Took a CISO out for coffee in Austin and he told me why he ignores 90% of vendor emails

I was at a conference in Austin last month and grabbed coffee with a CISO from a mid-size bank. He said every morning he gets around 50 vendor emails and deletes most of them without reading. He told me the only ones he even opens are from people he met in person first or referrals from his peers. I asked if demo invites ever work and he laughed and said not unless there's a specific problem he already knows he has. Has anyone else had better luck getting past the inbox?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_william17d ago

That actually overlooks something pretty important. Most vendors are sending the wrong kind of pitch entirely. They focus on features and product capabilities when they should be explaining a specific problem they solve that the CISO might not even know exists yet. I've talked to a few CISOs who said the emails they do read are ones that start with a genuine industry insight or a heads-up about a new threat trend, not a sales pitch. It's about offering something useful upfront, like a short report or a warning, that builds a tiny bit of trust right there in the subject line. The ones that just say "book a demo" are getting deleted because they're asking for a commitment before proving they're worth the time.

the_grace17d ago

Has anyone else noticed this same thing happening in other parts of life too? I mean, think about it - 90% of emails, calls, and ads we get are just noise until someone we trust says "hey, this is actually good." It's like how I ignore most restaurant recommendations online unless a friend tells me about a place they loved. The barrier to entry is just so low for vendors (and everyone else) that our brains have to filter hard just to get through the day.