Thailand, 12 August 2025 — IntroSecurity ASEAN today called on cybersecurity vendors to stop selling on fear, uncertainty and doubt, and to compete on measurable business benefits. The firm argues that fear-led messaging corrodes trust, shortens relationships, and fails the basic test used by boards and finance leaders, which is whether a product improves resilience, reduces volatility, and protects earnings.
“Executives do not buy alarms, they buy resilience and continuity,” said Karl DiMascio, founder of IntroSecurity ASEAN. “If a vendor cannot show how it protects revenue, reduces operating risk, and strengthens compliance posture, then it has not done the work. Fear can grab attention, but it seldom sustains a contract.”
Why fear-based selling fails
Fear-based narratives create attention spikes, then fatigue. Overstated claims train buyers to discount vendor messages, which lengthens sales cycles and pushes decisions to risk committees that demand independent proof. Fear also frames security as a sunk cost, which makes renewal conversations adversarial. Most importantly, fear does not map to the decision language of the board. Boards weigh capital allocation, risk-adjusted returns, and regulatory exposure. They expect quantification, auditability, and a path to operational improvement.
What boards and CFOs actually buy
Boards authorise spend when a control can be linked to outcomes that matter to the enterprise, such as service uptime, protection of revenue at risk, avoidance of regulatory penalties, and lower loss volatility. Finance leaders expect vendors to translate technical performance into enterprise metrics, for example:
- Reduction in expected loss, using a simple risk model that multiplies frequency by impact, then shows the delta after control deployment.
- Improvement in operational reliability, expressed as fewer critical incidents, shorter mean time to detect and respond, and less unplanned downtime.
- Compliance and assurance gains that reduce external audit findings and lower the cost of remediation.
- Insurance and financing benefits, such as improved security ratings that support better cyber insurance terms or a lower cost of capital.
- Productivity improvements for security and IT teams, with clear evidence that automation returns time to higher value work.
Replace fear with a benefits-led value narrative
IntroSecurity ASEAN recommends that vendors anchor their story around specific, testable benefits that align to enterprise objectives. Effective value narratives do the following.
- Tie each feature to a business control objective. For example, link automated attack surface reduction to fewer customer-facing outages and higher retention.
- Quantify before and after. Establish a baseline, then show the measured change in dwell time, incident frequency, and hours saved per analyst, together with the financial effect.
- Provide independent assurance. Use third-party assessments, customer attestations, and controlled pilots with pre-agreed success criteria.
- Show total cost and time to value. Present full ownership costs, required skills, and integration steps, then show payback period and sensitivity to adoption risks.
- Demonstrate operational fit. Explain how the product works within the client’s processes, roles, and tooling, not only within a lab. Include handoffs between security, IT operations, risk, and compliance.
- Commit to outcomes. Offer success plans, measured milestones, and executive-readable reporting that persists beyond the initial deployment.
The economics vendors must prove
A credible business case converts technical effects into cash flow protection and variability reduction. Vendors should model:
- Expected loss reduction, where a control lowers either the probability of a class of events or the severity of those events.
- Run-rate savings, such as fewer incident hours, lower overtime, reduced tooling overlap, and less rework after audits.
- Revenue protection, by preventing incidents that would have caused contract breach, churn, or reputational damage that depresses pipeline conversion.
- Regulatory exposure reduction, by avoiding fines or forced remediation programmes, and by shortening audit closeout cycles.
- Option value, where improved visibility and automation enable faster adoption of new business models with acceptable risk.
Each claim must be backed by data collected from production, not only proofs of concept. Telemetry should be attributable, time-bound, and comparable to the agreed baseline. Where estimates are used, the method should be disclosed so that finance teams can test assumptions.
Messaging and go-to-market changes vendors should make now
- Rewrite website and sales collateral to lead with outcomes, not threat headlines. Make the first screen about uptime, revenue protection, and risk-adjusted ROI.
- Publish two-page executive briefs for each use case. Each brief should show the business objective, the control mechanism, the measurable effect, and the financial implication.
- Instrument the product to export executive evidence. Provide a board-ready monthly pack that shows trend lines, exceptions, and the forecast effect on risk and operations.
- Offer fixed-scope pilots with shared success metrics. Define pass criteria up front, including financial and operational thresholds, and publish the results.
- Remove theatrical fear triggers from marketing. Replace breach countdown clocks and sensational case studies with clear diagrams that show process change and measurable benefit.
- Align incentives. Compensate the sales team on retention and expansion tied to outcomes achieved, not only initial bookings.
Ethical and regulatory considerations
Fear-driven exaggeration increases legal and reputational risk. Claims that imply guaranteed protection or instant compliance can attract scrutiny from regulators and trading standards. Benefits-led, evidence-based marketing reduces that exposure, supports transparent procurement, and builds durable customer relationships.
“Security is a business function. It must be sold and measured as such,” added DiMascio. “Vendors that prove value in the metrics the board already uses will win. Those who rely on fear will keep losing deals to procurement and internal sceptics.”
About IntroSecurity ASEAN
IntroSecurity ASEAN (www.introsecurity.com) helps cybersecurity vendors enter and grow in Southeast Asia. The firm builds outcome-led propositions, evidence-based business cases, and partner strategies that align security controls with enterprise value. Services include market entry, go-to-market design, field enablement, and executive reporting.
