Amjed Abukadijeh, Head of Sales at Socket

In this Vendor Spotlight, we sit down with Socket's Head of Sales Amjed Abukadijeh where he discusses how he and his go-to-market team leverage Sagetap to achieve up to 9x in ROI in closed-won business, as well as up to 20x in active opportunities.

Key Takeaways

• Introduction and Role: Amjed Abukadijeh is responsible for the go-to-market strategy at Socket, a company that provides an open-source dependency management solution.
• Company Overview: Socket focuses on analyzing open-source code used by organizations to identify not just vulnerable dependencies but also malicious ones. They operate in the software composition analysis (SCA) space.
• Market Challenges: The SCA market is crowded with legacy solutions that mainly address known vulnerabilities (CVEs). Socket faces the challenge of differentiating itself in a saturated market where buyers are overwhelmed by numerous vendors.
• Use of Sagetap: Amjed leverages Sagetap to connect with potential buyers effectively. He appreciates the platform's ability to schedule meetings with interested prospects, allowing him to ask crucial questions and determine if there's a good fit without wasting time.
• Return on Investment (ROI): Socket has seen a significant ROI from using Sagetap, achieving 8 to 9 times the amount spent in closed deals, with the pipeline being 15 to 20 times in active opportunities.
• Sales Strategy Insights: Amjed has learned the importance of targeted follow-up. Unlike traditional cold leads, prospects on Sagetap are actively searching for solutions. Thus, clear and direct communication outlining how Socket can solve their problems has proven most effective.
• Evolution of Approach: Initially, Amjed's approach was more generalized, treating Sagetap leads like any other. Over time, he refined his strategy to be more specific and concise, focusing on actionable steps and efficiently addressing the prospects' needs, which has led to better outcomes.

Full Transcript

Amjed Abukadijeh: My name is Amjed Abukadijeh.

I run the go to market team at Socket. We are a open-source dependency management solution.

Basically what we do is we look at all of the open-source code that your developers are introducing to your organization and we scan it for risks. So not only vulnerable dependencies, but also malicious ones.

The category that we live in is SCA software composition analysis, and it's flooded with a lot of legacy solutions that really focus on known vulnerabilities, or CVE's, and so breaking into this space was challenging because when we talk to the buyers the first question is, why does the world need another supply chain security tool? There's just so much noise in the space today.

Buyers are just inundated with this like flood of salespeople reaching out to them. It's not possible for them to actually sift through all of their emails and notifications to actually like understand what is the product doing And so,I rely heavily on Sagetap. [00:01:00] One of my favorite notifications is when I wake up and a Sage is ready to meet.

And I see that in my inbox. It's always my first click. And, I love how you get the opportunity to ask important questions, that is not just important for you to know as a vendor, but also you don't want to waste the buyer's time. And so if it's not a good fit, no harm, no foul. You have the ability to just decline the meeting and focus on an area that's going to be a mutual fit.

To date our return on investment has been 8 to 9X in closed-won business from the amount that we've actually spent with Sagetap, but our pipeline well exceeds that.

So we have a number of opportunities that we're working on today that have been generated by Sagetap. I would say probably somewhere in the vicinity of 15 to 20X.

I've had obviously the opportunity to go through this now for probably over a year. And so I've learned a few things in the process, and I would say that the follow up is very key from the sense that you don't want to treat this like a typical lead, right? This isn't somebody that you cold called, this individual has an active project most of the time. That's why they're on Sagetap looking for vendors that will actually solve the problem that they have.

And so being very detailed in your follow up about like what are the clear next steps that's going to allow them to actually get the product in their hands to solve their problem has been really important.

In the early days, I think I was treating this maybe as just any other lead, and started off almost like too much information.

And so just being very direct and clear about like, here's how we're going to solve your problems, steps one, two, and three, that's led to the most success for us.

And I think the Sages appreciate it, to be honest, because you're using their time wisely, and you're not taking them through this long, daunting sales process.