00:00:00 Harriet MacEachran: And he was like, "Why on earth are you still in vending? That's why you need to move." And so I thought, you know what, that probably sounds sensible. So I made the move over to Darktrace about five years ago. The biggest deal I've ever done — and one of the biggest in EMEA. Yeah, exactly. So that's what we're chatting about today. It took about 18 months. It was a £4 million TCV, £1 million ACV contract, but just one part of our solution — so lots of good upsell potential attached to that as well. We had spoken to the champion earlier in the year, in April 2021. He said, look, no projects ongoing at the moment, but really keen to have a chat with Darktrace — reach out after the summer. Ted did exactly that and got us a meeting in September 2021, and then the rest is history, I guess. But there was actually a really interesting moment quite late in the day where the technical champion told Alex some information which explained why our champion had been slightly distracted for a couple of weeks — there was a big project completing. And that's the kind of thing that, if we didn't have the relationship with the technical champion, we'd never have known. You get people worrying internally, like, maybe something's gone wrong. But actually it made complete sense — he had a massive other project completing in that two-week window, which is why he'd gone quiet on us. 00:01:25 Pim Roelofsen: Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Elite Dealers. Today I am with Harriet MacEachran — and as you might guess, I've been practicing a lot on pronouncing that last name! Though I'm familiar with tricky last names myself. Harriet, a very warm welcome to you, and thank you for joining us today. 00:01:44 Harriet MacEachran: Thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here and to have a chat. 00:01:48 Pim Roelofsen: So — you're currently with Darktrace, right? But you used to sell vending machines at one point. That's quite a journey. 00:01:54 Harriet MacEachran: Exactly — vending and coffee machines, and the coffee that goes into the coffee machines. A whole big journey to get here! 00:01:59 Pim Roelofsen: How did that transition happen? 00:02:01 Harriet MacEachran: Basically, one of my friend's dads worked for IBM. I'd been at the vending machine company for three years, having a good time, things going well. And he was like, "Why on earth are you still in vending? That's where you need to move." And so I thought, you know what, that probably sounds sensible. So I made the move over to Darktrace about five years ago. 00:02:18 Pim Roelofsen: And it seems sensible looking back, right? Because you did one of the key deals in EMEA — and that's what we're here to talk about today. 00:02:24 Harriet MacEachran: Yeah, exactly. The biggest deal I've personally done, and one of the biggest in EMEA. 00:02:30 Pim Roelofsen: So let's get into it. Can you give us the high-level context of this deal? 00:02:34 Harriet MacEachran: It took about 18 months. It was a £4 million TCV, £1 million ACV contract — but just one part of our solution, so lots of good upsell potential attached to that as well. It was a lot of work, but I'm excited to chat about it today. One thing worth noting is that Darktrace only started with MEDDICC in August 2023, so none of this deal had that framework behind it at the time — I didn't know how to apply it correctly. But it's been a really good exercise to look back and see how much of what we did maps to MEDDICC, just with different words. It's nice to be able to correlate the two and see how it was actually a huge part of the process — and to understand how I can apply it more successfully going forward. 00:03:47 Pim Roelofsen: And that's a great set-up for the rest of this conversation. What I'm hearing is that by looking back through the MEDDICC lens, you're able to understand what went really well in the deal — and then, using MEDDICC as a common language, replicate those things going forward. 00:03:58 Harriet MacEachran: Exactly. And it's also a nice balance internally with my team — you can map out where the champion is, what's the vibe, and then look at the process: is the decision process aligned? Is the paper process there? It makes sense. But it's nice to be able to apply MEDDICC retrospectively, and now going forward I'll be able to use it in the right way from the start. 00:04:20 Pim Roelofsen: Awesome. Well, let's use that lens for the next couple of minutes. How did this deal first come about — was it outbound, inbound? 00:04:27 Harriet MacEachran: It came from my BDA, Ted — massive shout out to him. We had spoken to the champion earlier in the year, in April 2021. He said, look, no projects ongoing at the moment, but really keen to have a chat with Darktrace — reach out after the summer. Ted did exactly that and got us a meeting in September 2021, and then the rest is history. 