He Told His CEO 'Don't Hire Me' — Then Built a Cybersecurity Sales Playbook That Scaled to 30 States
Cyber GTM PodcastJune 22, 202600:40:00

He Told His CEO 'Don't Hire Me' — Then Built a Cybersecurity Sales Playbook That Scaled to 30 States

Jarrett Benavidez had zero experience in the SLED market when an old friend who was the CEO of @LumuTechnologies asked him to lead North America sales. He literally told the CEO not to hire him. Two years later, his team has cracked a repeatable sales process across 30+ states, starting from a single $800 deal at a tiny rural school district.

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Sponsored by Unstoppable.do - Sales effectiveness programs for cybersecurity sales teams: https://www.unstoppable.do/
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In this episode, Jarrett talks about:

→ How he mapped an unfamiliar ecosystem from scratch when he had no contacts and no customers

→ The "network effect": his framework for turning one happy customer into a pipeline machine

→ Why most sellers think they're networking but are actually leaving massive value on the table

→ How to get customers selling for you when you're not in the room

→ What he learned opening Latin America for Trustwave that still drives his playbook today

→ The discipline required to pick your next vertical without spreading too thin

If you're a sales leader at an early-stage cybersecurity company trying to break into a new market, build pipeline from nothing, or figure out how to make references actually work, this one's for you.

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🎙️ Jarrett Benavidez is VP of Sales, North America at Lumu Technologies. He's spent 25+ years in cybersecurity sales at companies including BeyondTrust, BlueVoyant, Trustwave, and IBM Internet Security Systems. He holds an MA from Stanford GSB and a BA from the University of Michigan.

🔗 Connect with Jarrett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarrettbenavidez/

🔗 Learn more about Lumu: https://lumu.io