When it comes to winning prospective customers, the deciding factor usually isn’t price or speed. It’s confidence in the company to protect their information and interests.
A recent Ponemon Institute report revealed 73% of organizations are more likely to purchase “from companies that are finding, mitigating, and communicating security vulnerabilities proactively.”
Even the best security program, however, can’t reach its full potential if nobody knows about it.
Many organizations fail to promote their security. Not through ads or marketing campaigns, but through security program transparency. Sharing your organization’s security philosophy and approach to data protection is a good start. You can also publish links to any completed reports, like SOC 2 and ISO 27001, as an update on your ongoing security efforts.
Sell a security-first culture
A security-first culture is a key selling point for most customers. Including it into your sales process, however, requires timing and familiarity with the prospect’s needs. For example, going into too many security details during the discovery call can often become too heavy-handed.
Instead, share information about your compliance program in your sales deck. A dedicated credibility slide can include your customer logos, industry awards, recognitions, and any security compliance frameworks.
This approach is effective in showing, not telling, the benefits of your security program. Prospects can inquire more if they’re interested, which gives sales teams the opportunity to highlight key aspects.
Make security central to your value proposition
The topic of security may not come up during your first few sales calls. If this is the case, make it a point to bring it into discussion before the demo or trial stage. This enables you to provide more context on the security measures and highlight what differentiates it from competitors.
Sales enablement material that highlights key security points is extremely helpful during this step. An InfoSec program document or a security assurance report are enough to give a clear look into your security program and assure potential customers their data will be protected when using your product or service.
Of course, a security program doesn’t just protect your key data assets. It also defends your reputation. By implementing some of the points outlined above, your InfoSec program can help establish credibility, differentiate yourself from competitors, and win more deals.
Learn more about gaining compliance by downloading our eBook about the ISO 27001 journey. You can also request a demo for OneTrust’s Compliance Automation tool.
