How to Write a Nomination That Stands Out

We have reviewed thousands of nominations over the past decade. The ones that win share a common pattern — and it has nothing to do with length, polish, or marketing language. It comes down to clarity, proof, and category fit.

This guide applies whether you’re nominating a product, a company, an industry solution, a professional, or a team. The principles are the same.

One thing runs through everything below: relevance to your category. The strongest outcome, the most impressive technical approach, the most compelling trust story — none of it lands if it doesn’t connect to what the category is designed to recognize. Before you write a single word, ask yourself: does this evidence speak directly to the category I’m entering? If it doesn’t, it’s noise — no matter how impressive it is on its own.

Here’s what our judges actually look for, and how to present it to them:

Start with the situation or challenge, not the background

The strongest nominations open with specifics. Not a company history, not a market overview, not a vision statement. The concrete situation that makes this nomination worth reading.

What cybersecurity problem did you solve? What challenge did you face? What moment demanded a response? Judges can tell immediately whether a nominee understands the stakes. A good nomination shows that the work grew out of a real need and a real moment — not simply a generic desire to be recognized.

Ask yourself: Can someone outside your organization read your first two sentences and understand exactly why this nomination exists?

Lead with one measurable outcome

This is the single most important piece of advice in this guide.

The nominations that rise to the top lead with proof, not promises. One concrete result carries more weight than five paragraphs of capabilities or accomplishments. Judges have seen every superlative in the industry — what they haven’t seen is your specific data.

That proof can take many forms: analyst hours saved, compliance pass rates, customer adoption, revenue growth, response times improved, a program built from scratch, a breach contained, a team scaled under pressure. Not every outcome needs to be a hard number — a well-documented before-and-after narrative counts, especially when the impact is organizational or cultural. What matters is that it’s specific, credible, and verifiable.

Ask yourself: If a judge remembers one thing from your nomination, what should it be?

Show the thinking, not just the results

Judges want to understand what makes a nominee distinctive. What separates a finalist from a footnote is the reasoning behind the work — the choices made, the tradeoffs weighed, the decisions that reflect genuine depth.

Why this approach and not another? What constraints shaped the path? What did you see that others missed? These signals of intentionality tell judges more about quality than any feature list, org chart, or resume ever could.

Be specific about who benefits and how their reality changed

Abstract claims don’t land. Specific ones do.

Strong nominations name the audience clearly — SOC analysts, compliance teams, board-level stakeholders, patients, financial institutions, junior security professionals — and explain how the nominee changed their daily reality. A customer quote, a case study outcome, a deployment result, or a concrete story grounded in fact will always carry more weight than broad claims of impact.

When judges can picture the people on the other end, the nomination becomes memorable.

Demonstrate trust and accountability

Cybersecurity is a trust business. Judges evaluate every nomination with that lens.

This could mean how a product handles data and manages risk. How a company earns and maintains customer confidence. How a leader built credibility within their organization. How a team maintained accountability when the pressure was real.

You don’t need to be perfect. You need to show ownership. An entry that demonstrates how it earned trust always outperforms one that assumes it.

Pick the right category

This is where many strong nominations lose ground. Category selection determines who you’re compared against and what criteria judges use to evaluate your work.

A purpose-built DSPM platform entering “Best Cybersecurity Company” ends up competing on brand scale instead of technical differentiation. A CISO who transformed an organization’s security program may have a stronger case in “CISO of the Year” than in the broader “Cybersecurity Professional of the Year.” That mismatch costs leverage.

Pick the category where your impact is strongest and most defensible. It keeps your story coherent and gives judges a fair frame to evaluate the work on its real merits.

With 300+ categories across products, companies, industry solutions, and professionals, you can find a very precise match. Many nominees compete in multiple categories using the same core story adapted to each category’s focus.

If you’re unsure, reply to any of our emails with what you’d like to be recognized for and a short description. We’ll send you a recommendation.

Keep it focused

Judges evaluate hundreds of nominations. Respect their time. A focused entry of 300-500 words will consistently outperform a longer submission that tries to cover everything.

Structure your nomination in this order:

1. The situation — what you solved, led, built, or transformed, and for whom
2. The proof — your strongest measurable outcome or documented before-and-after
3. The approach — what makes this nomination distinctive
4. The impact — who benefited and how their reality changed
5. The trajectory — where this is going and why it matters beyond this year (briefly)

If you can nail each of those in two to three sentences, you have a nomination that judges will remember.

Quick reference by nomination type

Product or solution — Lead with the measurable outcome your customers experienced. Show the thinking behind the design. If you have customer validation, include it (you can submit information privately if you don’t want it displayed on the public nomination page).

Company — Lead with what defines your impact this year. Show what sets you apart and back it up with evidence. Consider entering both a company category and relevant product categories.

Industry solution — Lead with measurable results within your specific vertical. Show that you understand the sector’s unique regulations, workflows, and constraints.

Professional — Lead with a specific situation where your leadership made a measurable difference. Show your decisions and their outcomes, not your title.

Team — Lead with a specific challenge where your teamwork delivered under real pressure. The people who did the work deserve to have it documented with the same rigor as any product submission.

The pattern behind the winners

The best entries share a common backbone. They understand the situation, deliver a credible response, prove the results, earn trust, and execute with care. None of this requires a massive budget, a breakthrough technology, or a famous name. It requires clarity, discipline, and a willingness to be accountable for what you actually accomplished.

A prepared nomination takes less than 15 minutes to enter. The thinking behind it is what makes the difference.

Ready to start? Explore all categories and begin your nomination →

Need guidance? Contact us with a few words about what you’d like to be recognized for and a short description of your nomination. I’ll send you my recommendation.

Holger Schulze
Cybersecurity Excellence Awards