Is This a Vendor Dinner or an Escape Room?

Is This a Vendor Dinner or an Escape Room?

November 06, 2018

CISO | Security Vendor Relationship Series

This week's podcast episode

Is This a Vendor Dinner or an Escape Room?

Is This a Vendor Meeting or an Escape Room?

What you'll learn:

On this week's podcast, co-host Mike Johnson, CISO of Lyft, and our guest Richard Seiersen, former CISO of LendingClub, discuss the following:

  • Be wary of inviting existing customers to vendor dinners. CISOs don't necessarily like being used as pawns to sell your product in the guise of a vendor dinner. Make sure you're very clear as to what the intention is for the invite.

  • CISO are not necessarily moved by industry rankings. Saying that your company appears over here in the magic quadrant, or that you're "market leading" in some area may actually be a detractor to some CISOs, like my co-host.

  • Customer lists can help in selling, but only through association, not brand recognition. If you're publishing a customer list, especially in a presentation, CISOs do like to see customers who have similar environments. Also, they're also looking for names and logos where they already have a personal connection with a trusted advisor. 

  • Initiate relationships through open source contributions. When you participate in the open source community, you're building a relationship through your contributions. If potential customers use a vendor's open source product it can open the door to further conversations about the vendor's products. 

  • If you're going to participate in the open source community, you must commit. Our guest Richard Seiersen points out that you shouldn't go into open source lightly. If you fail to support your open source contributions or you remove something from open source, and people are dependent on it, they're going to hate you. Now you've got a much bigger problem.

  • Reducing your threat rate (created and imposed). A strong metric to measure the effectiveness of your security environment is your ability to reduce your rate of threats and vulnerabilities. Are vulnerabilities escaping from one level to the next to increase your risk? Can you measure that constant rate and what are you doing to maintain or reduce that rate of threats and vulnerabilities?  

Special thanks to this week's sponsor,

. Visit their site! We love our sponsors and so should you!

Axonius: Simple Asset Management for Cybersecurity

 TOMORROW (Wednesday) and THURSDAY in Southern California Business Networking Pickup Lines 

This is your last alert to let you know that this super fun workshop is happening tomorrow and Thursday, and it's FREE. It's all part of Zoho's half-day seminar on using humor in sales.San Diego: Wednesday, Nov. 7th, 2018 - REGISTERLos Angeles: Thursday, Nov. 8th, 2018 - REGISTERLearn more about "Business Networking Pickup Lines."Here's our SECOND 60-second promo video. This one's also fun.If you're interested in bringing this workshop to your company or event, Just connect with me on LinkedIn or REPLY to this email.

How to Make a Huge Impact in the Security Community with Zero Marketing

How to Make a Huge Impact in the Security Community with Zero Marketing

Since I interview many CISOs, I am often asked how to pitch a CISO. While I have provided advice in past articles, I'm getting the sense that the question is looking for a magical combination of words that will force a CISO's hand to hit the REPLY button.

If you approach the issue that way, the problem is often not what you're saying, but the means of engagement. 

The reality is you'll garner a lot more success if you go to where your potential buyers are and listen to their needs. This is exactly what Jeff Williams did with his companies Aspect Security and Contrast Security. He was finding less and less success with traditional marketing, so he reapportioned those dollars into open source and related efforts as a means to give back to the security community. 

For any of you eager to find more leads or a better way to connect to CISOs,

. It'll open your eyes that the "pay attention to me route" may not be the best tactic.

2019 PODCAST SPONSORSHIPS ARE OPEN

We have begun selling sponsorships for 2019.If you're still interested in getting involved in the CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Series in 2018, we have opportunities around articles, videos, webinars, and this very newsletter for this year and next. Email me and we can discuss details. Just connect with me on LinkedIn or REPLY to this email.

Three Best Moments from “STAND BACK! We’re Plugging in USB Drives We Found on the Ground”

Three Best Moments from “STAND BACK! We’re Plugging in USB Drives We Found on the Ground”

from the October 30, 2018 episode of the CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast with our sponsored guest Dean Sysman, CEO of Axonius. These three best moments include what you should do with a USB drive you find on the ground, common vendor behavior after a breach, and selling to two different kinds of CISOs. Check out the

if you missed it last week.

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