If you’re working your way into a CISO's inbox: Take a more humanizing approach and cultivate trust-based relationships. It’s important to draw the line between an appropriate business outreach and a stalker mode. Be willing to be vulnerable because it's going to really benefit your career and do good Brutally honest insights from George Al-Koura Al Koura, Co-Host of Bare Knuckles & Brass Tacks Podcast and CISO of Ruby. In this episode of Audience 1st, Dani Woolf is had a conversation with George about his challenges, goals, what vendors do that piss him off, and the alternatives. We uncovered: Why are so many people in the military getting into cybersecurity after service? What does George hate most about the cybersecurity industry? What is a humanizing approach to sales outreach and how does it affect CISO? As a CISO, what's George’s one bleeding neck challenge and what's the ultimate goal he’s trying to achieve? Are there any differences or anomalies right now in the market that sales pros and marketers can learn from to take advantage of? What does a valuable, trust-based relationship look like digitally? What are some cardinal rules security vendors, marketers, and sales teams are breaking these days? Join Audience 1st Newsletter Today Join 1300+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/newsletter

When a CISO starts evaluating a new product, they start evaluating the people they’re going to work with and only then evaluate the vendor from a technological perspective. Because at the end of the day they do business with people, not just with products. Building brand awareness and trust is very important. Why would you give access to your financial accounts if there’s no trust? Brutally honest insights from May Brooks, CISO, Founder and Chairwoman of the Board of Helena Cybersecurity Awareness. In this episode, Dani Woolf had a conversation with May about her challenges, goals, what vendors do that piss her off, and the alternatives. We also covered: What May does from a day-to-day basis as a cybersecurity expert and what’s her ultimate goal. What is May’s one bleeding neck challenge right now as the deputy CISO? What is the ultimate goal May’s trying to achieve as a security practitioner? What are ways that May evaluates people within a potential vendor? What are differences or anomalies salespeople and marketers can learn from in order to stand out in CISOs’ eyes. How would a salesperson or marketer understand a CISO’s priorities best? What would be the way to extract that data not under an NDA? Why is building brand awareness and trust so important in cybersecurity? Cardinal rules security vendors, marketers, and sales teams are breaking these days.  Join Audience 1st Newsletter Today Join 1300+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers:https://www.audience1st.fm/newsletter

A marketer, seller, and CISO meet in a LinkedIn Live after RSA Conference You finish the rest. Or join Andres Andreu, Maria Graham, and Dani Woolf to unveil their top insights from this year's 2023 RSA Conference from their lens of the world. Tune into Audience 1st Podcast to: Get a first-hand overview of what it was like at RSAC this year Understand major hits and misses at the expo Explore how to bridge gaps discovered in the industry during the conference Learn how events like these helped progress growth Discover best practices for engaging your audience at large events like RSA and more! Join Audience 1st Newsletter Today Join 1300+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/newsletter

Today, as a cybersecurity seller, being a technical and a business person is very relevant.  But in order to keep up with the pace of change, the technologies, the dynamic market and aggressive growth goals, you have to be an active listener and to be present. When you understand your customer’s goals and challenges, then you can bring a technical enough team to the table that could actually get buyers answers effectively and efficiently. You drive change by leaning from the front and it's not only on the sales and marketing folks to do that. The C-Suite is equally responsible as well. Brutally honest insights from Chris Federico, Head of Global Cloud Security Sales of Check Point and Chris Roberts, CISO and Senior Director of Boom Supersonic.  In this conversation, Dani Woolf had a conversation with Chris² about: How solutions and behaviors in the cybersecurity space changed over time both from the buying side and also from the sales and marketing side Bundling and unbundling of solutions over time - what’s the deal? How the scenery at the cybersecurity vendor expos has changed What is REAL differentiation and why is it so crucial in this market? What can actually help to build and gain the trust among buyers and vendors? What are the old bullshit tactics that companies still use that just won’t fly anymore today? How to successfully identify customer needs and challenges How boards of directors evolved in the cybersecurity industry The steps that can be taken to start affecting change within the organization and among the buyer and the salespeople community to allow for more successful collaboration This episode was sponsored by Check Point Technologies, a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions to over 100,000 corporate enterprises and governments globally.  Check Point Infinity's portfolio of solutions, protects enterprises and public organizations from fifth generation cyber attacks with an industry leading catch rate of malware, ransomware, and other threats. To learn more about checkpoint and its infinity portfolio. Visit checkpoint.com.  Join Audience 1st Newsletter Today Join 1300+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/newsletter

