Latest / Cyber Go-To-Market Talk: The Cybersecurity Podcast About Cyber Sales, Marketing & Revenue Growth / 188: How to get first meetings using VC programs, CISO networks, resellers & sales networks

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188: How to get first meetings using VC programs, CISO networks, resellers & sales networks · Cyber Go-To-Market Talk: The Cybersecurity Podcast About Cyber Sales, Marketing & Revenue Growth

• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Sales Bluebird podcast where we help cybersecurity startups grow sales faster.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Andrew Monahan, and today we're talking about getting first meetings.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it's probably the hardest thing today to do.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Getting customers is one thing.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Getting their attention at the start of the sales cycle is really quite challenging.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's 3,000 plus vendors in cybersecurity all trying to get this attention of the same teams and the same security leaders out there.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's tough, but unfortunately, often our default reaction is if we don't have enough pipe and we're not getting enough first meetings, let's send more emails.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let's send more messages in LinkedIn.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let's make more calls and bombard these folks again and again and again.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And frankly, brute forcing it like this is just not working anymore.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, recently the LinkedIn CISO stopped taking external calls and emails because he said it was just too much.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: The flow hitting his inbox was just way too much to deal with.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I know personally, having talked to some CISOs recently, that they're of the same mind.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Some just never take any calls and emails and let their team deal with it, or they just rely on recommendations from other like-minded CISOs.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you think about it, what we really want to be doing is talking with prospects who are more likely to at least be open to our new approach, if not already thinking that our approach that they've heard about is actually quite interesting and compelling for them to pay attention to.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully before they come to meet with us, uh they've got some idea what we're all about.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: They've either read about what we're doing, um, they've maybe heard about us on podcasts or at conferences, or perhaps most powerful of all, they've heard about us from someone they know and trust.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And when I think about groups they know and trust, uh perhaps there's four groups that we should be thinking about that might be able to deliver us first meetings that are of value to getting them on as customers.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll go through these one by one uh just now.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is the VC community.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, this matters a lot.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the idea of working with VCs to get meetings, I I know is not new, right?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um and but we should be thinking about VCs is not just about advice, not just about getting some money, and not just about making some introductions here or there.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: What I think we should be doing is thinking about the VCs who have a program or a process to get early stage startups those first meetings with their ideal prospects.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's the difference between doing some introductions when we ask and actually having a whole program and a process that delivers that sort of value.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a good program will make introductions to prime CESOs, the ones that from companies that we've heard of that are forward thinking in our area and who want to work with early stage startups like ours.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: A good program, a good resource inside of VC will not only help broker the meeting, but they'll also attend the meeting and then coach you and also coach the prospect uh about the meeting before and after it as well.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a much greater chance of having that connection that uh they've got problems that we can solve and they understand what those are and they understand how we can help them uh solve these problems.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And a good program I've seen from different VCs might include some of these things.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: They run many events like dinners or little get-togethers or events where someone speaks that from their community that attracts their network of CISOs into a room, and then they have their portfolio companies attend that and they do the instructions like that.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Another might be where they actually run full-scale conferences, where it might be one or two days, they invite in their portfolio companies to meet with, if not speak, uh meet with CISOs, if not speak, at these conferences.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Some VCs actually have executive briefing centers.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: I worked at one company uh a few years back where we basically had someone almost camped out at the briefing center of the VC full time because almost every day they had Fortune 500, Fortune 1000 IT teams coming in for briefings uh from their portfolio companies.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we would get a 20-minute slot and we had one person who just knew how to do it again and again and again.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then what I heard of recently was actually VCs doing briefing tours.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is mainly for Israel, where an Israeli VC would actually fly in people from the US.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it might be a group of CISOs, but also it might be a group of people in the community, as it were.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then you know, in that week-long trip, they'll meet a whole bunch of early stage companies.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: They might take them on um tourist type tours as well, uh, and give them an experience that they'll remember, but also they'll, of course, they get the connection with those early stage companies.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I think thinking about which VCs we partner with beyond just money advice, into really thinking about those that have the program that's going to drive value for us.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: The second group is a little below that, where there's actually groups of SISOs that are connected by someone in the middle who is doing it for as a business.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: So they'll they'll they'll have their group of 30 or 50 or 60 SISOs that they know very well.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: They'll actually do things just for that group of SISOs in terms of their development or you know, briefings, things like that.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: But what they'll also do as part of that is bring in some vendors to talk with and meet with, often one-on-one, uh, some of those SISOs.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, they pay for their network by charging vendors for access to this, these SISOs.