Road to RSA 2020 Ep.02 - Sales and Customer Success

Thomas: Welcome back to the Cybrary podcast this week. We're going on road to RSA. I'm here with our customer success and sales team. You guys want to introduce yourselves? Let's go around the horn, start with Gunner.

Gunner: Yeah, absolutely. I'm Gunner Kerr. I'm the Senior Enterprise Account Executive here at Cybrary. Super excited to hit RSA.

Danyelle: I'm Danyelle Wilson. I'm the manager of our Customer Success teams here at Cybrary and I can't wait for RSA.

Scott: I'm Scott. I'm a Sales Development Representative here at Cybrary. I've been on the team for about six months, so I am very excited to join everyone at RSA.

Thomas: Awesome.

Danyelle: Alright you got a newbie.

Thomas: Yeah. Very new Scott. Well, let's kind of start with the obvious, I mean, has anybody been to RSA before?

Danyelle: I have not been.

Thomas: No?

Danyelle: No.

Scott: I have not.

Thomas: I haven't either.

Gunner: I have been

Thomas: Gunner, the only one, okay.

Gunner: No, I went last year. It was an incredible experience to be able to go to my first RSA last year, learned a lot. I'm super excited about what we are doing here at Cybrary and what we're going to be bringing to RSA this year. We're taking it to a whole nother level. Super excited about it.

Thomas: Okay, cool. Well, yeah, let's just kind of go from there. I mean, so we'll start with Danyelle. I mean, what are you excited about RSA since you haven't been before, like this year, what are you looking forward to?

Danyelle: You know, my favorite part about these conferences is the booth. I love the booth. I love meeting people, doing on the network, setting them up with kind of the sales demos and the sales reps, letting them understand our product a little better, and then giving out all the swag, you know, they love our T-shirts.

Thomas: Swag's a big thing.

Danyelle: Come see me at the booth. I'll get you a T-shirt

Thomas: Alright.

Gunner: Nice.

Danyelle: But yeah, I'm really excited about it, meeting some of our customers in person. It really helps build those relationships stronger so definitely trying to set some meetings up with some of our current business clients out there

Thomas: Okay.

Danyelle: Hopefully I'll get them some swag in person and get some meetings done so.

Thomas: Yeah, okay, Scott.

Scott: Yeah absolutely, yeah, so this not even just being my first time going to RSA, my first conference at all. So I'm, I mean, I'm really excited to learn from Gunner who's obviously a seasoned vet, Danyelle and the rest of the whole sales team, manning the booth, trying to set up meetings for the whole sales team, networking, starting to build that brand and, you know, try and get myself out there as much as possible.

Thomas: Yeah. I mean, that's kinda what the conferences are all about

Danyelle: Right.

Thomas: is just kind of getting the recognition, name recognition, meeting people, talking to people. Gunner, I mean, what are you excited about having been before.

Gunner: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I'm excited about a lot of things this year, with last year, you know, not knowing really what's so expect. I was always told, you know, RSA is the big conference you got to go to it. You know, that's where everyone is. It's what everyone does and so being able to go out there and pretty much almost, I guess, tripling the amount of people that we are going to have out there. I mean, the depth that we're bringing to RSA this year is super exciting around you know, we have the booth that Danielle was talking about. So we have a nice booth or swag that we're going to be able to have, you know, which is huge brand awareness. I mean, having our brand out there and taking it to another level is super important, but we're also doing a co-sponsored event with Digital shadows so having a networking event where we can have current clients, prospects and just you know, other individuals from, from different networks come in and join us for an event, you know, we have you Thor. We have you there doing podcasts, so we're super,

Thomas: Yep.

Gunner: Super, you know, thrilled to have you join in. You know, now that we have creative services, being able to do podcasts and interview current you know, clients and prospects and, industry-leading specialists, and then also Sam's there as well.

Thomas: Yep.

Gunner: I mean, building out our community network, we laid out certain or we, what 3x star, our catalog, in 2019 with all of the courses and labs and assessments and we're really excited to have Sam there to build that out there, RSA, so a lot of different things are building, and it's leading to a big, big, big thing that we're going to be talking about at RSA.

Thomas: Major.

Gunner: So make sure you stay in tune. We have a big thing coming that's going to be announced.

Danyelle: Yeah. Our business customers are going to be so excited about our upcoming release.

Gunner: Yes

Danyelle: You know it's really catered for all of our business customers, but current clients will definitely see the value in this new surprise.

Thomas: Yeah. I mean, how does that go into you know, with meetings and stuff that you're scheduling now? I mean, are you kind of letting people know or just kind of letting them know something's on the horizon? You're definitely gonna want to meet with us and take a look at what we're going to be unveiling there.

Gunner: Yeah. You know, I'm reaching out to a lot of different individuals and just say, you know we gotta meet, I got something to tell you. I got something good and you're going to love it and it's sticking and people are scheduling meetings. They're wanting to grab coffee. They want to grab a drink. They want to come do our event or they want me to come to their event and talk to, you know, not just them, but other executives from their company so yeah.

