Carmella Kettner | Vice President, Global Sales Development at Cato Networks

01 — Client Overview

Cato Networks | Carmella on LinkedIn

Cato Networks | Carmella Kettner on LinkedIn

Carmella Kettner is the Vice President of Global Sales Development at Cato Networks, a cybersecurity company pioneering SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) technology.

She leads a global team of 70+ SDRs across the U.S., Germany, Singapore, Israel, and Australia.

With over 20,000 LinkedIn followers, including B2B sales, marketing, and cybersecurity professionals, Carmella is a recognized thought leader in sales development and a prominent voice in the global tech sales community.

02 — Project goals

When I joined Cato, the Employee Branding department was newly established and run by a single team member.

The team needed to scale quickly by building a consistent LinkedIn thought leadership presence for key leaders, starting with Carmella Kettner, Vice President of Global Sales Development.

I was brought on to help scale those efforts by writing executive LinkedIn thought leadership content, primarily for Carmella.

The goal was to support recruiting and brand visibility by sharing insights that reflected Cato’s sales culture, values, and approach to developing top SDR talent.

At the time, many B2B companies were just beginning to invest in employee branding as a way to strengthen recruiting and brand presence.

Cato was ahead of the curve, using executive thought leadership to attract talent and build visibility directly through its sales leaders.

Together, our goals were to:

• Develop a LinkedIn thought leadership strategy
  Establish a consistent content approach for executive voices that supported recruiting and employer branding goals.

• Attract top-performing SDR candidates
  Generate 12+ qualified SDR candidates per month by showcasing Cato’s sales culture, values, and development opportunities through executive content.

• Position Carmella as a leading voice in sales development
  Share clear, opinionated insights on the SDR role and modern sales development to attract high-performing cyber SDR talent.

• Grow Carmella’s LinkedIn audience and engagement
  Add 500+ new followers per month while maintaining strong engagement from sales and hiring audiences.

• Increase attendance at in-person recruiting events
  Promote local networking events in Tel Aviv through targeted LinkedIn content for SDR and cybersecurity professionals.

03 — Key challenges

1. Reaching an elite, narrowly defined candidate profile
Cato’s SDR team is built for experienced sellers, not entry-level reps. The target audience consisted of top-performing SDRs with 3+ years of experience in B2B cybersecurity sales and a proven ability to generate $2M+ in pipeline.

Attracting this level of talent required content that spoke directly to what elite SDRs care about, including deal complexity, career progression, leadership quality, and long-term growth, without diluting the message for a broader audience.

2. Balancing thought leadership with authenticity and sensitivity
To earn trust, the content needed to reflect the realities SDRs were facing, including job market uncertainty, burnout, layoffs, and compensation concerns. The challenge was addressing these topics honestly without resorting to generic motivation or overly positive messaging.

The content had to strike a careful balance: leading with empathy and credibility, while still positioning Cato as a place where high-performing SDRs could do meaningful work, grow their careers, and be valued for their impact.

04 — Solutions

1. Published two high-impact thought leadership posts per week
I delivered ready-to-publish LinkedIn posts for Carmella at a consistent cadence, speaking directly to experienced SDRs, sales leaders, and cybersecurity professionals. Each post was designed to reflect Cato’s sales culture, leadership standards, and expectations, attracting candidates aligned with the level of performance required.

2. Used audience engagement to shape content direction
I monitored comments and engagement patterns to identify recurring questions, objections, and themes from SDRs in the market. That feedback informed future posts, allowing the content to stay relevant, timely, and grounded in what elite candidates actually cared about.

3. Aligned content with employer brand and hiring goals
Every post reinforced Cato’s employer brand by highlighting real expectations, growth paths, and the realities of high-performance SDR work. This ensured the content attracted candidates who were a strong match for Cato’s standards, global team structure, and sales environment.