Upper_Class_SaaS

Account Executive

💻 Anyone selling in the DATA space? 🏷

I am thinking of jumping the security ship into the data space but want to know if any reps here are in the space and how they are liking it?

What type of product are you selling? (DB, ETL, Big Data, etc)

Who are you selling to? (CTO, Devs)

Sales Cycles? Does it get internal budget?

Would love to hear from anyone in the space currently or who sold in this space prior.

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9 comments

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braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Why you leaving security?

Upper_Class_SaaS

Politicker

Account Executive

I have been in security my whole career and am 1. it is exhausting selling in security with all the hoops you gotta jump through and budget still seems to be secondary for most orgs 2. Want to expand my horizons in a space that is also continuing to expand that I find interesting.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Great question.

BullDawg

Politicker

Long response warning: - I sell Big Data - Sales Cycles range from 100 days to 1.5 years. You typically need to create budget / steal it from other initiatives - Sell to a variety of personas (CTO, CSO, Data Scientists, Actuaries, CMOs, Cybersecurity Analysts, Threat Researchers, etc etc) 
I’ve sold in both data and cybersecurity - they’re totally different beasts IMO. Cyber is good because it’s usually straightforward. You’re selling to infosec teams and you’re usually filling a clear need to either: be more secure, make security faster without compromising security itself, or save money by replacing other tools for cheaper. 
Data is a bit trickier. In one role my personas ranged from Enterprise Architects to Data Scientists/Actuaries to CMOs to CEOs to Business Analysts. The persona and use cases can be totally different in each deal or company or team. Requires a lot more creativity. The plus side is that data tends to enact bigger changes and more exciting deals (at least to me). In one company I was with, we helped big retail chains collect and centralize data from sources like security cameras, cash register output/sales, and time of day and run detailed analysis on it in real time to help create more effective routes through the store to influence people to spend more money per visit. In my current role I’m working with the CEO of a tech company to use our data to geolocate terrorists and POIs in unstable zones to help protect high profile people visiting those areas (eg, keep them away from the bad guys because we know where they are now). Both of those create revenue streams that help create measurable positive impact to the business and change to their offerings. 
I find that the data space is much more difficult, but the projects are much more interesting. I’ve also noticed I build better relationships with my buyers and end up being way stickier because of how much work goes into making these big changes happen (for us and them). But - I had a way easier time selling cybersecurity because the model is there and proven. Pros and cons on both sides

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

There's mighty fine money in security. You may wanna rethink it.

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

Professional Day Ruiner

Look at companies that do a mix of both, it’ll be a good transition for you. Cohesity for example is technically a backup solution, but it’s more of a hyperconverged solution, so it manages the entire secondary data sector as well has a ton of ransomware prevention built in. Really cool product that might be a good transition for you. SumoLogic is another good one to check out. They’re cloud security monitoring and data analytics.
If you really want to focus on just storage, look at the big up and comers like pure storage or VAST. Getting in at a Dell EMC, netapp, etc is a waste of time because their market is so saturated. Plus they’re slowly losing market share to the newer kids on the block

ADudeBeingAGuy

Politicker

Account Executive

How about Elastic?

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

Professional Day Ruiner

I haven’t heard of it, can’t help you there.

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

Professional Day Ruiner

From a quick Google, they look like a company that will be around for a year or 2 then get acquired by a big name to be proprietary on their system. Doesn’t look like anything too crazy or innovative imo. But that’s based entirely off the homepage of their website.

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