Trend Micro gets noisy with UK hiring spree

Security vendor recruiting 13 more sales and techie staff to build awareness for newer products

Trend Micro is aiming to raise awareness for its newer products the old-fashioned way by putting 13 more pairs of feet on the UK streets.

The "pro-channel" investment, which comes after Trend released 20 product enhancements last month, was signed off by global heads at Trend's sales leader conference in Cork last week.

UK regional account manager (RAM) headcount will be trebled to 12, while the technical sales staff number will double to 10.

UK sales and channel director Ross Baker admitted the public perception of Trend hadn't necessarily kept pace with the vendor's evolution from its roots in anti-virus and anti-malware.

The new starters will help the Japanese vendor make more noise around the "three Cs" of security: consumerisation, cloud and cybersecurity, Baker said. Many end users were not even aware Trend had a cybersecurity offering until it received a recommended rating from NSS Labs earlier this month, he added.

"We're acting like a 5,000-employee start-up and are going to go out there and tell people what Trend is about," Baker said.

He said he hoped the move would be viewed as a pro-channel strategy, stressing that RAMs have a dual role working both with resellers and end users.

"We are leading from the front to help create a market with the channel. We are practising before we preach," he said.

"We've got to make noise and we're doing that in the old-fashioned way of putting more feet on the street. And the channel instinctively goes where the noise is. We have the headcount and are ready to go."

The hiring spree is designed to coincide with this week's CV-swapping fest that is Infosec.

"If you know of any good salespeople, let me know," Baker said.