30 Security Vendor Behaviors That Set Off a CISO’s BS Detector

I had never seen such disdain and aggravation from a CISO. Richard Rushing (@SecRich), CISO of Motorola Mobility, sent me an email with a litany of vendor pitches. Each one punctuated with vitriolic commentary and frustration. It appears a lot of companies will fully protect his network and automatically detect threats. Rushing’s diatribe was so vicious that any security vendor would be horrified to know their marketing emails were eliciting this reaction. Now I’m telling you. ‘Tried and true’ marketing and sales techniques can often be irritants to very wise security buyers. They’re not fooled. Worse, they’re turned off. Read on for sales techniques and claims you should avoid when communicating to a security professional. For each item to avoid, I asked security professionals how they’d prefer to be engaged. This is a long article, but it’s jammed with gems. Take it slowly.