When a concept or strategy gains enough traction, marketing and sales jump in to capitalize on it, and eventually, it becomes a poisoned well from which people draw. This happens not because the strategy itself lacks merit, but because we, as humans, get saturated with information, and anything that everyone is talking about begins to seem like BS. However, just because there's a lot of noise around a particular concept doesn't mean that there isn't something valuable at the core. Brutally honest insights from Aaron Brongersma, Leader of the Cloud Center of Excellence at Checkpoint and Chase Cunningham Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at Ericom Software. In this episode, Dani Woolf had a conversation with Aaron and Chase about: The real deal with all the stigma around Zero Trust How vendors can prescriptively and successfully map solutions to the Zero Trust eXtended framework Ways vendors can better understand their buyers How the Zero Trust eXtended framework is shifting given the dynamic nature of the market Ways cybersecurity vendors and the folks working for the vendors can quickly and authentically establish trust with buyers Where Zero Trust heading in the next 3 to 5 years This episode was sponsored by Check Point Technologies, a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions to over 100,000 corporate enterprises and governments globally.  Check Point Infinity's portfolio of solutions, protects enterprises and public organizations from fifth generation cyber attacks with an industry leading catch rate of malware, ransomware, and other threats. To learn more about checkpoint and its infinity portfolio. Visit checkpoint.com.  Join Audience 1st Newsletter Today Join 1300+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/newsletter

Security professionals sometimes find it hard to absorb the notion that the cloud was actually by definition designed for developers. A developer is not a regular techie. In fact, they are not a techie at all. A developer is a creative person. And if you put any constraints on a creative person, you will kill their creativity. Security pros may not be able to understand them but they have to try, listen and hear them in order to simplify their lives. Brutally honest insights from TJ Gonen, Vice President for Cloud Security of Check Point, and Dmitriy Sokolovskiy, CSO/CISO of Avid and Principal CISO Advisor, Lead Instructor of Audience 1st. In this episode, Dani Woolf had a conversation with TJ and Dmitriy about: The challenges of keeping up with the fast-paced world of cybersecurity and how vendors can help digest all the technology changes happening. The "1-3-2" and "Start-Stop-Continue" methods for strategic planning in the cybersecurity industry and how to use them to gain a deeper understanding of an organization and develop a strategic plan to keep up with the industry. The complexities that exist with the shift to the cloud and how to address them. The real purpose and value of the cloud and how security professionals can adapt to new ways of doing things to enable developers to move faster without compromising on security. The importance of simplifying developers' lives and how to approach the shift to the cloud with caution and a clear understanding of the risks and challenges associated with it. The importance of listening to developers and approaching them with empathy to work together to create a more productive environment. This episode was sponsored by Check Point Technologies, a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions to over 100,000 corporate enterprises and governments globally.  Check Point Infinity's portfolio of solutions, protects enterprises and public organizations from fifth generation cyber attacks with an industry leading catch rate of malware, ransomware, and other threats. To learn more about checkpoint and its infinity portfolio. Visit checkpoint.com.  Join Audience 1st Newsletter Today Join 1300+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/newsletter

There is a shift in the world. Developers are starting to use the cloud and they're starting to get a lot of power.  And with that power comes the responsibility that’s why using developer friendly tools is critical in order to have your organization protected.  We need to remember that at the end of the day, we are not in the business of eliminating risks, our goal is to do whatever we can to minimize the risk.  Brutally honest insights from Idan Didi, Head of Sales - Developer First Security of Check Point, Co-founder & COO of Spectral and Bipin Gajbhiye, Security Partner of Stripe.  In this episode, Dani Woolf had a conversation with Idan and Bipin about: Idan and Bipin’s motivations for working in cybersecurity Their bleeding-neck challenges in their roles How do application security engineers prioritize to stay ahead of potential breaches? What is developer-first security and why “first”? 3 prescriptive ways security practitioners can help developers become champions in shift left security What are the measures of success for developers focusing on developer-first security? How do application security engineers choose security tools and what are their decision criteria? Market anomalies to take advantage of in DevSecOps This episode was sponsored by Check Point Technologies, a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions to over 100,000 corporate enterprises and governments globally.  Check Point Infinity's portfolio of solutions, protects enterprises and public organizations from fifth generation cyber attacks with an industry leading catch rate of malware, ransomware, and other threats. To learn more about checkpoint and its infinity portfolio. Visit checkpoint.com.  Join Audience 1st Newsletter Today Join 1300+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/newsletter

