EPISODE 129
How Brand Reputation Can Give Your Business an Edge
with Laura Bell Main
If you’re looking for creative ways to sell more without being salesy, building a strong brand reputation is the key.
Laura Bell Main is the Co-Founder and CEO of SafeStack, an online education platform offering flexible, high-quality, and people-focused secure development training for fast-moving companies. She and her co-founder have built a brand reputation as global leaders in secure software.
Laura is the co-author of Agile Application Security and Security for Everyone. Her work has been featured in international publications including WIRED and MIT Tech Review. She has presented at BlackHat USA and RenderATL, as well as leading international software development and cybersecurity conferences.
Transition From Service-Based to Product Business
Laura’s business began as a consultancy. The first few years of SafeStack were dedicated to validating their framework and serving high-growth companies.
When Covid hit in 2020, those companies made drastic budget cuts and Laura and her co-founder started looking for creative ways to solve the same problems at a different price point. As the product side of the company took off, they decided to separate and sell the consultancy.
Now leading a team of 12, Laura is CEO and also the head of sales and marketing–which looks completely different now than it did in their service-based model.
Brand Marketing and Creative Sales Strategies
SafeStack’s target audience is software developers, who Laura says are resistant to traditional sales techniques. Instead, she and her co-founder have focused on building their brand reputation. Through speaking at conferences and high-quality content, they do as much as they can to build that reputation before starting a conversation with the customer.
Another effective strategy has been creating opportunities to speak with their customers one-on-one, whether that’s at an in-person event or interacting with them online. They use just enough automation to keep people moving forward through the sales process, but not so much that it feels impersonal.
Approaching the conversation with empathy is key. Laura starts by talking the customer through their frustrations, helping them identify their biggest challenges before presenting a solution. She always gives the customer plenty of opportunities to ask questions.
After a customer starts using the product, Laura and her team are always on hand for support. They help leaders identify who’s engaging and who may need more encouragement. For SafeStack, it’s not just about adopting a new software but changing the entire team culture.
Enjoy this episode with founder and CEO Laura Bell Main…
Quotes
“I moved between some really exciting organizations, but what stayed the same was I was always really curious…I was always pressing buttons and saying, ’I wonder what happens if I do this?’”
“I don’t sit around for a long time and say ‘This is going to be very hard’ and stop.”
“Software takes an entire team of people and all of these roles to build, and all of those people need to be involved in keeping it secure.”
“Culture change for a software is really difficult. We can’t change it on our own, but we can make it easy for a leader to grow a program so they can change it.”
“This is the year of getting out of my own way and caring a bit less about what other people think.”
“When do I invest in the company brand and its name and put myself behind that label versus when do I lead with my brand, and how can they support each other?”
Links mentioned in this episode:
Podcast Resources
Visit Laura’s website: https://www.laurabellmain.com/
SafeStack website: https://safestack.io/
Connect with Laura on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauradbell/
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