00:04:51 Pim Roelofsen: I love that. And I think — would it be fair to say this deal wouldn't have happened without Ted? BDAs are unbelievable. They work on so many more accounts than we do as AEs and Account Directors. 00:05:04 Harriet MacEachran: Absolutely. He definitely had his eye on that account and kept on top of it over the summer when maybe others might have let it drift. Without Ted, we wouldn't have had the deal. 00:05:14 Pim Roelofsen: Go Ted! So — the thing we like to do in these conversations is break things down into what we refer to as the pillars of professional selling: stakeholders first, process second, value third — not always in that order, but for the dynamics of this deal that feels right. If we think about stakeholders and that outbound motion — the primary champion — looking back, was that the first person Ted engaged with? 00:05:47 Harriet MacEachran: Yeah, exactly. He was Head of Security for both IT and the wider business, so he was absolutely the right person to engage with first. In other companies I sometimes speak with a CISO at that level, and it kind of balances out — but yes, he was exactly the right person to meet at the very beginning. He championed us the whole way through. Once we got into the buying process, he took a step back and let the right people take over at the right moments, but he was our champion from the very first meeting all the way to close. 00:06:25 Pim Roelofsen: And when did you know that this person was in fact your champion? What did they do that showed you? 00:06:31 Harriet MacEachran: So we met with him and he straightaway said, "I want to bring in more people." I think that's always a good sign — if you're meeting one person at a company and they're not pulling anyone else in, that's never a great sign. You want multiple champions. In this case he brought in more, which meant my technical counterpart Alex — who also deserves a massive shout out — could align with those additional champions. It worked out really nicely in terms of multithreading. 00:07:06 Harriet MacEachran: And then in April 2022 we were assigned a project manager. I knew that would have been pushed for by our champion — he would have got that project manager assigned. That for me was a huge indicator that he was really championing this project. Having someone specifically assigned to run the proof of value, the legal pieces, the paperwork, the processes — that's a massive buying signal. And when it came to the point where we needed to meet the economic buyer, he was the one making the introduction. He was doing all the right things throughout. 00:07:41 Pim Roelofsen: I love that. When we think about champions, one of the things that stands out is power and influence. Without it, someone can still be a great coach — they can coach you on how to win, introduce you to some stakeholders — but getting that economic buyer meeting is something a champion really needs power and influence to deliver. Something I really want to pick up on is multithreading, because that goes both ways — on the customer side and on the Darktrace side. How did that work in this deal? 00:08:22 Harriet MacEachran: So the original champion was probably the person I personally spoke with the most. Then we had the two technical champions on their side, and that's where Alex was amazing — his relationship with them was so strong, which made a huge difference. Within that team there were also multiple coaches who were being enthusiastic. But when we got to the stages of talking about the proof of value and the buying process, we also brought in from our side a guy called Max — our Chief Product Officer, who is unbelievable. He was then assigned to be the multithreaded point of contact to the economic buyer. So ultimately another champion on our side helping move things forward. There were multiple stages where people at Darktrace were talking with different champions on their side, and I think that is such an important part of a project of this scale. 00:09:21 Pim Roelofsen: We hear it all the time — it really does take a village. And the specific thing here: Alex being able to reach out to the technical champion when engagement goes quiet is a massive difference-maker. Going from a place of uncertainty to a place of confidence by having that multithread to rely on. Did that actually play out at some point? 