Episode 324 Deep Dive: Kate Healy | Successfully Engaging and Selling to a CISO

In this episode, we sit down with Kate Healy, Founder of Empowered Cyber, as she shares her insights on how to successfully engage and sell to CISOs. Kate highlights the challenges salespeople face in a market where traditional tactics, such as cold calls, unsolicited emails, and LinkedIn pitches, often fall flat and can damage long-term relationships. She emphasizes the importance of building genuine trust, creating value, and truly understanding a CISO’s unique challenges rather than launching straight into product pitches. Kate also discusses how effective sales strategies in Australia hinge on relationship-building and mutual respect, and offers practical advice on leveraging existing customer introductions, participating in industry events, and communicating with authenticity and transparency. She strongly advocates for marketing, PR, and sales teams to align more closely and for both sides, vendor and client, to treat each other with empathy, honesty, and a human-centric approach. Awarded Australia’s Most Outstanding in IT Security 2024, Fellow of AISA, and Graduate Australian Institute of Company Directors, Kate is a distinguished cyber security executive with over 25 years global experience. She has served in influential roles including Interim CISO The Lottery Corporation, Head of Security Google Cloud ANZ, Head of Risk, Wholesale Banking, Standard Chartered Bank and has been a volunteer Board Director. This diverse experience positions her uniquely, having been both an operator and a vendor, she understands the industry from both sides. Kate brings not only deep expertise but also a passion for making this knowledge accessible to everyone through her company Empowered Cyber.