This week, Wade Wells joins us to talk about being on the board of BSides San Diego, being a brand ambassador, and being on a podcast—all while also being a mentor and working his day job. Gianna and Maria ask Wade about his research workflow and why marketing to CISOs isn’t always the best route for leads. Tune in for a mini-lesson on what the “pyramid of pain” is in cybersecurity and to hear how Wade picked up some valuable cybersecurity marketing tips from working at In-N’-Out. 

Timecoded Guide:

[11:19] Searching for new products and evaluating them 

[13:06] The significance of POV (Point of Value)

[16:24] Marketing to the CISO’s team

[17:36] Integration and why it’s important 

[23:36] Wade’s favorite part about his job 

Researching new products

With the market being saturated with products, it can get tedious, sifting through everything online. Wade has spent a lot of time researching products and Maria asks him about his workflow. First, he says that he lists what they’re good and not so good at and evaluates from there. He goes through Google, Twitter, and LinkedIn and pings people about the product, seeking more information. Wade also evaluates through POV for every product and his company tests each one before they put it to use. 

 “So the first thing we'll do is we'll talk to them, we'll go through and understand: what does it do? How does it do it? ”

Why marketing to the CISO isn’t always the best route

Maria stresses to Wade that marketers are taught to seek out the CISO. Wade offers some insight into more effective marketing routes. In practice, Wade says that it’s often a team that will decide whether or not a particular product would be worth it in their company—and that the CISO just signs it off. So, often, targeting an audience made up of team members rather than only the CISO is a much more effective method of marketing.

“It may come down to they just do the check mark to okay, but if we're the ones in the trenches using the product every day, it better be us who really like it.”

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Links:

Follow Wade on LinkedIn.

Reach out to Wade at [email protected]

Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

Follow Gianna on LinkedIn.

Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn.

Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.