There’s Big Money In Risk Assessments

If You Know How To Sell Them…

But You Must Start Here If You Plan to Succeed:

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about free assessments – an incredibly fast (yet misunderstood) way to create business, when the prospect doesn’t understand their true needs (which seems to be more often than not).

The question is, is there a time to charge? And if so, how much, what scope, where do you start?

In this Part I article, I’ll show you where to begin when creating new business through fee based assessments…

What Your Client Needs, and Where to Begin Your Sales Process

First, it’s important to start where people are, and then take them to where they need to go. In other words, you can’t sell someone what they need, when they don’t yet know their needs. Great marketing starts by understanding the buyer’s desires, and then reframing that prospect’s thinking.

Most larger (fee based) assessment opportunities start with an IT person. If the prospect-company lacks an IT group, they’re probably too small to command a reasonable price for assessing. In that case, I’d go back to FREE ASSESSMENTS and sell them the recurring revenue-managed services & security program. That is what they really need…

Think Like a Psychologist, And Listen to Your Prospect’s Pressing Need…(But Don’t Sell Try to Sell Them Anything Yet) 

When asked to quote an assessment, you might be tempted to jump in and start your discovery; how many firewalls, how many servers, do you want applications assessed too?

This is the wrong approach!!!!

Leading with technical questions, leads to competing on price.

The IT person has something in mind…is it a true risk assessment? Did they call it something else; Pen Test, Vulnerability Assessment, Audit, etc. Do they know the difference? (Probably not).

Establish your contact’s desire first. Ask them…What is it you’re looking for?” And, “WHY do you need it?”

This second question is the more important question (WHY). Expect answers like, “To see if we’re secure,” or “To show our clients we are secure.” You see the problem here?

First, you know that there is no such thing as being “secure”. Second, the assessment is only going to reveal problems this company didn’t know existed. So the idea of certifying your buyer’s infrastructure is a fallacy.

It’s time to reframe (EDUCATE)!!!

Find out where this request is coming from and what’s been done in the past.

ASK THEM:

• Is this request coming down from the CIO? The Board? The President?
• Is there a compliance requirement here, or is this just about internal data security?
• What are the stake holders looking for in terms of a deliverable? Have you done this before? (Getting a past deliverable can be invaluable).
• Who else are you considering for this project (This is a key question most are afraid to ask)?
• And be sure to ask about their selection criteria!

Avoiding the Price Game – And The Steve Jobs Wanna-Be

Chances are your IT contact doesn’t really know what’s going on. He needs an assessment or pen test, and probably doesn’t know the difference. At this point he’s looking to you for a comparison quote.  The last thing you want to do is give him what he’s asking for.

Your IT contact is just a cog in the larger wheel of technology bureaucracy. (Note, if your contact is actually part of a security team, the approach will be different.

I’m specifically talking about IT here – and I started my career in IT, working for two different F500 companies. I’ve seen this from the other side. Don’t over estimate what IT knows about security.

If you simply respond to a bid, or scope out what IT is requesting, the buyer will have nothing to match your price against (in terms of value) other than your competition’s bids and his budget.

Comparison’s against anything other than established need and value are meaningless, and simply lead to price wars.

In every competitive deal there’s at least one guy working out of his garage, offering low-ball prices (and they’re not Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak). You don’t want the truck-slammers of the world to be the yardstick by which buyers vet your price.

Reframing Your Prospect’s Thinking

Here’s what happened the last time I worked on a competitive assessment deal…

I was hired by a reseller to work closely with their sales team as a coach/advisor…

(Years ago I had built and led the Security Team for a large global integrator, where we primarily led with assessments – so this call was not new territory).

As expected, our new prospect was looking for an assessment – in his words, a vulnerability assessment. After going through the steps outlined above, we began our reframing process.

First, we asked him, “Do you know what your board is asking your CIO for?” His answer was predictably vague. How would he know?

Next, my client (the reseller) drew the Impact vs. Likelihood Graph on the whiteboard (Page 194 in my book, The House & The Cloud).  He began to review the five things board members demand:

1. What are our most important data assets, and where are they?
2. What are the odds we’ll suffer some major intrusion or outage?
3. What our estimated impact?
4. How are we working to minimize this risk?
5. Are we getting better or worse over time? How are we managing to it?

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Time To Bring Out The One Thing That Sets You Apart From the 13…

Without calling out our competition (never a good thing to do), we began to describe what most vulnerability assessments look like, how they’re approached (something for a future article), and why they aren’t going to satisfy the board’s request.

At that point, my client (the reseller I had been working on the House & Cloud Concepts with) pulled out a sample deliverable (with no intention of leaving it with the prospect) and began to go through the type of deliverable that would make an IT Director a hero…

Deal closed…Well, There’s more to it, but this is just Part I of a predictable assessment sales process designed to front-end big profits and future business.

© David Stelzl, 2017