Danyelle: Yeah. We're definitely driving that momentum right now. We're definitely trying to help them see, hey, come see us at RSA but luckily a lot of our business customers and prospects are already attending RSA.

Thomas: Yeah.

Danyelle: You know, it's such a known conference in the industry. You're almost like missing out if you're not there so

Thomas: Yeah.

Danyelle: We have representatives from a bunch of our business customers going to be out there. So we're definitely excited to launch our new product and

Thomas: Almost

Danyelle: See, almost gave us away but definitely excited to kind of meet with everybody. We have like Gunner was saying that Digital shadows party where I'm able to give some VIP passes out to some of our business clients we can definitely have some relationship building done there with any of, still reaching out to our, to more clients, trying to see if anybody else will be there so we can get more things booked with a ease.

Thomas: Yeah, I mean speaking of maybe what's the best way for people to contact y'all in the weeks kind of leading up to RSA if they do want to meet with you or, you know, talk to you about, I mean, what's the best way to reach each of you.

Danyelle: You can email us all individually of, you can always email support@cybrary.it It'll always get directed to the right person. If you need something a little more general, but each of us, our emails, our best way of contact, but you can always connect with us on LinkedIn. Gunner has a huge presence on LinkedIn.

Scott: I'm working on it.

Danyelle: We're all trying to definitely keep our networking going but if you do, or if you are friends with us on LinkedIn definitely hit us up with a message. We'll make sure you're on our list. Get you those VIP passes, whatever you need.

Thomas: Okay

Gunner: Get you those swag.

Danyelle: Get you that swag.

Gunner: Sweet, sweet swag, yeah.

Danyelle: At the booth, I'm gonna be giving swag out like crazy.

Thomas: Make sure we get there early. You know, those, you know, regular size, medium shirts and everything go out quick. So make sure you get there.

Danyelle: I'm gonna over order, everybody gets a shirt.

Gunner: Yes, you get a shirt, you get a shirt, you can get a shirt.

Thomas: I would love it just we need a shirt cannon.

Danyelle: That'd be awesome.

Thomas: Well, I don't know if you're allowed to have those.

Danyelle: Probably not.

Thomas: Yeah I don't think so

Gunner: Yeah, well you know and then that kind of leads into, you know, RSA is, is a huge conference and there's a lot of people there and, you know, we're, we're seeing a lot of different people, but also, you know, there's a ton of buzz words. So it's funny so when I'm talking with some, some different connections that I have, and they're like, you know, we have buzzword bingo and so they're like, you know, we see all of these new buzzwords and all these technologies saying they can, you know, have they're the solution to this, this and this and, and so it's really combing through and being able to prioritize, you know, what are you, what's your main goal there at RSA is? You know, and, and it depends on your role too and is it brand awareness? Is it lead generation? Is it closing deals or, you know, just continuing to retain certain costs or, you know, customers so there's a lot of different you know mindsets going on, what is your main goal and what are you there to do?

Thomas: Yeah.

Gunner: And so it is funny, the buzz words, you'll see it all over the place, but it's also a great way for our teams to go out and learn and take this knowledge and information. It's super, super value for, valuable for us to bring back to our teams here at Cybrary. So what that means is like bringing back, you know, where the industry is going around you, content or new certifications that are coming out. This is how our content team builds their roadmap, is where the industry going and then also being able to bring back the knowledge from our current customers and prospects and just, you know, the, the industry on how we build out our product roadmap, you know, what are these people, what do they want to see? Is it around Certs, is it around building skills? Is it around certain analytics that they can see their team doing? And this is how we're building our roadmaps. And so it is very crucial for us to take this information and to be able to bring it back as we continue through 2020, but also prepare for 2021.

Danyelle: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Like just like Gunnar was saying that RSA conference floor is massive. Like it's so many people you're going to come in and interact with and you have to have a mission of what you want to get through to him.

Thomas: Yeah

Danyelle: You don't have much time, you know, you have to be very impactful. I'm one of the booth managers, this year at RSA so we're definitely trying to make our time count with the people that we interact with not only just giving them shirts, but letting them get informed about our business and so Gunner's point, getting feedback from them. We're going to run into so many of our current users

Thomas: Yeah.

Danyelle: Just being able to get that feedback from them is invaluable so, yeah.

Scott: Yeah, absolutely. That feedback is critical and I think that's kind of how we came up with the new, you know, product that everyone's talking about now that we'll be talking about through RSA, it's probably the most requested thing I hear on the phone talking to new business prospects, talking to our insider pro users. You know, it's probably the most requested thing I hear on, you know, on the front lines

Danyelle: Yeah they're going to be really excited

Scott: Absolutely

Danyelle: to hear our new product that's coming so

Thomas: Yeah, I mean, I'm really excited. Another thing, just to kind of touch on is that you know, it's great for our business and everything, but I enjoy conferences. I mean, we were all at Blackhat last year. I mean, it's another thing. It's just amazing team bonding.