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so what they do is they create these this group and then they they nurture the network that they have.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the good thing about them is they tend to be high-quality people at high-quality companies, right?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: So they they the CISOs like working with this central person because they're very thoughtful about their development and their success.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And they bring in cool companies to meet with them.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: They learn from that experience.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when they do that, when they connect the vendor, their client who's the vendor with the CISO, they'll prime the CISO about why, right?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: They'll say, listen, I know you've got some projects you told me about uh for this year.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: I know the big initiatives you're trying to run.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: I also know how you think about the cybersecurity world that we're in.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: I've actually got this company that I'd like you to meet with, and they're gonna hit your one and two main points, and they might even support this big initiative that you you talked about, and therefore you should meet with them.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then what they'll do as well is prime the vendor to say, this is why uh you might want to meet with this company and what they're doing, the the the main points to hit when they're talking with.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in terms of what it means for you as a vendor trying to get in there, you know, some of them are a little bit selective, right?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: They might already have competing companies and therefore they might not be a fit, but you know, there's a group of a whole group of these companies that do this.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: In terms of how they charge you, it's usually one or more of these three things.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: They might have a monthly fee to work in their community.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, they might charge per meeting.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then the third one is they might take a percentage of any deal that happens.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's actually a combination of two or three of those factors what makes up their pricing model.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: So look out for them about how they make money and make sure you're you're okay with that.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: The third group I was thinking about were resellers.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I know there's a ton of resellers, and the idea of working with resellers is not new, but let me give a little bit of a spin to this that uh make it more successful for you.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons why they're they're valuable is that in the vendor world, vendors and also vendor reps come and go all the time.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: You just look through the tenure of vendor salespeople.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and often it's just two or three years, they move to a new company and they start again, and they might even move to different territories.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Rather than being a territory rep, they might become a major account manager or a global account manager.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: My point is that uh that's a very fluid world.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: And yet when you look at resellers, they tend to be focused on one thing, either a geography or maybe a type of company.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the sellers, the reps at the resellers tend to have long, much longer uh tenure uh in that area, in that territory that they're working in.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: It gives them the chance to build up the trust and build up the relationships that perhaps the vendor reps don't have.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the challenge is that uh they're not short of vendors to work with, right?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's 3,000 vendors all trying to get various aspects of their attention.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: But um, some of them will actually want to work with new, interesting, innovative companies and bring those to their clients, bring that to their customer base because it shows them up in a good light, right?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm looking at it for you.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm bringing in fresh approaches that might change how you do your program, and therefore they're elevating their stature in there.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: But one tip I'd have for you is I think it's important to get the relationship with the company, the reseller company, but really where success happens is down at the rep level.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you almost need to go rep by rep to work with them.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because some reps will say, well, I've got my clients over here and I've got all these renewals teed up, and they might be a little bit scared actually of bringing in some new company that might upset the renewal base they've built up, right?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Or they just know that uh in that little world, the companies they're working with don't care about what you offer, right?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And they're not going to go out there and try and take it to them.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: But for every rep that's like that, there's gonna be one or two that are a bit more forward-thinking, right?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: You might be more willing to say, yeah, I'm looking for fresh ideas and I like the space you're in.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that my clients have mentioned that buzzword a few times.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So therefore, you know, why don't I bring you in to talk about uh what you do?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: So resellers could be a source of meetings uh for you.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: But just know that you know they're not gonna drive revenue for you.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: In my mind, they don't make markets, right?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: What they do is tend to be mostly responsive.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, if you if you get their interest going, they might take you in.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Just know that it's gonna require work from you as well.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a case of saying they're just gonna manually produce first meetings for you.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then the final group to think about is when you're hiring salespeople, think about those that bring a Rolodex with them.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this can be a two-edged sword, right?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: I get this, right?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Some people will overclaim their Rolodex.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some people will rely too much on the Rolodex and then not go further afield.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: So you do have to tread carefully, but it's one data point to think about when you're hiring a salesperson.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Can they get us a certain amount of first meetings based on their experiences so far?