Listening deeply to the market before you even put pen to paper and draw your first paper prototype is very important. In terms of the buying process, in order to be more productive and efficient as an industry you have to build relationship capital with your customers.  Don’t treat your buyer as a potential target, an account, or as a number; treat them as a person. Not every big name vendor fits every single buyer out there. “One size fits all” doesn't work in the cyberspace anymore.  We should all be more gutsy about changing the script and changing how things are done. Brutally honest insights from Victoria Germanova, Founder & CEO of Callity.  In this episode, Dani Woolf had a conversation with Victoria about: Tactics and strategies to successfully reach buyers and get them to open up. Why buyers are feeling like things are rushed from renewals or an expansion standpoint.  Challenges that vendors are experiencing in terms of the buying process with cybersecurity buyers. How  both buyers and vendors can be more productive and efficient as an industry in terms of the buying process. What Callity is and what solutions they are providing to the industry. How to bridge the gap that occurs between the human element and automation when trying to build relationship capital. Feedback points from buyers that are helping Victoria formulate next steps for Callity and the cybersecurity industry. Join Audience 1st Newsletter Today Join 1002+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/newsletter

We often think that our challenges are unique to cybersecurity as opposed to pretty normal historical human ones and we don't look outside of our domain often enough for finding potential solutions. Coming from completely different backgrounds often helps people find and apply a unique solution to a problem. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, think critically. Know how to learn in order to communicate efficiently and effectively and prevent organizational silos between both sides of the industry. It’s crucial to work on your soft skills and build strong relationships in order to shift from being a transactional seller to a trusted advisor. Brutally honest insights from Dutch Schwartz, Cloud Security Strategist, Trusted Advisor and Speaker at Amazon Web Services (AWS). In this episode, Dani Woolf had a conversation with Dutch about his challenges, goals, what vendors do that piss him off, and the alternatives. Join Audience 1st Today Join 830+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/newsletter

In this episode of Phishy Business, we discuss how cybersecurity marketing, sales, and support are for the most part inadequate, and how there can be a big disconnect between how marketers market and how technology professionals buy.   We talk more about how marketing should consider the customer experience and how marketing departments should not only market their products and services but should also be active listeners and understand what their buyers need and want.   Our special guest is cybersecurity marketing expert and podcaster Dani Woolf, who spent the past decade running high impact marketing departments for technology startups.   She has since started Audience 1st to help cybersecurity vendors understand what CIOs and CISOs really want from them.   Dani helps cybersecurity marketers better understand their buyers so they can sell more. In ‘Marketing as Customer Experience – Be an Active Listener’, we discuss: How cybersecurity can help solve very complex problems. Vendors should have a ‘mission over money’ mindset. Some traditional demand- and lead-gen techniques that don’t work with a cybersecurity audience. Why CISOs tend to be a more cynical and less trustworthy audience, which is understandable because of the high stakes and stressful nature of the job. Co-creating with influencers who have polarizing opinions in the market is a good strategy in cybersecurity marketing. How the cybersecurity community values concise and clear content. The fact that technology leaders want marketing to be authentic and to cut through the ‘noise’. The mass over use of buzzwords that is all too common and alarming in the sector. How the cybersecurity community is open to giving feedback and taking feedback and how not a lot of vendors take advantage of this. That in order to be successful, marketing mindset needs to shift from product first to customer first. This podcast was originally published on Phishy Business Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2D1VVBsdis20XZGQoxa6SX About Phishy Business Fed up with the same old cybersecurity stories? Come with us on a journey that explores the lesser-known side. Whether it’s social engineering, taking criminals to court or the journalists hunting down hackers — our new podcast series, Phishy Business, looks for new ways to think about cybersecurity. Mimecast’s very own Brian Pinnock and Alice Jeffery are joined by guests from a range of unique security specialisms. Each episode explores tales of risk, reward and just a dash of ridiculousness to learn how we can all improve in the fight to stay safe. For more tales of risk, reward and ridiculousness, subscribe to Phishy Business on iTunes, Spotify, Anchor or wherever you get your podcasts: www.mimecast.com