I had been thinking about this for a long time, but I was always too busy to act on it until today. I work with a few compliance companies that use my firm as a Trusted Security Provider. I also recently started working with an Evidence Collection Platform. Until today, none of these parties knew about each other. So I messaged the compliance firm: "I recently started working with a platform that helps organizations continuously monitor security controls, track data flows, and collect compliance evidence for frameworks such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. They are a US-based company. Let me know if you want me to introduce you to them." Their response was: "Sure. We can help them achieve those compliances. Let's work together." I replied: "I will contact them and ask whether they would be interested in your consulting services." Then I reached out to the Evidence Collection Platform: "Hi, I know two companies in India that offer compliance consulting services. Would you be interested in connecting with them to see if there might be an opportunity to work together? I think there could be some overlap between what you do and what they offer, so it may be worth having a conversation and seeing if there's a good fit." They agreed. This is a long game. I'm still young. But if I keep building my network and positioning myself as a hub — someone who connects the right people to each other I can create stronger partnerships and meaningful relationships that go far beyond NDAs and contracts. It's about making your self super importand and someone they can reach out in future when they need That said, I've also been learning that not everyone comes to the table with the right intentions. Some people only want to take. I once reached out to an AI penetration testing company to explore a partnership. My offer was clear I would consult their clients on how to use pentest reports effectively and provide services beyond penetration testing: Red Teaming, Social Engineering, Phishing Simulations, and more. Everything was going well until the person I was speaking with left the company. I was introduced to someone new. Within 30 minutes it was clear he didn't understand what kind of partnership I was proposing. He wanted to demo their platform. I had to start over and explain everything again. By the end of the call his ask was simple: transfer your clients to our platform and deliver your services through us only then you can provide access to our client to you. My answer was a hard no.

Hi guys this weeks webinar stats and recording (below). This is my inernal webinar (not client webinar) Meta Ad Budget: £420/$556 Registrations: 56 Attendnace: 12 Booked Sales Calls: 2 Cost per sales call: £210/$278 Quick feelings - this was the third webinar I've run to UK/Australian audience in the last 3 weeks. Ads were costing more by the end - the first webinar i had much better attendnace with webinar 2 booking 5 sales calls. Attendnace was poor for this weeks - we had technical issues as i've just moved CRM and have a feeling email deliverability has been hit. Lesson - send webinar reminder from your actual mailbox as a BCC much higher chance of getting past the junk/promotions tab. In total I got 11 sales calls from a £1200 ad spend (so far) The qustion I have for you - would you pay $144 for each sales call you can get in your diary? If not why not. And if yes how many do you think you'd need to convert to a client? I'm on vacation from 29th of July but I will continue to share webinar stats of my cleints over this time I currently have 3 IT businesses and 2 vendors that I'm manging the ads will report back each week with an update on their stats. I have only 3 spots for new clients in July so if you want to start running webinars for your business book your call here before they fill up: https://calendly.com/itrockstars/meeting-with-scott-millar

This is my first post in this community, and I would like to thank Scott because I have learned a lot from his content about sales. Now, back to the topic. I started my cybersecurity firm about seven months ago. The first three months were extremely painful. I quickly realized that running a penetration testing company requires much more than technical skills. I had to learn sales, compliance frameworks, how to communicate with confidence, and how to explain to clients why penetration testing is important. To this day, I have zero salespeople in my company, yet I maintain a steady flow of around 2–3 clients each month. The main reason for this is that I focused heavily on building partnerships with compliance companies. I reached out to more than 100 companies. I noticed that many compliance firms and penetration testing companies offer a wide variety of services. Instead of competing directly, I approached them about referral partnerships and subcontracting opportunities. Most ignored my messages, while a few replied that they did not subcontract work. Initially, I targeted large compliance companies because I assumed they already worked with penetration testing providers. However, I received very few responses. During this process, I focused mainly on companies in India and the United States. One of the biggest lessons I learned was to avoid partnering with very small compliance companies in India. Many lacked a clear structure of authority and did not fully understand the compliance services they were offering. From the many companies I contacted, I quickly discovered that some provided poor-quality compliance work. Despite this, I was eventually able to establish relationships with four ISO 27001 consulting companies that still refer clients to me from time to time. Breaking into the U.S. market was much more challenging. Since my company is based in India, I faced many rejections. I reached out to numerous organizations, including startups, and heard "no" more times than I can count. However, I kept trying. Eventually, I partnered with a compliance platform that focuses on evidence-based compliance solutions. They already had clients and promised introductions, and they followed through on those commitments.