Multiple facets of security
Security is critically important trend in today’s market. In professional selling aligning selling efforts with key market trends, like security, is vital.
Security is the degree of resistance to, or protection from, harm. It is important in every field, industry or functional role as it applies to anything that is considered vulnerable and valuable. There are many facets to the question of security, as you will see in the attached diagram.
There are trends that are fads and short-lived. Security is a market trend that has grown in prominence over a long period of time. It impacts every aspect of life both personally and professionally. For this discussion let’s focus on the important connection between your professional selling efforts and this vital market trend.
You don’t have to be selling a security product or in the security industry to align your company offering to the security trend. Confidentiality, privacy, exclusivity, internal operations are top of mind in every industry.
- Privacy is essential in healthcare (in practice and by regulation, like HIPPA).
- Retail wants to protect customer data (reflect on recent news of Target & Nieman Marcus).
- Government internal operations seek balance between transparency and national security (think of Edward Snowdon & Wikileaks).
- Manufacturing, Mining and agriculture want to protect trade secrets to maintain their leadership.
- Authors copyright their work.
- Inventors patent their discoveries.
PRODUCTS and SERVICES. Clearly communicate how your offering delivers secure operations. Evaluate the ways in which your products and services contribute to a secure environment. These will be industry specific to your customers. Look to marketing and engineering to identify these powerful security assets.
- Infrastructure that limits vulnerability.
- Administrative access that detects unwanted use.
- User entry that detects and prevents unauthorized access.
- Processes that protect confidentiality and provide information on an as-needed basis.
- Operations that reduce or eliminate exploitation.
BIG PICTURE. Your products and services do not operate alone to provide customers with secure operations. Understand the bigger picture in which your offerings are used. How do they contribute to the secure strength of the larger operation? It is not a “stand alone” world. Every product, service and process operates in a larger ecosystem.
- What is the security payback for the big picture when including your offering?
- What are the potential consequences if not?
- How is your offering unique in providing secure aspects of the larger system?
YOUR CONDUCT. How you conduct yourself is one of the most powerful expressions of respect for security. When you were a child do you remember a time when one friend betrayed the confidence of another by telling their secret to a third person? The trust was broken, along with the friendship. Business is the same, and can even have more grave consequences. Here are a few of my favorite do’s and don’ts:
- DO share confidential information under NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements). Make your customers feel special, realizing that only a few select customers are provided access to exclusive information.
- DON’T talk with one company about another’s proprietary operations. It will erode trust as they will assume that you will also share their proprietary information with others.
- DO protect your company assets. In both information and equipment, your company assets are valuable and worth protecting. Your customers value what you value.
- DO ask your customers what security issues are important to their business.
Be knowledgeable in industry specific security issues. Make critical trends, like security, a goal for continued learning. Read industry journals to learn the security issues and regulations important to your company and the industries of your customers. Join relevant industry associations.
Every professional selling effort needs to address issues of security. It can make the difference between being relevant and irrelevant, between being connected and uninformed or between winning and losing.