Security buyers spend months researching before they ever submit a form. We create campaigns around your actual buying committee and the events that open a budget window – audits, breach news, new regulation – so your pipeline comes from people with the authority to sign.
The Challenge
MQLs Keep Piling Up, but Pipeline Doesn't
Security buyers research for months before a CISO or engineer ever fills out a form. Volume-based demand gen rewards the wrong behavior – it fills the funnel with researchers doing early diligence, not economic buyers ready to talk budget. Sales chases leads that were never going to close, and marketing takes the blame.
Fear-Based Messaging No Longer Works
Every security homepage still leads with a breach statistic or a ransomware countdown. Buyers who live in this category all day have built up immunity to it – the fear message that worked a few years ago now reads as noise. The vendors breaking through say something a security engineer would repeat to a peer, not restate the threat landscape.
The Analyst Shortlist Determines Who Gets a Meeting
For a meaningful share of security deals, the buying committee's shortlist gets built off a Gartner or Forrester placement before a rep ever gets a call. If demand generation never touches analyst relations or category positioning, campaigns compete with vendors who already have a seat at the table. Generic top-of-funnel content doesn't move a company onto a shortlist decided somewhere else.
Compliance Opens a Buying Window, Then It Shuts
Security budget moves in bursts, tied to an audit finding, a new regulation, or a breach at a competitor. Always-on demand gen built for predictable SaaS cycles isn't structured to detect and respond to those windows fast. By the time a generic nurture sequence catches up, the buyer has already picked a vendor who showed up when it mattered.
How We Can Help
We begin by auditing where your pipeline is really breaking down. We map your buying committee – who initiates, who handles technical evaluation, who signs – and score your previous two quarters of MQLs against that map rather than relying on job titles alone. Most cybersecurity companies discover that the majority of their qualified leads were never part of the buying committee.
Next, we create a positioning brief that swaps fear-based claims for a point of view your technical buyers can defend internally, informed by interviews with your own sales engineers. We map your category against Gartner and Forrester so your content and analyst relations move in the same direction.
Since budgets move in bursts, we create trigger-based campaigns rather than a single always-on nurture track – monitoring breach disclosures, regulatory deadlines, and audit seasons relevant to your buyers, with assets prepared to launch in days instead of the six weeks a typical retainer requires. Account-based plays for your named target list use the same trigger monitoring.
Content is created for buyers who educate themselves before speaking with sales: benchmark data, architecture teardowns, and comparisons that stand up to scrutiny. Measurement shifts away from MQL volume toward pipeline from matching accounts, sales cycle length, and closed-lost reasons – all reported in the same review your revenue team already holds.
What we deliver
- Buying committee and account-scoring model
- Positioning brief built from sales engineer interviews
- Trigger-based campaign calendar tied to breach news, audits, and regulatory deadlines
- Analyst relations and category-positioning roadmap
- Technical content program: benchmarks, architecture teardowns, comparisons
- Event pre-outreach and post-event follow-up sequences
A cybersecurity MQL has no value until you determine whether it's an economic buyer or a researcher three months away from budget – most demand gen programs never take the time to find out.
Our Methodology
We operate in 90-day sprints because security buying committees move too quickly for an annual plan to respond. Sprint one covers buying committee mapping, MQL rescoring, trigger monitoring setup, and a positioning brief tested with your own sales engineers. Sprint two focuses on execution: trigger campaigns go live, account-based plays launch, and technical content begins publishing around what buyers are researching that quarter.
Sprint three centers on measurement and adjustment – comparing closed deals with the buying committee map and trigger list, cutting what isn't working, and doubling down on what is. Every 90 days, the trigger list, account list, and content calendar are reviewed against actual sales outcomes, rather than a plan designed to remain unchanged for a year.
Our Approach
Days 1-30 focus on audit and infrastructure: mapping the buying committee, rescoring MQLs, setting up trigger monitoring, and drafting and testing a positioning brief with your sales engineers.
Days 31-90 focus on campaign launch and refinement – trigger and account-based plays go live, technical content begins publishing, and weekly pipeline reviews start with your sales team. By day 90, we compare real pipeline with the original buying committee map and update the account list, content calendar, and trigger monitoring accordingly.
You work with a small, dedicated team rather than a rotating roster – a strategist who owns the buying committee and trigger model, along with the people creating the assets. The cadence includes a weekly working session and a monthly pipeline review with your revenue leadership.
- Pipeline sourced from accounts that match your buying committee, not just job-title lookalikes
- Shorter sales cycles on deals originating from compliance or breach-driven trigger campaigns
- Content and positioning that technical buyers reference unprompted in sales conversations
- A more defensible position in analyst conversations that feeds shortlist presence over time
If your cybersecurity company needs demand generation leadership, we should talk.
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Frequently asked questions
What does cybersecurity demand generation cost with Winston Francois?
Engagements generally cost $10K-$25K/month, depending on how much trigger monitoring, analyst relations, and content production must be created from scratch. We scope the initial 90-day sprint before finalizing a number, so you don't pay for infrastructure that's already in place.
How soon will we see an impact on pipeline?
The first 30 days cover assessment and infrastructure, so campaign launch typically happens around day 30, with the first pipeline signal by day 60. Security buying cycles are longer than standard B2B SaaS cycles, so closed revenue appears later than pipeline – we measure each separately.
How does this work with our current marketing team?
We integrate with your current team instead of replacing it – your in-house marketer continues to own brand and execution, while we own the buying committee model and campaign strategy. Weekly working sessions keep everyone aligned on the same target list. If you don't yet have an in-house marketer, we manage execution directly with your sales team.
What makes this different from a traditional marketing agency?
A traditional agency offers a content calendar and media plan centered on volume – more posts, more ads, more MQLs. We focus on your buying committee and the events that create a security buying window, cutting tactics that don't generate qualified pipeline instead of continuing them through the full contract term. You work with a strategist who remains on the account, not a rotating team.
How do you track ROI on this?
We track pipeline sourced from accounts that match your buying committee map, sales cycle length for trigger-driven deals compared with your baseline, and closed-lost reasons tied to targeting versus timing. Reporting happens within the same pipeline review your sales team already holds, rather than treating impressions or MQL volume as standalone measures of success.
Is this suitable for early-stage security startups?
This works best for companies with $5M-$100M ARR that already have a clear ICP and enough sales history to create a buying committee model. Pre-revenue or pre-product-market-fit companies generally need positioning work first. If your company is earlier than that, we'll tell you during the assessment instead of taking the engagement regardless.
Do you manage analyst relations directly?
We develop the analyst relations roadmap and coordinate the positioning and content supporting it, collaborating with your current AR contact or helping you scope one. Relationships with Gartner and Forrester take time to establish, so this workstream begins early, even though the results compound over multiple sprints rather than one.
