All Budgets Lie

No budget! How many times have you heard these words? “No one has budget, there’s no money to spend, we have to wait until next quarter…” So just go back to the office and tell you sales manager to hold off on selling until Q1. No problem, I’m sure they’ll understand. Meanwhile, can you raise my base so I can live a few more months?

What if the doctor said, “You’re about to have a heart attack?” Would you tell him, “This is a bad time – Christmas is approaching and you funds are tied up, or maybe the economy isn’t great so you’ll have to hold off on treatment?” No way! You’d be there, reallocating, taking money out of savings, or even taking money out of 401K with a penalty if you needed it to live on while recovering. Remember, you’re on commission, so if you’re not selling, you’re not getting paid. Insurance might cover some bills, but you’re going to need living money. Yet, you still take care of the issue. Why? Because it’s urgent! Because budgets lie.

Security is urgent. There is no budget. This is why I am always talking about selling security, or tying risk mitigation to product and project sales. Would you believe I bought Salesforce.com for security reasons? That’s right, I was experiencing major problems with Act! and on the verge of losing my contact database. After three corruptions I moved to a product used by major global companies, figuring that if Salesforce was experiencing problems, John Chambers would be on the phone pushing them toward a solution. I bought is at a time when funds were low, but it didn’t matter. I reallocated.

Find the urgency. Every company is experiencing urgent threats, they just don’t realize it. Be the one to show them the issues – but make sure you show the people that matter in a way they can understand it. Then show them the solution. If it’s as urgent as a heart attack, you’re in. And for asset owners, losing 100 million credit card numbers borders on a heart attack.