01732 759725 22 CYBERSECURITY SalesLynk launches disruptive research tool for cybersecurity sales teams Cybersecurity focus SalesLynk is industry-agnostic, but to start with the company is targeting the cybersecurity sales teams of vendors and the reseller/MSP channel. This is partly because cybersecurity is such a high growth sector, forecast to grow by more than 50% over the next three years (from $173 billion to $270 billion by 2026) and partly because the cybersecurity industry has some specific challenges, as SalesLynk Chief Executive Ian Todd explains. “There are three or four big challenges cybersecurity companies face right now. The first thing is that the market is incredibly saturated, with thousands and thousands of vendors fishing in the same pond. “Then, there is a real skills shortfall in cybersecurity. We hear this often from a technical perspective, but it’s true for sales as well. You either have really good salespeople with no cyber background trying to sell cybersecurity or you have really technical cyber people with no sales background. “The third problem is people just don’t have enough time because they’re juggling so many different things. That includes systems for delivery work, for research, for keeping up with regulations; you’ve got Salesforce, you’ve got LinkedIn, you’ve got all these different things. Together, they make it very difficult for people to find and then strategically sell to prospects. What we have developed in SalesLynk is a really clever platform that deals with these challenges.” Todd cites time savings of tens of hours per week and a massive reduction in the amount of manual effort that goes into sales research. Sales pipeline It is still early days for SalesLynk – the platform is only going live this month – but the company is already making waves, with significant new investors due to be announced shortly. The company has an experienced leadership team of Ian Todd, with a cybersecurity background at companies like Splunk, BlackBerry and PwC; Chair Neil Stephenson, a well known investor in high growth tech companies in the North-East; and Chief Technology Officer Alan Easton. Easton is also Chief Executive of Newcastle-based software development house Boxmodel, which started developing the platform 12 to 18 months ago after Todd, whose brother works at the company, pitched SalesLynk to them. Todd says that now SalesLynk is starting to generate interest the priority is to grow a strong sales pipeline. He has a list of about 20 companies that want to trial the product in the UK and hopes to launch a partner referral programme in April. He has also opened discussions with potential customers in the US and Canada, with the intention of entering the North American market by the end of the year. Plans for 2024 include the introduction of SalesLynk to other sectors, starting with recruitment and investment companies, some of which have already expressed an interest in the platfom. Product development On the technical side, Easton has a lengthy roadmap for further development of the product. This includes API links to CRM systems and marketing and sales databases and OpenAI plug-ins that can save time on common tasks. “The idea is to take three or four pertinent bits of information and run them through OpenAI to create a suggested introductory email that you can cut and paste into your email client. Part of our roadmap is that this could all happen via SalesLynk. We would send them from SalesLynk and you could manage everything in SalesLynk or you could export it to your CRM. Our roadmap is quite lengthy. There’s a lot that we can do going forward." For now, Todd says the main focus is on the UK and perfecting SalesLynk for cybersecurity sales teams. “One of the big things we want to make sure we do is provide a product that works well for our customers because we think we can disrupt this market. We think SalesLynk gives us the platform to do that.” A new tool that promises to save time and improve the effectiveness of cybersecurity sales teams is being launched this month by Newcastle-based start-up SalesLynk. The data-driven, business intelligence platform, built on Azure, helps users prepare for sales calls by giving them access to a treasure trove of information on named individuals and businesses, including personal information, company reports, financial data, credit ratings, blogs, white papers and podcasts. SalesLynk can also help with prospecting by identifying people within organisations that have responsibility for strategy and/or procurement in specific areas. The platform aggregates data from a range of public and proprietary sources into a single pane of glass so users no longer have to toggle between multiple tabs and applications. Content isn’t limited to commercial data but includes information that can help sales people project a more professional, competent image in their discussions with prospects, from industryspecific news feeds to a threat intelligence database and a breach database with details of 13,000 breaches to more general information such as insights into business cultures around the world. Advanced features like sentiment analysis, which detects whether an article is positive or negative, and an unstructured document reader with keyword searches make it quicker and easier to derive value from information presented by the platform. Research on tap (L-R) Alan Easton, Chief Technology Officer; Ian Todd, CEO; Neil Stephenson, Chair. saleslynk.co.uk You either have really good salespeople with no cyber background trying to sell cybersecurity or you have really technical cyber people with no sales background
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