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Of course compensation matters. So does territory, title and the accounts they might inherit. But that is no longer where the conversation ends.
More and more of the people I speak with want to understand the company behind the job. They want to know if the number is realistic, whether the product actually wins and what they are walking into before leaving a good role. I think hiring managers should welcome that.
If someone is expected to challenge a CISO, qualify a seven-figure deal and work out whether an opportunity is real, I would expect them to apply exactly the same thinking to their own career.
A $300k or $400k OTE will always get attention. It is the golden carrot. But experienced sellers know OTE and achievable OTE can be two very different things. The question I hear more often now is not simply 'what is the quota?'. It is 'how many people are actually hitting it?' Cyber GTM Pulse | August 2026 The same applies to pipeline. Inheriting $2m that has been sitting in Salesforce for nine months is not necessarily better than starting with less at a business with a strong SDR, partner and marketing engine. Good candidates are getting better at separating pipeline on a slide from pipeline they can actually close.
Cyber is crowded and the largest platforms are getting broader. Palo Alto Networks reported in Q3 FY26 that roughly 65% of its NGS ARR was from platformised customers. That matters to anyone considering a smaller vendor. The question is no longer just whether the technology is good. It is why a CISO will create budget for another product rather than consolidate with a platform already in the estate. A strong seller will ask that before joining because they know every prospect will ask it afterwards.
I think businesses sometimes oversell a role because they are worried honesty will put someone off. With senior salespeople, I usually find the opposite. If the territory needs rebuilding, say it. If there is very little inbound, say it. If the last person missed target, explain why. If there has been leadership change or restructuring, give the context. Rapid7 is one recent reminder that even established Cyber businesses are being deliberate about where they put people and money. In Q2 2026 it initiated a restructuring affecting around 12% of its workforce as it aligned resources around its core platform solutions. The strongest salespeople are used to difficult markets. What they do not like is discovering the difficult part three months after joining.
I would stop treating candidate questions as the ten minutes at the end of an interview. For the level of seller most Cyber businesses tell me they want, this is part of the assessment.
That last point matters. If I cannot clearly explain why somebody should leave a good job to join a business, it becomes much harder to attract the people the client actually wants.
There is no perfect territory and no Cyber vendor where every rep hits target. The point is to understand the risk and decide whether it is a risk you know how to manage.
A blank territory can be a brilliant opportunity for a real hunter. A crowded market can still be a great place to sell if the product genuinely wins. A start-up can be a fantastic move if the leadership knows exactly who they sell to and why customers care.
Ask about attainment. Ask where pipeline comes from. Ask why people have left. Ask what customers actually buy the product for. Ask where the business wins and loses.
If the answer is not clear, another $20k on the base probably should not be the thing that convinces you.
I think candidate due diligence will become one of the biggest differences between average and excellent Cyber GTM hiring over the next 12 to 18 months.
The best sellers have options. The companies that attract them will not necessarily be the ones offering the biggest package. They will be the ones that can give a candidate confidence that the number has been thought through, the product has a real place in the market and the leadership team knows how they are going to win.
A good salesperson is going to qualify all three.