00:09:41 Harriet MacEachran: Yeah — that was one situation, quite late in the day actually. They were tendering for a SOC at the same time. It was a really interesting moment where the technical champion told Alex some information that explained why our champion had been slightly distracted for a couple of weeks — there was a big project completing. And that's exactly the kind of thing that, if we didn't have that relationship with the technical champion, we'd never have known. Internally, people start worrying — maybe something's gone wrong. But actually it made complete sense: he had a massive other project completing in that two-week window, which is why he'd gone quiet on us. 00:10:46 Pim Roelofsen: Exactly. And the other move I want to highlight is the early economic buyer engagement — aligning a senior stakeholder on your side to the proposed economic buyer early on. Doing that early creates an engagement you can always rely on later. How did that play out? 00:11:03 Harriet MacEachran: It was literally as simple as Max sending an email to the economic buyer saying, "Really pleased we're having these conversations — let me know if I can support in any way." Very light touch. And it landed really well — he replied straight away: "Really happy with how conversations are going, looking forward to speaking in a few weeks." And we had a planned meeting off the back of it. Just a really nice touch. 00:11:28 Pim Roelofsen: Absolutely. And Harriet, you mentioned the proof of value — that's a nice segue into the value pillar. And particularly decision criteria: at what point did you start shaping that in the sales cycle, and what role did the proof of value play? 00:11:42 Harriet MacEachran: So Jordan, my commercial director, was very keen that we get this set up right. We call it success criteria at Darktrace — very similar to decision criteria, just a different word. And it's something we've been doing for a long time. When I went through the MEDDICC training, that really stood out as something we'd already been doing. Jordan led that process and joins the conversation when we get to the proof of value stage, which was really helpful. We had conversations with both the IT lead and the business lead to jointly map out the criteria — and then we'd send it as a written summary. That was a really important part of the process. It meant we could constantly refer back to it, because as we've learned, the criteria is ever evolving, and it's important to keep checking in: "Yes, we've hit this one, now we're moving to this next section." 00:12:49 Pim Roelofsen: Absolutely — influencing the decision criteria is ultimately how you influence how the customer makes their decision. That's a massive difference-maker when we approach deals proactively. And it sounds like that's exactly how you were thinking about it. Because in our industry people often think of decision criteria as something to qualify — understanding the basis on which the customer is making their decision. But they're not professionals in cybersecurity — they spend 95% of their time on other things. So you need to be there with them as a trusted adviser, reaching consensus on what's actually right for solving the pain they have. 00:13:31 Harriet MacEachran: Exactly. What we actually did was create a template and say, "Look, this is what other companies have used to measure success in a deployment like this — would you like us to base the conversation around this?" And it was a really natural flow: "Oh yeah, that fits exactly what we're trying to achieve. And that is a pain point for us." We naturally co-created a really solid set of decision criteria for them to align against. 00:13:52 Pim Roelofsen: That's brilliant. And to back that up with proof — by way of the metric framework, we typically think about M1: the quantifiable impact you've already delivered for an existing customer, armed with decision criteria. Did you get a current customer involved to validate that? 00:14:09 Harriet MacEachran: Yeah, this was really interesting. The industry they're in is quite small. They have a conference every year, and the head of their IT team messaged one of our existing Darktrace customers — someone he knew from being in the same industry. He reached out saying, "Look, we're starting to think about doing a Darktrace proof of value — do you guys recommend it, any questions I can help with?" And this customer of ours is actually our very first ever customer at Darktrace. He jumped on a call with them and had a great conversation, and messaged the account director who looks after them afterwards to say, "These guys are super interested." It was a really natural thing to happen — and it gave them real confidence, coming from a customer who's been with us for ten years. It didn't come from me leading them to that conversation, which would have been even better, but it happened organically and it worked really well. 00:15:19 Pim Roelofsen: Two things there — first, if your very first ever customer is still there to provide that reference a decade later, that's a huge compliment to the business and to value delivery. And second, it goes back to what you said earlier: looking through the MEDDICC lens now, you can repurpose that into a more proactive motion going forward. 00:15:40 Harriet MacEachran: Exactly. 