Unlock new revenue opportunities by getting security involved in the sales process

In our Super Cyber Friday event, "Hacking Security-Driven Sales: An hour of critical thinking about how to unlock revenue with your security program," we explored the critical role of security in bolstering the sales process, the impact of proactive security measures on sales, and the strategic use of compliance reports to drive sales and build trust. Joining us for this conversation were Faisal Khan, CCSK from Vanta and Steve Zalewski , co-host of Defense in Depth,

HUGE thanks to our sponsor, Vanta

Watch the full video here:

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Best quotes from our guests

“If most products are SaaS products, security has to be involved. Because for me to buy that product, I have to trust that company with my business data, and with my consumer data, my PII. If you can't convince me, that your security controls over that data is sufficient. There's no way I can buy you. So, it's not even whether I want you because of your capability, I just can't trust your controls.” - Steve Zalewski

“Security is pretty fundamental to the data protection concept of, ‘Customers are coming to us with the relative data. They're coming to us to interact with the platform.’ If we don't have a way to give them that comfort and really confidence that we're going to be secure with their data? when they give it to us, or even inexperienced when they're using our platform, we lose that trust and confidence in that overall relationship.” - Faisal Khan, Vanta

“People don't see security realizing that it's not responsible for buying the product, but it's accountable?to allow a product to be sold.” - Steve Zalewski

“Standard frameworks such as SOC 2 and ISO 27001 are just becoming that minimum baseline to be able to show that you take security pretty seriously and have a foundational program.” - Faisal Khan, Vanta

“You want to make sure that the conversations that you have with your sales team are not only equipping them with information to make sure they know what they're talking about from a security perspective, but also how you can insert security into the process early on. Maybe it's a slide, maybe it's a specific call, maybe you equip a technical solutions engineer or that account executive that's working with the necessary information to present.” - Faisal Khan, Vanta

Quotes from the chat room

“[As a vCISO serving sub-500 person orgs] I never ask for $X00,000 for security technology. I ask how much per customer a company is willing to spend to secure their product vs. how much they're willing to lose on an insecure product. Totally changes the conversation.” - ???????? Carlota S. , Pocket CISO

“Start with empathy, on both sides. Most sales teams don't take the time to learn about the challenges of that specific account you were working with. Most CISOs don't take the time to learn that sales people, especially in public companies, have metrics foisted on them from senior management that are at odds with how any normal human interaction should occur.” - Dutch Schwartz , Amazon Web Services (AWS)

“Ask your sales group for metrics on opportunities lost.? Look for any patterns related to security, compliance, privacy or trust where there may be an opportunity to close the gap.” - Duane Gran , Converge Technology Solutions Corp.

“Studies have shown that stock price rebounds after a breach, but for those who have been through the ring of fire know that after the breach your sales life cycle gets protracted and your security team devotes enormous time satisfying additional due diligence. The costs manifest in lost time and added effort.” - Duane Gran, Converge Technology Solutions