Cyber Security Sales Training: The Future of the Industry

Every industry implements sales training. The more complex the industry, the more difficult it is to network—and the more critical sales training becomes.

Sales training isn’t just endless slideshows and technical documents. Sales training requires a certain threshold of understanding. Sales teams need to know their service offerings, just like the individuals, groups, or organizations that create these offerings.

Sales teams must take an extra step to explain these products and services to clients who do not share their in-depth knowledge. And when it comes to cybersecurity sales training, doing is almost always better than showing.

That’s why virtual IT labs are a powerful tool that your cybersecurity sales teams can leverage to provide personalized demos to customers, partners, and other stakeholders.

What is Important in Cyber Security Sales Training?

Sales training is not all alike. Cyber security sales training is unique in many ways. 

1. First, the level of risk. There’s a lot riding on the cyber security sales pitch. When your sales teams go out in front of prospects, they are meeting organizations who know they need to shore up their defenses, and are ready to hear how you can help. They recognize that they may be opening themselves up to compliance headaches, data breaches, and loss of business continuity if they choose the wrong solutions. 
2. Second, the technical nature of cyber security tools. Sales teams need to be great at explaining the value proposition of cybersecurity technology on a high level, but also be able to get into the details. How will this security tool integrate with the rest of the tech stack? How will information be visualized, and issues like alert fatigue be handled? 

Sometimes the best way to show prospects the value during a demo is to let them use the software themselves, hands-on. But especially with cybersecurity solutions, the risk of running a demo environment on the network can be immense. Look for solutions such as safe sandbox environments that can be run on the cloud, allowing prospects to get a feel for features and value before they commit. 

1. Finally, one of the unique parts of cyber security sales training in contrast to other forms of technology sales is that every industry will have its own vantage point, its own pain points as to why they need the software. If you’re selling a whiteboarding tool – everyone is using it for collaboration. However, some industries have more rigorous compliance regulations to keep to, or are held to a particularly high standard in terms of data privacy. Healthcare for example has a high percentage of legacy tools and technology to protect, while Tech companies may want something cloud-native. Being able to speak to all of these audiences with their own needs and challenges in mind is absolutely key. You may even want to spin up different environments that showcase the value of each group of prospects. 

Increase Training Outcomes with an Effective Cybersecurity Sales Strategy

Sales training requires two things to be successful: effort and time.

• You can measure time in terms of how quickly a solution can be implemented and tweaked, or how long it takes for employees to tackle the learning curve associated with adopting new technologies.
• Effort can be measured by how difficult it is for employees to implement solutions, especially complex ones that require advanced or specialized knowledge to operate.

With increasingly standardized training solutions such as those delivered through virtual labs, training can happen anywhere: during your commute, in the office, or even at home. Remote learning isn’t just becoming more popular—it’s also becoming more productive.

How to Sell Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is a hot topic, especially among business owners. Prospects don’t want to hear a list of your features, they want to see how your tool is going to enable them to do their jobs risk-free, streamlining issues such as access control, hybrid work environments, data management, and the risk of human error. 

Don’t just sell cybersecurity—sell solutions. Demonstrate to prospective and long-term clients how your products can help them succeed.

Best Practices for Cybersecurity Sales Pitches that Work

• Focus on the positives, not just the false positives (pun intended). The best sales pitch is short, gets straight to the point, and is informative.
• At a minimum, clients should walk away understanding the pain point, and knowing how cybersecurity can affect their business if neglected, and how your services can help them address such vulnerabilities.
• Cybersecurity is a crowded field. Be clear about why your products are better than what your competitors are offering.
• Be ready with the answers. Ensure you have a product breakdown, and ask Marketing to support you with a brochure or a one-pager they can take away. 

The Value of an Online Cybersecurity Demo

Demonstrations reinforce learning. Unless you see physical network resources—such as a modem, router, or server—you may think of computer communications and networking as “invisible.”

Demos help clients view how intangible products and services work, and the value cybersecurity provides their companies. A powerful demo can support the two kinds of buyers, those who buy with their hearts – being driven by emotion and the feeling of security, and those who buy with their minds – encouraged to convert because of the need to onboard specific technical capabilities. 

To make that happen, you need to show prospects the value of the software, and also tell the right story. A demo gives you the playground to make that happen, physically showing how the technology works in practice, while discussing its value during the presentation. To take it a step further, allow prospects to get hands-on with the demo, so they can fully immerse themselves in the value. Heart-buyers will leave the demo saying “Wow, I don’t want to risk being unprepared for that scenario.” Mind-buyers will say “That technology is impressive – I want it.” 

Improve Your 2023 Cyber Security Training Results With These 5 Best Practices

CloudShare: Powerful Cybersecurity Simulation Training and Virtual Labs for Cyber Security

With an ever-evolving threat landscape, cybersecurity isn’t a static achievement, but a moving target. Sales teams need to continually update their knowledge and skills. 

CloudShare offers virtual labs and training that can increase the success of the cybersecurity sales pitch, and allow your sales teams to give over both the in-depth technical capabilities and the right story to get the sale. 

Contact us to learn more about how our technologies and solutions can work for you and your sales team.

This post was originally published on December 2020 and updated on February 21, 2023