Explaining What We Do: What’s Your Cybersecurity Elevator Pitch?

The cybersecurity elevator pitch is a key communication tool, but security pros tend to struggle with it. For example:

My cousin’s son Ben is an enterprising real estate agent and golfer living on a beautiful New England island. Your CEO may be a bit like him, just further on in his life and career.

At a dinner one night Ben remarked casually, to everyone, that “I have no idea what Dan does, could never understand it.”

Ouch. I wanted to explain my work to Ben then and there, but when I saw that thousand-yard stare in his eyes, I held off. You see, one not only needs to have a great elevator pitch for these situations, but also to recognize that timing is important. Don’t be too eager to spit it out. You have to wait until you have the other person’s attention.

I resolved to create a great elevator pitch. Maybe you’ve needed one too during your moments with C-level executives.

So here is a generic elevator pitch that anyone falling into a cybersecurity consulting role might use:

I advise clients on how to protect information and networks from threats like cybercriminals or disgruntled employees while complying with security and privacy regulations. I help clients understand their risks, successfully communicate their protection needs and strategy, and implement effective people, process, and technology solutions.

Now, if we wanted to write an elevator pitch for people who are a little more technical, here’s an elevator pitch our security architect readers could use:

I help the VP of Security Engineering coordinate with multiple IT, security, and development groups to develop requirements and architectures for multiple integrated security systems. I analyze our IT/security environment and collect requirements from business and IT stakeholders for new projects or systems we have to implement. I diligently evaluate multiple vendors’ solutions to find the best fit for our requirements. I develop one or more dynamic architectural blueprints and solution alternatives and provide a compelling briefing to the management team. Once the solution is selected, I work with solution engineers to ensure detailed designs and integration plans follow the high level architecture. Our VP and other stakeholders can move forward confidently with implementation knowing that we’re following industry best practices, we’ve future proofed the solution, and all components will fit together seamlessly.

You might ask how did we put that together? If you want to start from scratch, check out the business coaching site we used to get an actual recipe for writing your own elevator pitch. Enjoy!