00:15:41 Pim Roelofsen: So let's move on to the process pillar. What I think we're particularly interested in is how you went about the paper process and decision process — because from a typical sales process perspective, we tend to think about those as coming later in the cycle, once you've become the vendor of choice. But what we learn time and again is that the best deals — both from a revenue and a success perspective — are the ones where those things happen more proactively. What can you tell us about how you went about that in this deal? 00:16:47 Harriet MacEachran: It was really important for us to be running those conversations in parallel. And Darktrace does this quite well — I think we've done it that way for the five years I've been here. Because with the timing, we were coming up to the end of our financial year, and without having those conversations three or four months in advance, there's simply no way you can get a legal process done if they say yes two weeks before the end of the financial year. So we asked for introductions not only to the legal department, but also to procurement — because they're two separate paper processes, both of which needed to be completed to sign off the deal. The project manager was also very helpful in introducing us to the right people to get the technical sign-off. But we did a huge amount of groundwork before we even started the formal process, because we had to go through works council sign-off before anything could formally begin. So a lot of the legwork was done well in advance. 00:17:46 Pim Roelofsen: That proactivity is everything — it empowers you to run things in parallel that you'd otherwise have to do sequentially and start much later. And especially at that time of year, any slippage puts the deal at risk. 00:17:58 Harriet MacEachran: Absolutely. And ultimately, neither the project manager nor our champion wants to get deep into this whole process and then have it collapse at the last minute because we weren't proactive enough. So asking for those introductions didn't feel like too much. It didn't feel like I was overstepping. It was met with complete understanding and willing introductions — which is exactly what you want. 00:18:18 Pim Roelofsen: Amazing. So we're getting close to the end of this conversation — it's been great. A couple of closing questions. What is your single biggest learning from this deal? 00:18:34 Harriet MacEachran: Champions are everything — without them, we would never have got anything across the line. And there are multiple champions in a deal, which is fantastic. I know you wanted just one, but I have to add another: great internal conversations. For the last eight weeks of the deal, we had a weekly call with multiple people from our side — my global head of sales, my VP, my director, Alex, the technical team, everyone. That was super important not just for giving internal updates, but for being questioned on what I was doing. As Account Director you're the project manager, you're running the workflows — but to be challenged and asked, "Have you thought about this?" — and to have problems raised in advance — made a massive difference. I was never caught on the back foot when something came up with the customer. That was a really important learning for me. 00:19:40 Pim Roelofsen: I love that you broke my rule and gave me multiple learnings — because what you're talking about there is ownership. In our industry we tend to put the onus on the AE or the seller. But what great deal ever comes together through one person working alone? And that's a huge compliment to the culture Darktrace has already built — that as a seller, you don't feel like you have to do it alone, but instead have this whole collective of incredibly smart people you can rely on and collaborate with to get things done that change the trajectory of both your business and the customer's. 00:20:28 Harriet MacEachran: Exactly. And the other thing is — what advice would you give yourself from five years ago? Anyone in sales will know this, but: don't ever take a no personally. It doesn't matter. You'll find another deal and you'll learn from it. Going back and reflecting on what I could have done better has made me a much better salesperson — and I think it took me to exactly the right place to then start working this kind of deal. I'm looking forward to running another one, hopefully! 00:21:07 Pim Roelofsen: Absolutely. And the first no is often the start of a yes — all those questions and challenges mean they're actually interested. They're not shutting you out, they're engaged. We need to embrace that. No, that was great. And the really interesting thing, as you said at the start, is that this deal happened before MEDDICC for you. Reviewing it through the MEDDICC lens now — I would love to invite you back on in a year's time where you've used the framework from the beginning of a deal and we can see where we are then. 00:21:47 Harriet MacEachran: Yeah, I'd love that. Thanks so much, Pim. 00:21:51 Pim Roelofsen: Thanks for being with us today and making this another great episode. And that was the end of our episode with Harriet — thank you very much for being here, and until next time.
