about new threats, and trying to keep up with an industry that changes at the blink of an eye. Because of this, they’re looking for sources of information they can trust to help them make sense of it all. If you become that trusted source, you’ll be their first call when they’re ready to make a purchase.
Focus on Education, Not Features
Most cybersecurity marketing talks about features, performance benchmarks, and how much better their solution is than the competition. This works fine for people who are already about to make a purchase. Still, it does very little for the much larger group of potential future buyers just trying to understand their options and stay informed about what’s happening in the industry.
That’s why the most effective cyber security content marketing emphasizes education instead of selling. This type of content explains complex concepts in plain English, shares insights from across the industry, and helps people make strategic decisions. When you consistently help people without asking for anything back, you build the kind of trust that makes future sales much easier.
Think of the goals as making security professionals better at their jobs, whether they ever buy from you or not.
Start by figuring out what keeps your ideal prospects up at night. What questions do they get from their boss that they struggle to answer? What industry changes are they trying to understand? What problems do they face that have nothing to do with your specific product? Build your outreach around helping real people who are facing these real challenges.
Stay Connected Without Being Pushy
Building relationships in any B2B space takes a lot of time and effort. However, it’s important to keep in mind that there’s a fine line between staying top-of-mind and coming across as pushy. With this in mind, try to focus on providing value in every interaction instead of just periodically checking in to see if someone is ready to buy yet.
Regular newsletters or blog posts are a great way to do this. You can keep your audience updated about industry trends or the latest threats, and this keeps you connected with prospects who aren’t ready to purchase.
Using cyber press releases to get featured on leading infosec publications is another great tactic for building relationships and trust. You can share your latest research, update your team, or give a breakdown of a recent attack, sharing your expertise. This has a few main advantages, such as benefiting from the second-hand credibility of being published in a leading security publication and reaching an informed audience who cares about what you have to say.
From Awareness to Real Relationships
Getting on someone’s radar and being noticed for your content is just the beginning. The real value comes from finding ways to create opportunities to deepen these early relationships and engage prospects more meaningfully. In other words, approaching prospects and getting them to meet your team before they are in buying mode.
Industry roundtable events and executive dinners can provide great networking opportunities while positioning your company as a connector and thought leader. It may be a lot of upfront work, but bringing a collection of interesting people together to discuss relevant challenges in such a way can lead to some very productive conversations and networking opportunities and, ultimately, to a wide range of healthy partnerships.
Another way to bring value is to offer free security assessments or strategic planning sessions to the people who come across your content but aren’t quite ready to make a decision yet. The goal here is to become the consultative partner, offering guidance on issues and possible solutions. These interactions help prospects understand your approach and whether it fits their company culture.
Final Word
Building relationships with prospects before they’re ready to buy requires patience and investment without immediate payback. Many companies (not just those in the security sector) struggle with this approach because it doesn’t generate revenue this quarter, but the long-term benefits are worth it.
Prospects who already know and trust your brand need much less convincing when they do enter buying mode. They’re more likely to include you early in their evaluation, share honest feedback about what they need, and seriously consider your recommendations when the time comes.
Read more:
Building Client Relationships That Actually Last in Cybersecurity