I've made thousands of cyber security sales calls myself. And I've listened to thousands that others have made.

Over time I've realized that too often we treat a meeting like a meal at a fine dining restaurant.

The meal starts slowly with a drink and then some appetizers and soup. There might be a palate cleanser. The main course shows up with much fanfare and looks amazing (probably tastes pretty good too). And then finally we have dessert. But only if we have room for it.

The trouble is I LOVE desserts. I have a sweet tooth so the promise of what's coming at the end is enticing to me. I know there will be sugary delights that will make my taste buds dance.

BTW - I feel strongly that there are 2 types of people on this planet. Those that admit they love desserts and those that are bare-faced liars! But I digress...

For a meal, it actually makes sense to leave the best to last. If we had it first our taste buds wouldn't like what comes after.

But.... in a cyber security sales conversation, it makes no sense at all.

Too often we lead our prospects TOWARD some amazing realization. Our secret sauce. The most powerful aspect of our solution. The outcomes others have achieved. The answer to their question.

The trouble is we lose our prospects along the way. Their attention spans are not long enough to wait for us to go through our process to get to the best bit. Sometimes we don't even leave enough time to do the best bit.

During a sales call, they can't wait for the answer to their question. The wow moment in the demo. The most interesting part of the deck.

So ... don't make them wait.

Instead, start with the biggest thing first and then explain how you deliver that.

Do say: John Smith, the CISO at XYZ inc, reduced his remediation time by 95%. Let me show you how he did that.

Do say: Whereas every other solution tries to solve the problem this way, we think that is flawed so solve it this super ding dong way. Let me show you.

Do say: Good question. I think you are going to like my answer but can you quickly tell me why that question is top of mind?

Give them the good stuff first.

Give them dessert first.