Danyelle: Oh yeah.

Thomas: Things kind of away from the office, but everybody's working together for one kind of specific goal doing random little activities and stuff together. It's just a different way to learn and learn more about your teammates and get a little bit more comfortable with the, you know, the people that you spend 40 hours a week with.

Danyelle: Oh yeah. Once you go to a conference together

Thomas: More like a 50/60 there about.

Danyelle: You have a whole new relationship. You're working hard. It's definitely more work hard than you're playing at these conferences.

Thomas: Yeah, absolutely so I mean, let's go around real quick. I mean, what is a successful, like what are you looking to get out of RSA? What does success look like for you coming back from RSA? Scott, I'll start with you just cause your, newest. You don't really know, but it might just be, come back alive.

Scott: Yeah I mean, I don't even know what I'm you know most excited to get out of it, but I know that my goals going into it are going to be to shadow the sales team as much as possible. Learn as much from them, like I said, Gunner's a seasoned vet, already been to the RSA and, you know, one or two other conferences, I'm sure. You know, learn as much as I can and networking, like you talked about the feedback we can get from, you know, current customers. That's how we improve our product. So I think if I can do those three things, it'll be a successful conference for me.

Thomas: Yeah. Danyelle from customer success, what does RSA success look like for you and your team?

Danyelle: Yeah definitely just having some of those key meetings with those, those big clients, you know, we have some enterprise customers that are going to be there. Have a huge presence. So building those relationships a little stronger is our main objective at conferences like this. As a booth manager, I just want to make sure we're getting success out of the booth and the interactions we're having with everybody who's going by, making sure we have that brand awareness going and getting that virality and I think we've done a really good job at that at conferences so far, we create a little buzz. Yeah. You know, cause our booth always has so much energy. We're always trying to, you know, get it, everybody excited about what we're talking about and so we hope that relays in RSA this year so.

Thomas: Yeah, Gunner.

Gunner: Alright. Well, yeah, I mean to go off of Danyelle, I mean, a lot of exciting stuff coming from, you know, meeting with current clients and even from the sales side of it, I like to connect with the clients that I have been working with, cause I like building that relationship.

Thomas: Yeah.

Gunner: You know, really I'm not big on just closing a deal and not talking to them ever again. It's more of a consultative approach and building that relationship and it's more so a partnership because we look at it as a friendship and a longtime partnership and so, you know, success for me is really getting, we have our private meeting spots, so we're able to grab a bite to eat. We have refreshments drinks, what not where we can sit down with prospects and current clients where we can just talk with them and understand what their needs are, you know, what are their challenges and just being able to find, have a solution for the pain that they have and that's one thing that I love about my position here is I am providing a solution to help someone. I'm helping a company. It's not just to, you know, get money or revenue. You know, I like the feeling that I just helped a company you know, train their teams, provide a way to skill them up and it's these individuals as well. I mean, we're more so into career development. You know, being able to take someone fresh out of college or they just got out of the armed services and we're able to bring them in as a new hire and skill them up within the organization where a company is able to invest in this person. This is how they live, how they pay their bills and just being able to, you know, provide a solution. So really success with me is being able to meet with these prospects, these clients, and just being able to build that solution and program for them and then ultimately, you know, tying into, you know, a long time partnership and that, that's really my main goal and, you know, like we said, and you come by the booth you get your swag and then you can come on over to the private meeting spot, grab a bite to eat with myself and you know, a couple of others of us. We have our executive leadership that's going to be there as well and we can just have a conversation. It's not even just throwing a hard pitch at you. Let's have a conversation and see where things can go.

Thomas: Yeah.

Gunner: So that's really what success is looking like for me this year at RSA.

Danyelle: Nice

Thomas: Okay, any last thoughts or anything anybody?

Danyelle: I'm excited about the meeting spot.

Gunner: Yeah. It's super exciting.

Thomas: It's pretty nice from what I'm seeing online.

Danyelle: Definitely a nice restaurant and I'm excited we don't have to try and have these conversations at the booth.

Thomas: Yes.

Danyelle: It's so chaotic, so many people walking around, so loud. I mean, you can't really hear each other. So for us to take this off site and have like a more meaningful conversation, it's definitely going to be way more valuable. I'm excited.

Thomas: Yeah. Well, fantastic. I mean, thanks for sitting down with me today, guys, and just kind of hashing this out a little bit for anybody who wants to set a meeting or anything you can reach out at support@cybrary.it

Gunner: or you can reach out to me on LinkedIn

Thomas: or anybody on LinkedIn. Yeah and we'll get back to you but thanks again guys.

Gunner: Thank you.

Danyelle: Thank you.

Scott: Thank you. See you guys.