Happy security leaders - Winning team

I know this CISO and CIO of a billion$ fin-tech company as a prospect in late 2019, who are now a happy customer. We are proud of what we did in this 1.5 years.

About 20 months ago, they were evaluating number of players in the market to on-board security services - Best fit player with an option to tailor all domains of security services. On top of it, they were also undergoing organisational change for future growth, New Ways of Working (NWOW) that will impact their operations & culture.

Intro call went fine. After the intro call, we’d planned for a day long workshop to walk them through the individual offerings contextually (not a generic one). We had all domain experts, sales guys (with zero knowledge in the security) in the mix, And I was leading the workshop. Some security team members have excelled during the workshop, couple of technical team member presentation was near adequate. Closed the workshop and got into internal regroup call with everyone. Business vertical SVP appeared in the call and told us -“Hey, I get a sense that we as a team do not have sufficient experience to strike a deal of this size. With the proceedings of the day, I do not have courage to go back to the prospect immediately. However, I’ll speak to the CIO later and find out”. Everyone maintained silence.

Very next day, we were going through the questions and feedback from all the attendees. Something flashed in my mind. If I could pursue the thoughts, I can instil confidence and get this prospect to sign the deal with us. 

After couple of days, there was a follow-up video call. CIO (Sponsor) and CISO in the call. We understood that it is going to be a decision making call. Sales team trying to present things about the brand, commitment and our market presence etc., I knew that it wasn’t opening any talking. Situation was grim. The call was handed over to me. And I said:

[Me] I truly accept that few areas we just ran over and couldn’t get the message across to yourselves. However, I believe that this team can deliver to suit to your need. [Everyone believe that the following became a game changer.]

We are committed to build services for you that will: 

1.Save your time to focus on business enablers which otherwise will be spent in investigating into details;

2.Support you to be ready with data points to demonstrate ROIs to the board;

3.Proactively notify and speak/appraise you with detailed information so that you are well prepared to receive leadership calls in an unforeseen situations.

Contract was awarded with very stringent SLA terms. Team wasn’t fully prepared, remote working challenged with logistics. Still, we as a team stood by our commitment, completely changed the perception and transformed their security services. Within weeks we started to receive appreciations. CISO and CIO are happy about hearing positive feedbacks from their peers too. Soon, they were also open for business in other areas too. 

Security is an enabler for both - the Client and Service provider. What have we done? - To be continued in my next article