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This week I look at cybersecurity sales, developer content marketing, and fundraising pitches through a common lens: the importance of understanding your audience and putting them first. — Ana

Bridging the gap between cybersecurity vendors and buyers

Budget cuts caused by the economic downturn have caused a change in the priorities and mindsets of chief information security officers (CISOs). As security professionals begin to report to corporate boards, they need to understand how to do it and focus more on business than technique, says marketing expert Dani Woolf.

Woolf knows CISOs well; Having built her career in B2B technology marketing, she spent months interviewing cybersecurity buyers for her podcast before launching her own audience research agency, Audience 1st, to help vendors better understand their target.

A key challenge right now is for cybersecurity vendors to adapt to the new mindset of buyers, which Woolf believes will remain even after the market recovers. “There’s a big gap right now where vendors are adding more complexity to the security buyer’s job and don’t understand that simplicity is the goal.”

However, simplicity does not mean releasing one tool to replace them all. One of the main things buyers want to hear from a vendor, Woolf told me, is how well it’s integrating with their existing technology stack. “Because as a buyer, I can’t rip off what I have right now.”

Understanding CISOs

Read Anna Heim’s room originally published on TechCrunch



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