Tom Kanan is a nine-year veteran of business-to-business security sales. He’s an active member of OWASP and the Cloud Security Alliance who believes in deeply understanding his customer’s business needs. This episode focuses on improving the dynamics between security and sales teams, both internally and externally.
Key Takeaway 1: Salespeople See Confidential Data
Proprietary information exists across organizations, but sales teams see more sensitive information than other customer-facing roles. It’s essential to have policies in place to control how sensitive data moves through a company. This includes information exchanges with customers.
Key Takeaway 2: Scammers Target Salespeople During Crises
Times of crisis increase phishing’s effectiveness. For example, during the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, salespeople concerned about job security were likelier to fall for a social engineering attempt. It’s worthwhile to send phishing reminders during high-stress periods.
Key Takeaway 3: Reducing Sales Noise Requires Executive Support
Security teams receive an unmanageable amount of sales noise, furthering the divide between practitioners and vendors. Relationships will improve if salespeople receive technical training and research each company’s initiatives before initial outreach.
Changing the status quo, however, will require investors and executive leadership to adopt a qualitative approach that rewards meaningful interactions over quantity.
Ready to learn more from real experiences across the security industry? Check out our other episodes, available here.