akQuise strategen - Podcast · Chef-Strategin Petra Sierks & die akQuise strategen

B2B-Akquise in der IT-Sicherheit: Vertrauen vor Verkauf | Interview mit Sophia Fritsche #52

·27 min·2 clips

Sophia Fritsche reveals why cybersecurity sales must avoid product pitches and instead ask where the customer's pain point is.

1. The akQuise strategen podcast interviews Sophia Fritsche, sales manager at Latsch.net, on B2B cybersecurity acquisition, remote sales trust-building, and the role of traditional phone outreach in a digital-first era. 2. Sophia introduces herself as responsible for sales and support in marketing at Latsch.net, which positions itself as a managed security service provider that lets mid-market IT managers outsource cybersecurity and focus on their core competencies. 3. The episode's central question is how to sell cybersecurity — a product clients know they need but consistently deprioritize — without resorting to fear-based tactics or technical overload. 4. Sophia uses a medical care analogy: just as people know they should see a doctor but keep postponing routine checks, IT managers and business owners know cybersecurity is necessary but push it down their daily lists, which shapes Latsch.net's entire acquisition approach. 5. Latsch.net's pitch philosophy is to ask about pain points rather than present product slides: Sophia says they have no PowerPoint presentation, use plain language matched to the contact person's level, and close the first meeting by positioning the engagement as a short kick-off followed by Latsch.net handling the rest. 6. A common customer misconception that Sophia spends time correcting is that engaging a cybersecurity partner will require three or four days of internal management time; Latsch.net uses specific checklists and targeted questions to keep kick-off meetings short. 7. On translating technical content for non-technical managers, Sophia trains her sales team with an internal benchmark: if you cannot explain the solution to your brother, sister, or teenage child, the managing director — who also has no cybersecurity background — will not understand it either. 8. Sales team onboarding at Latsch.net includes regular peer observation: salespeople sit in on each other's appointments, not only during onboarding but continuously, to audit language, technical accuracy, and how questions are handled when answers aren't immediately known. 9. Sophia's rule on handling gaps in technical knowledge during sales calls is explicit: tell the customer you'll take the question and clarify it rather than guess — conveying security in the salesperson's self-presentation is as important as conveying security in the product. 10. Latsch.net's acquisition in 2025 is 90% remote via Microsoft Teams, a shift that began during COVID when both Latsch.net and its customers discovered that on-site sales visits were not necessary for the initial phases of a deal. 11. To compensate for the loss of in-person social cues in remote video calls, Sophia's team requires formal company attire for all Teams appointments, uses custom branded backgrounds, and sends NDAs before any sensitive information is exchanged. 12. Early meetings with new prospects are sometimes entirely trust-building exercises: Latsch.net shares company information, checks that the prospect's understanding of Latsch.net matches the website, and exchanges only low-sensitivity information such as security awareness content before any audit data is involved. 13. On acquisition channels, Sophia says LinkedIn is used for visibility and sharing professional content and company events, but not for direct message outreach — which she describes as a legal gray zone that would be a 'no-go' for a cybersecurity company that must be seen as legally compliant. 14. Primary acquisition is telephone cold-calling combined with email for contacts where data is already qualified; recommendation marketing from existing clients is the most valuable inbound channel. 15. Sophia notes that old cybersecurity buzzwords that once opened conversations are now 'tarnished' — commoditized — so the first one to three lines of an email or the first one to two minutes of a call must deliver differentiated added value to get a foot in the door. 16. On trends, Sophia identifies managed services as the dominant direction in her market: companies want to outsource routine security tasks to focus on core competencies, which is Latsch.net's core value proposition and is growing in demand. 17. She observes that despite the rise of online purchasing and software marketplaces, trust and personal relationships are becoming more important in B2B sales, not less — citing long-term clients of 20 years who deflect competitor calls because of established trust with Latsch.net. 18. The episode is a brisk, structured interview; Petra prompts with focused questions and occasionally shares parallel examples from her own acquisition experience; the conversation stays tightly on topic. 19. The episode suits sales professionals and managers in IT services, managed security, and B2B software who want practical examples of how to position trust-first acquisition for a high-stakes technical product. 20. Listeners looking for detailed cybersecurity technical content, pricing models, or product comparisons will not find them here.

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