Adam Glick, CISO, PSG, discusses successful vendor outreach to CISOs, the negative impact of spamming, building trust in vendor relationships, understanding the role of a CISO, and emphasizing the importance of forming connections and building trust in the cybersecurity industry.
Salespeople often fail to personalize their approach when reaching out to CISOs, leading to generic and irrelevant vendor messages.
Successful salespeople in the cybersecurity industry prioritize building trust through personalized interactions and mutual benefit.
Deep dives
Importance of Building Relationships and Doing Research
Salespeople often fail to do their homework when approaching CISOs, resulting in a high volume of generic and irrelevant vendor messages. Building a trust relationship is crucial in the cybersecurity industry, as CISOs and vendors work together to combat common threats. This requires a shift from consumer-grade selling to enterprise security. While spamming and spray-and-pray tactics may yield some leads, they can damage a vendor's reputation. Successful salespeople understand the importance of personalization, customization, and establishing meaningful business relationships.
Challenges of Scaling Sales Teams and Meeting Quotas
The increasing number of security companies has led to a larger salesforce and intensified competition. Salespeople, often lacking a thorough understanding of cybersecurity, resort to quantity over quality. The pressure to meet quotas and push products generates an overwhelming amount of spam and ineffective outreach. As a result, the sales process becomes a numbers game, and qualified leads are overshadowed by warm bodies. This leads to frustration and a lack of trust within the ecosystem.
Recognizing the Need for a Relationship-based Approach
Sales professionals need to recognize that the security industry is built on relationships. Taking the time to understand the unique needs and challenges of each CISO is essential. Rather than relying on sales techniques that work for other industries, successful salespeople prioritize personalized interactions and mutual benefit. It is crucial to establish rapport, demonstrate respect, and avoid being perceived as a nuisance or spammer.
Effective Sales Strategies and Moving Towards Solutions
To stand out among the sea of vendors, salespeople must focus on customization and personalization without crossing the line into invasion of privacy or creepiness. A respectful, human approach is more likely to engage CISOs. Building trust through vulnerability and transparency is key. Sales representatives who prioritize relationship building and prioritize mutual success over immediate sales are more likely to succeed in the long run.
Vendors need to reach out to CISOs, but what does a successful approach look like?
Do vendors often spray and pray with outreach, rather than doing a bare minimum of research?
What else can vendors do to try to create meaningful outreach to CISOs?
How do you like security sales professionals to build a relationship with you?
Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Praetorian
Praetorian helps companies adopt a prevention-first cybersecurity strategy by actively uncovering vulnerabilities and minimizing potential weaknesses before attackers can exploit them.
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