cashmachine

AE (Account Executive)

those of you in cybersecurity, what are your best prospecting methods?

in this space personally & it's a struggle for new opportunities. company has Orum, but connection rates are rough. hardly any meetings (if any) getting booked through email or linkedin.

anyone have experience booking good quality opps consistently in this space? i currently have 3 SDRs under me that i'd like to help get booking at a higher rate.

appreciate any insights!

🔐 Cybersecurity

🔎 Prospecting

📳 SaaS

27 comments

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1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

Reverse Taken. Steal their kid, let them find you for a discovery call. Easy Peasy.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Everyone knows CISOs love playing Liam Neeson.

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

💯

cashmachine

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

genius.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

Rolling 20's all day

I ended up in Paris, TX by accident... And I'm being chased by the cops instead of my prospect. What do?

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Been in security for the past 6 years. Getting meetings via cold outreach is tough.

Most of my opps come from events (be it big shows or local networking events) and referrals from customers.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

You ain't even lying. They are skittish, for good reason. This way they see you are real.

cashmachine

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

how is your pipe consistently full via this method?

i know events are starting to pick back up, but with c19 they’ve been pretty dead the past couple years. i also don’t really want to go to them too much personally😅

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

My deals are pretty chunky. Only need a few to make my number. So if I can come away from an event with 4-5 meetings that's enough to make my number.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

I've been able to source a few through really pointed cold outreach (e.g. I attended your talk/ saw this job post/heard you on a podcast, etc.)

Here's an example:

Subject line was the title of a recent blog post.

{CISO} - Recently found your blog and loving it! The post about involving kids in home projects got me right in the feels.

Hard to forget the ear-to-ear grin when my son (age 5) got to show off the bunk bed he helped build. Also made me reminisce about evenings and weekends helping my dad in his workshop.

The analogy back to work relationships is spot on.

Hope this isn't gauche but I'd appreciate the chance to meet. Not sure if you've heard of XXXXXX but perhaps a conversation could be fruitful.

Either way, let me know!
---
Got a response 10 minutes later.

cashmachine

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

thank you! very valuable.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

With what they do, it makes sense they'd be squirrely.

Social engineering is a big issue.

harebrained

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Events - join relevant local infosec groups (Cloud Security Alliance, Women in Security, OWASP, etc) and become part of the community. Security people chit chat and refer each other to stuff a lot and have a high tendency to work with people they like - it's a super noisy marketplace.

chig777

Valued Contributor

BDR

Can salespeople join these groups though they are a vendor? I was under the impression these are rather closed off groups solely for infosec professionals

harebrained

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

The ritzy events with free stuff usually exclude vendors BUT tons of these things are free and open to anyone :)

I find most of the events on meetup.com

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

Professional Day Ruiner

I use zoominfo and outreach. No issues getting 5-7+ meetings a week from this strategy.

Too many SDR's sound like marketing bots in their emails and prospects think they're just on some drip campaign. Make sure they actually sound like a real person that's reaching out to the prospect in the email. That's how I get most of my responses. I literally just sound like some guy reaching out to someone else.

It goes against everything SDR's are told is the "right" way to prospect. But it works.

cashmachine

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

do you mind elaborating on this a little further please? perhaps a template that’s worked for you?

we have zoominfo as well, but like i said connect rates are tough & we aren’t really getting anything through email either. a few here & there, but it’s scarce for sure.

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

Professional Day Ruiner

My email template is literally this:

Hey (name)

I'm ___ with ____. We do x, y, and z (like 2 sentences on this). Just wanted to get some time on your calendar for a short intro call to see if we would be a fit for any projects you have coming up in the next few months. Let me know what time you have free next week. Thanks!

A week later I reply to that thread and say something along the lines of:

Hey name, just reaching out to see if you had any interest in discussing. I've got some time Monday if you're free then. Thanks

And that's literally it. That's all I do. And it works. Even the not interested emails I get are way nicer. Because you sound like an actual person and not like a computer that's blowing them up automatically.

cashmachine

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

thank you for taking the time to answer! i appreciate it.

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

Professional Day Ruiner

my entire approach is based around keeping shit simple and not sounding like a bot. people get plenty of marketing emails, why would they respond to yours? Reach out sounding like a normal human and they're way more likely to reply

cashmachine

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

have you seen this template work consistently with VPs & C-Suite?

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

Professional Day Ruiner

I don't hit c-suite that much. I tend to focus on directors and VP's. Every once and awhile I will for smaller companies. I haven't "officially" tracked it, but eyeballing it I feel like it has a similar connect rate

cashmachine

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

VPs & directors i’ve noticed to be good targets as well. glad to hear that echoed. thank you!

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

Professional Day Ruiner

for sure! I've always taken the approach of trying to get meetings with high influence people like that who aren't technically the dm's. In my experience they really are the DM in the end, they just don't have the authority to actually pull the trigger. But get them wanting your product and they'll either get the C-suite person involved for you, or take it to them for approval because that person trusts their judgement and they just need to get budget signed off on.

chig777

Valued Contributor

BDR

Cold outreach has been fucking toughhhh. With that said, I've had some luck by posting weekly on LinkedIn, small events, and those speed dating for vendors/cisos things..

I feel like the culture of security is just around paranoid people so it's hard to break through phones/emails (not to mention, they know how to block you out..)

Struggling with this myself..

cashmachine

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

yeah it’s a tough one man. trying to nail down cold email myself

SgtAE

WR Officer

Territory? Work in the DevSecOps space selling to CISO's, VP's of security etc selling application security scanning.

India is freaking wonderful for this niche, getting great conversations out of it.

Cold calling works for us in India.

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cashmachine

those of you in cybersecurity, what are your best prospecting methods?

27 comments

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