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: So a couple of things to look out for.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: One is um look for tenure in territory.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Going back to what I was saying before, have they dotted around a lot, right?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or if are they the person that just knows all the big companies and the security teams in the Miami area, right?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Or the San Francisco area, whatever it might be.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And uh they can talk through who they know and how well they know them and what they know about them.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Second thing to look out look out for, are they invested in the community, right?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Are they someone that goes to ISSA events?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Are they even one of the leaders in ISSA and therefore they're known amongst that group?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen uh sellers do that.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: One trick to use, and I've actually done this when hiring salespeople, is I made it clear that I want to get someone who has a network that we can use, right?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And what I'll say to them at some point, maybe first or second time we chat, is I'll say, look, you know, that's important to me.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'll go into this.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'll say, I would never do this, but let's say, for example, I gave you an offer letter, and one of the conditions of employment was to have X number of meetings with senior security leaders in your network within the first 60 days, let's say, right?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: How would you feel about that?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting getting the uh getting the response back from people.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, how they feel about it, right?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Even though you told them I would never do it, some people get very nervous, right?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna have to think about, well, why did they get nervous about this whole idea?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second thing to ask is, you know, when I said X number within 60 days, what number would you be comfortable committing to?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: To say you could get this number of uh first meetings first within 60 days if you join the company.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: And again, it's interesting watching, you know, what reaction you get from them.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, some people I've literally had said, oh, I would get three.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking, three in the first 60 days is not very many.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think I could probably get more than that just by by networking and and doing some outreach myself, right?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then you get some that are way too quick to say, oh, I would get 20.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you just know there's not much kind of thought behind what that really means.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: What I was most impressed with when I was doing this were the ones that said, well, you can see them kind of thinking and almost like listing out names in their in their mind or counting on their fingers, get that person, I can get this company, and I can approach them, and you know, da da da da.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And after like a level of thought, they'll say, I think they're 14, I think I could commit to 14, right?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, that's someone who's a very thoughtful uh about how they approach things, but also they're probably pretty realistic about what they can actually deliver on in though in those first 60 days.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, when you hire someone and you've had that conversation, the conversation the first day that you hire them is I remember you said you would get 14.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: How can we help you deliver on that?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: The tone should not be let's step back and watch them deliver on that.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, what can we do to help them get those first 14 meetings?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what's going to be for of value to us, but also to the seller as they come on board, getting the traction going early.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe they need to know, well, what do I say to my network?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't need to learn the product for two weeks, right?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: If at the end of the first day, I knew how to pick up the phone and say, hey, John, I joined a new company.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is what they do, this is why you you might be interested.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get some lunch.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: What are those things in the middle, right?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: So help them with that.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second thing I would I would think about to help them is let's say they did get that lunch with their buddy, right?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: The person they worked with before, but and no one else from the company could show up, how could they handle that conversation, right?
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you kind of gear their onboarding towards that, right?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Can they ask the right sorts of questions?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: What are the gotches that they could be aware of?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: How did when they say, how do you compete with this company or that company?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Can we do a simple, you know, one-liner that they could use just to get through that first meeting?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: So a bit of a tangent there about how to bring them up.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, I think it's important to think about the people you you hire and the network they bring.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, for example, uh a few episodes back and looked through the website to find it, I interviewed Eric Apple, who's the head of sales at Island.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that Eric did was bring in people he knew, first of all, he knew and trusted.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: But secondly, those that he knew had been in their territories for a long time and delivered on really, really solid first meetings with high-profile SISOs and high-profile companies.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: So there you are.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Four groups of people or organizations or four ways to get meetings if you're at a startup.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you want to get a list of some of the organizations that I know of that fit into these categories, just send me an email, andrew at unstoppable.do.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Andrew at unstoppable.do.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's do at the end uh not.com.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: So send me an email there, or even if you want to just text me directly at 303-9560024, and I'll send you over just a one-pager with uh some of the companies that I know fit into these categories I talked about.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe in the podcast player that you're listening to this episode on, and leave a review at salesbluebird.com slash r.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Salesbluebird.com slash letter.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining me today, and I'll see you next time on Sales Bluebird.