How to sell security products
Selling Cybersecurity - Advice For Vendors | CISO Talks
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and how do you think that vendors who
perhaps create this consultative
approach rather than perhaps we've just
alluded today where you've got the
salesperson getting them to sign that
dotted line and do you think this is
something that should be started from
the outset and for example in our
organization we run risk assessments and
we do it free of charge because we feel
that this is not something you should be
paying for you and we give you a with
things being aggressively balanced view
on your situation do you think that
helps to attract more of a consultative
approach rather than perhaps just a I'm
a sales person you're a customer some
dotted line I think it comes down to
authenticity mmm you know when people
can people can detect that straightaway
you know if you're authentic but if you
go into a meeting if you're open about
you are here to help them but if you
can't help them you'll shake hands and
walk away because your solution your
service you're offering will not answer
their use case and that comes down to a
consultative approach that comes down to
knowing the market that comes down to
know and how your tool or service works
inside out and it comes down to a bit of
experience as well hmm
you know it's um I'm I'm slightly
annoyed at LinkedIn with the amount of
life coaches who contact me who are not
out to their twenties yet you know and
I'm like how can you be a life coach
when you're not out to your twenties
absolutely you know you haven't seen
anything of life you know and I'm nearly
50 I know that's difficult to believe a
nearly 50 both you know when I think
sometimes people don't get it audience -
well mmm I think you're gonna go into it
and do that type of stuff or cell SEO
services or send me five emails on the
bounce when I have an answered you first
one asking me did I get the other emails
I did I just haven't responded to you
because it's not for me at this moment
in time treat humans like human beings I
think absolutely and a good good point
there we mentioned LinkedIn do you think
LinkedIn is a good medium for vendors to
perhaps market their ways or do you
think that LinkedIn really is
is his ill-used by vendors at the moment
it's good and bad it's like everything I
think too many go in for the kill
straight away too many his old next
product is or next thing it's great it's
brilliant buy and that's kind of okay
you know it's but I think that people
who make a difference on LinkedIn are
the people who want value so the people
who have value without asking for
anything the people who give up their
time and their knowledge in their
experience to help with the people you
then build the trust you then build a
brand and then I think people will then
come to you if they have a question or
have an issue so people may still say
well that's a bit Mac of alien that's a
bit you know but actually if you if
you're out there giving more value than
you're getting in eventually somebody's
gonna come to you somebody's gonna think
you're worth asking an opinion of all
and may go and check out your website or
your services you know what one the
biggest guys one of the guys I follow on
LinkedIn is Gary Vaynerchuk
yes great guy from from vaynermedia you
know it's more value than Danny you know
and he says quite often that some of the
people who are charging for the LinkedIn
type of gurus you know you can get
everything you want from him for zero
cost mmm absolutely right
gritty but he's well-liked I love them I
love them and you know his language is
great as well I think he pulls no
punches mmm I would imagine if you met
him in real life that is how he would be
yeah nothing is nothing's manufactured
there hmm I think people who get a
little bit wound up w drops the f-bomb
every now just you know that's that's no
problem isn't with their sales in our
InfoSec industry really is that
sometimes they don't know anything about
the technology so that's the sort of
customer facing arm of the company and
really it's a sales engineer that
actually knows what they're talking
about but that doesn't tend to always be
at the front it's mainly yeah this is
the sales this is your point of contact
he's the guy who's gonna see you from
cradle to grave if you like yeah that's
a problem it is a problem of about sales
guys before will me into meetings tell
me that they're gonna introduce me leave
me alone to talk technical stuff and
then
come back afterwards to get the peel
type of thing you know I think that's
the that's the bad side of sales I think
the the the real good side of it and you
know I don't want this to come across as
a Salesman bashing side of things I've
caused from a an elementary point of
view and being the VP you know that's
where we are at the moment you know
where will it grow in our company
growing our sales go on our education of
the customers grow on our exposure so
obviously people need sales to survive
but I think think the real good sales
guys and the really good ones I've
worked at before and gender a trust with
their customers hmm almost almost before
you get to any kind of discussion about
what the product is or what the services
the 14 to you as a person absolutely
right I think also as well that it's not
entirely up to the way that you go to
market with your product but if you look
at maps of Perpetual versus subscription
licensing I think that's the
subscription licensing can be favored
because it makes the vendor maintain
that relationship every year
not-not-not what rather than perhaps
selling of a petrol license sure sign
the line and then that's it until
renewal that's that's that's a problem
that I think many vendors have you know
they're focused on perpetual licenses
and they're not interested in keeping
that relationship with the customer long
time yeah would you agree oh absolutely
you know most most customers on the
perpetual side of things get a call
every April or whenever they yeah
whenever the licenses okay how are you
doing that we're gonna renew next year
you know and I'm not sure whether you
know if that was your own personal
relationship you probably get out to
that relationship slitty quickly right
you know you don't you don't want to be
you don't want to be spoken to once a
year especially if you've had issues
throughout the year you've raised those
and nobody's dealt with those issues or
you've had problems you know so from a
subscription point of view and I think
it does lend people to have that
conversation
however haven't been in manage services
for a very long time you know that's
second nature to me and and to what we
do you should have those conversations
all the time and the customers you'll
feel free to be able to pick up the
phone and say hey what about this
and you should offer as I mentioned
earlier on about the value you should be
off a be able to offer that value you're
not getting paid for you you're not
getting anything extra hmm the customers
derive and value from it absolutely
that's really important yeah it makes
sense know one of the questions I'd like
to ask you is is around AI and AI
technology within our enforcer cold do
you think that the technology will ever
be so good it will replace the need for
a/c so in an organization I think we've
got a long way to go until that happens
you know Amazon still have issues detect
and real reviews from fake reviews there
was something recently on Amazon that
there was a bunch of fake reviews there
that they they couldn't detect will
happen at some point in the future I
think anything's possible right we'll
Liverpool win the league in the future
we're all hoping right so so so
anything's possible are we anywhere near
that I don't think so and we've got a
long way to go I think we're really at
the basics of AI Machine lens doing some
really good stuff you know we've got
people beaten chess champions and stuff
like that because it's a logic based
approach and you can do a lot of
computations but I think when you come
to the finer intricacies of the human
mind
there's we're only at the very beginning
of that
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