CISOs ignore pitches. They answer good questions.
VideoInterviewer invites security leaders at your named accounts to a paid, 15-minute AI video interview about their program. You get the conversation your SDRs can't book, plus structured signal on stack, triggers, budget timing and who decides.
Maya · AI interviewer
VP Security Ops
MayaYou mentioned your CIO signs off. Who else would sit in that evaluation?
Every channel to a security buyer is saturated
Security leaders are among the most heavily prospected buyers in B2B. Each channel below either costs a lot per conversation or tells you very little when it works.
| Method | What the buyer experiences | Cost signal | What you learn |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cold email sequences | Another vendor asking for 15 minutes; filtered or ignored | Average B2B reply rate ~3.4% in 2026, down from ~5% in 2025 | Mostly opens and unsubscribes |
| LinkedIn and InMail | Connection request followed by a pitch | Seat licences plus rep time | Whether they accepted a connection |
| Cold calling | Unknown number, screened by voicemail | Rep hours per connect | Occasional timing, rarely recorded |
| Events and exec dinners | A good meal and a vendor pitch in the same room | High cost per attendee; few accounts per event | Relationships, anecdotally captured |
| Pay-per-meeting agencies | A booked call with an SDR they have never heard of | ~$350 Director+, ~$500 VP+, $750+ C-level per meeting | A meeting, with little structured data |
| AI SDRs | More personalised email at higher volume | 11x from $36K/yr; many tools on annual contracts | Reply sentiment |
| VideoInterviewer | A paid invitation to share expertise; no pitch in the session | Platform fee plus per-interview credit and honorarium | Pain, stack, triggers, budget window, buying group, opt-in follow-up |
Sources: Reachoutly / Instantly 2026 benchmark, SalesHive pay-per-meeting pricing, Operater AI SDR cost 2026.
Listen first, pay for expertise, capture everything
It respects how CISOs already share knowledge
Security leaders take paid expert-network calls and peer advisory sessions. A fair honorarium for 15 minutes of expertise fits that norm; a sales pitch does not.
It returns direction, not a reply rate
Every session extracts the tools in place, what is failing, renewal and budget timing, and who signs. Your AEs start the first call already knowing the account.
It adapts like a good SE would
The AI moderator follows up on what the buyer says: why a tool was replaced, what a board asked for, which incident changed priorities.
It is transparent by design
Every invite says the interviewer is an AI, sessions start with recording consent, and any follow-up with your team is opt-in. That matters to a buyer whose job is spotting deception.
One loop, run weekly
- Hypothesis and scriptWe write interview scripts per product line and persona from your positioning and win stories.
- Invite named accountsVerified security leaders at your target accounts get a personal invite with the honorarium stated upfront.
- 15-minute AI interviewA live video avatar runs the session on the buyer's schedule, in their language.
- Extract and scoreTranscripts become structured signal and a fit-and-timing score for each person and account.
- Route to your teamFindings land in an account room and your CRM; buyers who opt in get a follow-up with your AE.
Every session lands scored, clipped and ready for your AE
Your team works from a session inbox. Each completed interview has a fit score, the signal it surfaced, and short clips of the moments that matter.
0:42 clip · 07:16
“We bought three identity tools in four years. Nobody owns the gaps between them, and that's where our last audit finding came from.”
An account brief your AE can act on
An illustrative output for the Fortune 500 retailer after two interviews, with the gap still to fill.
High pain, known renewal window, and an executive sponsor who named the problem unprompted.
- Stack
- Two overlapping detection tools, one SIEM
- Pain
- Alert triage load on a small team
- Trigger
- Consolidation review before Q2 renewal
One platform fee gets two product lines running
For enterprise security vendors we recommend a single setup-and-platform package. It covers everything needed to launch interviews against your named accounts for two product lines.
Enterprise setup for two product lines, with your team in the loop at every stage.
- Two product lines configuredSeparate scripts, personas, scoring rules and account lists for each line
- AI avatar setupInterviewer look, voice and tone chosen and tuned for security buyers
- Interview prepScripts per persona (CISO, security architect, SecOps lead) built from your positioning
- Testing and validationPilot sessions with friendly practitioners before any buyer is invited
- Comp levels per interviewHonorarium set by seniority, paid to the interviewee or given as a charity contribution
- Review with your internal teamScript, scoring and first-results reviews with sales, marketing and product
Suggested comp levels per completed interview
| Interviewee level | Honorarium | How it's given |
|---|---|---|
| Security engineer / architect | $50 | Paid or charity |
| Director, security or IT risk | $100 | Paid or charity |
| VP / Head of Security | $150 | Paid or charity |
| CISO / CSO | $250 | Paid or charity |
Many financial services, healthcare and large enterprise employers cap vendor gifts. For those accounts we default to a charity contribution in the interviewee's name, so their policy is never the reason they decline. Honoraria and per-interview credits are billed separately from the platform fee and finalised with your team during setup.
Starting list of accounts to interview
A proposed first wave of large enterprises with sizeable security teams, split across the two product lines. Product line A covers cloud and identity security; product line B covers security operations and OT. We finalise the list and tracks with your team during setup.
| Account | Sector | Interview personas | Track | Comp default |
|---|
Company names identify proposed targets only; none of these companies is a VideoInterviewer customer or has endorsed this program. Public-sector buyers are excluded because of gift and ethics rules.
Pick your two product lines and we start scripting
A 30-minute setup call covers your target personas, the first 50 accounts, comp policy and success metrics. Interviews can start once scripts pass validation with your team.
Book a setup call at videointerviewer.com