5 Unconventional GTM Lessons from Zenity’s Enterprise Security Journey

5 Unconventional GTM Lessons from Zenity’s Enterprise Security Journey

Selling security software to Fortune 100 companies typically follows a well-worn playbook: emphasize threats, highlight risks, and create urgency through fear. But in a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Zenity co-founder Ben Kliger revealed a radically different approach – one that’s helped his company win over some of the world’s largest enterprises.

Here are five key GTM lessons from Zenity’s journey that challenge conventional enterprise security selling wisdom:

Lead with Enablement, Not Fear

While most security vendors default to fear-based messaging, Zenity took the opposite approach. “What’s very unique about our story is that it’s a story of enablement,” Ben explains. “People or citizen developers are not building stuff to harm the organization or exposing the organization to risks. Organizations need Zenity for a win situation in order for them to feel comfortable to make sure that they empower their end users.”

This positioning proved particularly powerful because it aligned with where enterprises were already heading. As Ben notes, “Gartner estimated that by 2025, 75% of development in enterprises will be carried by citizen developers, not by professional developers.” By focusing on enabling this inevitable shift rather than blocking it, Zenity created immediate resonance with enterprise buyers.

Transform Thought Leadership into Trust

Instead of relying solely on traditional enterprise sales tactics, Zenity built credibility through deep knowledge sharing. “We believe that we need to show value to our prospects clients, whether it’s with their thought leadership activities, content, publications that we’re doing participation in respectful security organizations, top leadership organizations such as OWA, such as Mitre,” Ben shares.

This approach generates quality inbound leads while establishing expertise before sales conversations begin. As Ben emphasizes, “We never try to scare people off. It’s not the way that we operate at Zenity. It’s not like a FUD motion.”

Turn Enterprise Feedback Into Product Strategy

Rather than treating enterprise feedback as a sales tool, Zenity made it central to their product development. “When you talk to these leaders and it’s not like just, ‘hey, I want to sell you this and that,’ when you actually listen to what they have to say, to their feedback, especially when you’re early in your journey, that helps you get better,” Ben explains.

This iterative approach creates a virtuous cycle: better product-market fit leads to stronger customer relationships, which generates more valuable feedback for future development.

Create Categories Through Future-Focus

In the crowded cybersecurity market, creating a new category requires more than just innovative technology. Ben emphasizes the importance of solving tomorrow’s problems: “I think it’s important in the cybersecurity industry to also think about what’s coming next… actually seeing where your potential clients are going to be in a year time from now, in two years, trying to find something really interesting to solve instead of going after similar problems that were already addressed in the past.”

This forward-looking approach helped Zenity establish their category. “We started as the first company to target this world of cities and development. Then it was with local. Today it’s also with generative AI,” Ben notes.

Leverage Analysts as Strategic Partners

While many startups view analyst relations as a necessary evil, Zenity approached these relationships as strategic partnerships. “Analysts are of course, very meaningful… It’s important to work closely with those respectful organizations such as Gartner and Forrester and IDC. They have such an amazing perspective on the industry. They get to talk to so many different types of organization, buyers, leaders.”

The key insight tying these lessons together is that enterprise trust isn’t built through traditional sales tactics – it’s earned through consistent value delivery before the sale ever happens. As Ben puts it, “When you actually listen to what they have to say… that helps you get better.”

For founders building enterprise security companies, these lessons challenge the conventional wisdom of leading with FUD and pushing for quick sales. Instead, they suggest a longer-term approach focused on knowledge sharing, enablement, and genuine value creation. While this path might take longer to traverse, it creates a stronger foundation for sustained enterprise success.