On this episode of Cyber GTM Talk, the podcast for cybersecurity go-to-market leaders, Ken Powell explains how cyber sales teams beat their most common competitor: the buyer who decides to do nothing. His rule is that every deal has to answer why the buyer would do anything, why now, and what happens if they do nothing, before a rep is allowed to pitch. He also shares the account research, the personal stakes buyers carry, and the deeper conversations that make understanding those answers possible.
In this episode
- Why Ken treats Do Nothing as the real competitor, and what it usually means when a deal dies to it
- The three questions every deal must answer before a rep can say "why me"
- Why a buyer's stated need is the wrong thing to react to, and the question to ask instead
- The personal stakes: buyers who got fired for late, over-budget projects, and why Ken shows quick wins inside the customer's fiscal year
- Ask about payback, not ROI
- The one-page account plan, and the two days it took one senior seller to pin down a CEO's vision
- Why Ken builds the business case for his champion
- Why saying "that's nothing we do" builds credibility in cybersecurity sales
About the guest
Ken Powell is the founder of Sales Method and an operating partner at CXO Partners. A longtime enterprise and cyber sales leader, he has sold and led teams at Oracle, SAP, McAfee, Halliburton's Landmark and Honeywell, and he is the author of Raise the Bar. Step Up. The Habits of Great Sales Athletes, with a second book, Own the Account, out now.
Ken's book: Raise the Bar. Step Up. The Habits of Great Sales Athletes (Amazon)
Notable quotes
- "...why would they do anything? Why now? What happens if they do nothing? I call that why not?"
- "You should have started on that first call because you were asking, why do anything? Why now? What happens if you do nothing?"
- "...losing a deal to do nothing is not an option."
Chapters
00:00 Intro
02:48 69% of sellers miss quota, 60% of deals lost to do nothing
05:12 Why cleaning the pipeline is a symptom
06:43 Modern BANT and grading every opportunity
10:50 Plan your call, and build the champion's business case
14:06 Getting a sales team to buy into new habits
20:39 Commoditization and believing in your product
24:29 Why do anything, why now, why not, why me
26:34 Why the stated need is a trap
30:50 Payback over ROI
32:35 Revenue play or cost play
37:25 Account planning and the CEO's strategy
50:58 Overrated or underrated
57:32 The $4M commit cut to $200K
Cyber GTM Talk helps go-to-market leaders at cybersecurity companies grow sales, from start up sales to scale.
The Cyber Go-To-Market Talk is the show for cybersecurity sales leaders, founders, CROs, and go-to-market operators looking to improve cyber sales performance and build more predictable revenue growth. Hosted by Andrew Monaghan, founder of Unstoppable.do, covering cyber sales leadership, revenue leadership, sales onboarding, forecasting, pipeline generation, and cybersecurity go-to-market execution.
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