CyberChat

The Art of Selling Cybersecurity

The former CIO of HUD and the department's deputy CIO] sit down with Cyber Chat’s host, Sean Kelley, to talk about how vendors to the government should posit...

February 6, 2021 9:32 am

2 min read

Today’s cybersecurity marketplace is congested due to the government customer having more suppliers than opportunities for vendors. Former CIO of HUD, Gloria Parker and Deputy CIO of HUD, Kevin Cooke, sit down with Cyber Chat’s Host, Sean Kelley, how to position their offerings and their companies.
Parker is a political appointee in both the Clinton and Bush Administration’s book titled, “Billion Dollar Secret”; its goal is to help companies and individuals win business. When asked what inspired the book, Parker said “having sat on the CIO side of the fence for 10 years, I watched people come in, meet with me and really waste a lot of time. They wasted so much of my time, and the needs to understand are very simple things. If they just put a little work into preparing for the meeting, it would be more beneficial to them as well as importantly to the customer.” She went on to say “one part of [understanding] was teaching people how to sell it, as you can imagine, it was a very interesting transition to the government side, to sitting in a CIO seat, then [having] people come sell to me and watching all of the mistakes that they were making. So that inspired me to write the book, [Billion Dollar Secret]. I just felt like I’ve learned all these things and I should share this with others to help them to be a lot more successful.”
Respected Senior Executive of information technology, Kevin Cook, said, “So there are several steps [to selling it]. The first one is to do your homework, understand what the customer’s pain points are, what their needs are, and don’t waste the customer’s time. [Stop] coming in and asking them to do that homework for you. Once you understand the customer’s pain point, [find] what’s really bothering them, and then you really start to discuss those needs with them.”
Listeners who want to improve their business development skills and separate themselves from the competition be sure to listen to this edition of Cyber Chat. The conversation with Kevin and Gloria can be listened to on podcastone.com or on federalnewsnetwork.com