1. 2000 to early 2020s was fear-driven sales
- Many pitches focused on breaches, ransomware headlines, and worst-case scenarios. The goal was to make the buyer feel urgency through fear of loss.
- Vague fear mongering: “If you don’t act now, your business could be hacked.” Worked well when security maturity was low and awareness was minimal.
- EU sanctions for GDPR and other regulations also became a sharp lever to push clients into action.
2. 2020–2021 Pandemic brought a new fear to use as a selling point -> Remote work
- Explosion of remote work and cloud adoption changed risk profiles. Many companies needed to start paying their technical debt quickly.
- Fear was now tied to specific new threats (VPN attacks, phishing in remote setups, cloud misconfigurations). The pressure for companies was immense and sales were kicking!
But not long after Buyers started asking for practical solutions and results, not just warnings.
So vendors began adding more and more ROI language alongside risk.
3. 2022–2024 AI and Russian attacking to Ukraine sharpened the fear mongering edge
- Just as Covid made everyone aware of remote work risks, Russia’s attack on Ukraine made it clear that cyberwar is not theoretical, it’s real, and it’s happening now.
- For many cybersecurity companies, this was like winning the lottery.
The enemy now had a face and a name, and fear became even easier to sell. Or, as the Finnish president said: “The masks are off.” - AI arrived on the scene at the same time, adding fuel to the fire.
4. 2025- Value & Partnership Era
- Companies have become fatigued by constant fear messaging. Decision makers demanded proof of value and integration with business goals. They also demand value without a crisis.
- Sales shifted to:
- Focusing more on customers actual business needs. Resilience over pure prevention
- Proactive risk management with real metrics and not just focus on crisis
- Easy customer experience in all stages of the lifecycle (not just the sales part)
- Fear-mongering can open the door, but without clear long-term value and an easy customer experience, the deal is likely to fall short. Fear still plays a role, but it works best as a subtle background motivator rather than the main driver.
