June 2, 2023 - Ascender Insights - Selling to the CISO [Event Recap]

Joe Huber

Greg Surla and @John Boney delivered such a brilliant discussion to help people selling to the Chief Information Security Officer! It was filled to the end with great stories, tips, and takeaways that you'll be able to use when selling to this highly technical c-level professional!

Greg told us very specific things we can be doing to help streamline our process while building credibility. John then took a lot of the things Greg was giving us and tied it back directly to MEDDICC and how you'll be able to implement best practices during this process.

https://ascender-1.wistia.com/medias/cnsqpy6hsu

Joe Huber

The biggest "wow" moments that came from the audience:

• Doing discovery is really obvious, but going that next level around the specific problems that plague their business is going to be vital when looping in someone with such a keen understanding of their tech stack as someone like the CISO or CTO. You're talking to someone who is very familiar with both the technical and business problems.
  • It's also not enough to assume the issues they face. It might seem like something happening in their industry is the easy answer, but this business might be facing a very unique problem. Spend time asking questions and not assuming anything.
• The sale involving a CISO is almost never limited to just the CISO. You're going to need their buy-in, but it will be a part of a "collective yes". Find out who else needs to be looped in and at what part of the process that usually is. Working your way to multi-thread on a deal like this could be the difference between winning and losing the deal.
• A common theme across all of the C-level folks has been "politeness" and "being human".
  • Be genuine! They know you're there to sell something, so being genuine and real about it can be a separator, especially if you're selling from a crowded marketplace.
• Position yourself as a partner, not a vendor.
  • There's a great story that starts at timecode [29:39] where Greg talks about how someone won his trust because they didn't just tell him what the product does, but how Greg's team would be supported long after the sale. The salesperson went from positioning a solution to a problem to highlighting how they'd do that and become a team. It wouldn't just be Greg's team going it alone.

What about you?! What were your biggest takeaways?!