The Phish - Recruiting Cybersecurity Sales and Marketing Talent

The Phish newsletter is just a quick quarterly take on the cybersecurity sales and marketing environment. The competition, the salaries, compensation, and benefits and so much more. Come along for the ride and let us see what we can catch.

Marketing is King

With the pandemic going on year two, the need for knowledgeable marketing resources with ABM, demand generation capability is skyrocketing across North America. With the inability of sales resources to make direct calls to clients, a significant reduction of in person events, many sales organizations are struggling to meet their numbers. With that being the case, the need for experienced marketing resources who know how to build leads and monetize from a distance has increased dramatically. 

We are seeing a huge demand for marketing searches and marketing salaries are going up dramatically as the competition heats up. Diversity marketing searches are also way up and many candidates that we are speaking to have just made a new career move or in the process of making one. Here is some advice for you. Keep track of the marketing talent you have, nurture it and make sure you know how to help them achieve their career aspirations.

Candidates in charge

It is a candidate’s market currently and your team better be ready with a responsive and timely interview and closing process. 

Recently I had two amazing sales candidates presented to a mid-sized client of mine (I have been hiring a lot of candidates for them). The candidates were eager to work for the company, were within the salary expectations and I knew from my experience, my client would hire them. But guess what? My clients internal process got bogged down, they did not respond to the candidates quickly enough for interview times and dates and after a week and half of trying to get my client to interview them, the candidates accepted roles with competitors. My client once they finally got around to it, were disappointed and asked me to keep searching for more great candidates. But guess what? Opportunity lost, productivity time lost, great candidates lost.

Stay sharp, the investment in new talent comes at a cost to you and your organization, to your reputation, so stick to a clear winning formula. Some tips:

· Respond to good resumes/referrals within a day

· Set up a first interview within 2-3 days

· Set up 2nd interviews no more than 2-3 days after that

· Final interviews within another 2-3 days

· Verbal/final offers within 1-2 days of last interview.

The whole process can be done within 2 weeks. Make sure you have a clearly defined agreed to process and then ensure you have the resources to interview and always close. Make it a priority, not a secondary one. Great companies can close within 7 days. What kind of company are you?

How to catch the attention of senior sales and marketing executives

When looking for executive talent, cold calls or emails rarely work. What works is referrals. Candidates, active or not love to be referred by a friend or colleague for a top position. They respect the opinions of their peers and see it as an opportunity that is worth their while. Most of my senior searches are all closed by referrals as my network is vast and the people, I know love to help others in their network or individuals who they see have a lot of potential. Make sure the search firm you hire is well connected if you are looking to do senior searches, it will pay off.

The absurdity of too much focus on cybersecurity experience

The clients that are winning the cyber wars for talent are open to a diversity of thoughts on what makes the perfect candidate. Many of my clients are looking for salespeople without cybersecurity sales experience. They want great salespeople, with technology or SaaS experience, who are enthusiastic and quick learners. Companies are to focussed on multiyear cybersecurity experience, especially in the entry level sales roles but even in many senior ones are making a huge mistake in not considering top sales talent. Sales is a transferable skill and if you equip someone with the tools and the support from a great leader, they will make the transition. Most of my clients are now taking this approach and the results speak for themselves.

Remain competitive, consider talent from all sources and backgrounds.