Finding a customer category that regularly spends money on the kind of software you're intending to build can make it signficantly easier to actually sell them software.
Go to Capterra or G2 and read what actual paying customers say about your competitors and other SaaS products. It's eye-opening.
We can see too that most of competitors' reviews are clearly inauthentic. Also, in the B2B space, a public endorsement is infrequently given for various reasons. Being in cybersecurity makes it an awkward ask too - especially after SolarWinds got a lot of flack for publishing their client list on the website [1].
However, it would have to be done - as that prospect has made it clear. We are sticking by our guns though and will get there eventually with genuine reviews. But TBH, the path is not clear.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/15/22176053/solarwinds-hack...
I wrote genuine thoughts on the product but given it has been offered to me and not someone else, there is a clear selection bias.
However, even in the "encouraged" reviews you can still discover what problems people solve with certain class of tools and how much money they're ready to pay for them.
Pros: We love everything about this software! Especially A, B, C, D, E, F and G features!
Cons: It's always so difficult to wait for the next monthly patch! But it's so worth it!
The other just keeps harassing my for leaving a review on a piece of software that I was working for at the time. Never got a gift card either....
IMO look at how many 'competitors' are in a category on those sites. Finding a category with <50 competitors can provide some great opportunities, probably niche though.
I can only speak for my own experience, but Capterra offered me and my customers something like $20 gift cards for the first 100 reviewers and I sent 500 emails with this offer and maybe had 1 reviewer bite and then later said he never received a gift card.
But my app has 15 reviews and I asked maybe half of those users to write a review after they first emailed me with a testimonial/praise.