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Sometime ago, a startup I was advising got blindsided in a client meeting. A major prospect had asked if they “also owned the productivity plugin”a tool that was, in fact, built by one of their own engineers. On company time. The plugin was good. Too good. It had more traction than their core product. There…
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Most Account-Based Marketing (ABM) campaigns rely on firmographics, technographics, and intent data. But in cybersecurity, that’s table stakes. The real opportunity? Using threat intelligence to personalise outreach based on the risks your prospects are actively facing. This isn’t about fear-mongering. It’s about relevance. When a target account is dealing with credential stuffing, supply chain compromise,…
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Discounting is one of the most abused levers in B2B pricing. It feels tactical, harmless, even helpful—especially at quarter-end. But poorly handled, it distorts buyer expectations, drags out sales cycles, and quietly erodes revenue quality. The problem isn’t discounts themselves. It’s lazy or reactive discounting. In some cases, they absolutely work: But discounting fails when:…
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B2B buyers abandone vendor evaluations when they get lost and marketing materials don’t reflect current product capabilities. Meanwhile, engineering teams churn out features at sprint velocity. This disconnect isn’t just embarrassing—it’s revenue-leaking. I have seen content calendars still mirror org charts rather than customer problems. But, CISOs now evaluate vendors against three criteria: platform breadth,…
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The 18-Month Payback Problem A SaaS CMO confessed over coffee: “We wasted £240,000 on LinkedIn ads before realising our average deal takes 347 days to close.” She’s not alone! Vendors now track pipeline velocity alongside lead volume. What changed? With VCs demanding efficient growth, the old “spray and pray” lead model collapses under 12-month sales…
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For cybersecurity startups, breaking into enterprise accounts is a marathon. Procurement cycles are slow, trust is hard-won, and every new logo feels like a campaign. But there’s a shortcut hiding in plain sight: cloud marketplaces. Platforms like Azure, AWS, and Trellix Marketplace aren’t just where buyers browse, they’re where budgets get spent. Listing there means…
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Why Interview Lost Customers, Not Just Happy Ones
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2 min read
I once had a client—let’s call him Alex— kept saying. “Customers love us.” One day I asked if he’d ever called anyone who quietly bailed. “Why would I?” he said. “They’re gone.” Exactly, I told him. That’s why you ask. So we pulled a list. Sent emails. Got two calls. The first was awkward. The…
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One of the most awkward sales moments I’ve ever had started with good news. A prospect asked if we had iOS support. I said yes—confidently. He checked the App Store on the spot. “Last updated: three years ago.” Silence. It didn’t matter that the app was stable, low-maintenance, or lightly used. What mattered was the…
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It was a crowded Thursday evening at The Ned. The live music stopped and the CISO goes: “I get 50+ cold emails a week from startups claiming to stop zero-days. I’ve approved one proof-of-concept in 18 months.” The math is brutal. But Why Enterprises Won’t Bet on You (Yet) Platform consolidation is accelerating. And SEC disclosure rules…