They Don't Want to Talk to Sales—So Let the Community Sell for You
Mariana Padilla
BSides NYC 2025 (0x05) · Day 1 · Entrepreneur
In an insightful talk at BSides NYC, Mariana Padilla, Community Evangelist at Harmonic and former CEO of Hackerverse, challenged traditional sales and marketing paradigms in the cybersecurity industry. Her presentation, "They Don't Want to Talk to Sales—So Let the Community Sell for You," argued compellingly for a community-first approach to customer acquisition and retention. Padilla highlighted the growing skepticism among cybersecurity professionals towards conventional sales tactics, emphasizing that modern buyers are increasingly turning to peer recommendations and authentic community engagement long before ever contacting a sales representative.
AI review
A vendor employee giving a sales pitch about why sales pitches don't work — the irony is apparently lost on everyone involved. This is a marketing talk dressed in community-building language, delivered at a security conference where it has no business being.