Using Security as a Conversation Starter with Clients

There’s been a significant shift in the services business over the past few years. When customer contracts begin to approach their conclusion date, most providers are very proactive and engage these clients to continue to expand their support programs. You can’t expect to automatically extend existing contracts, even if it was a common practice before. Times have changed; perhaps this change is due to the negative shift in the economy or the continued drive for efficiency in many businesses. Either way, VARs and MSPs must keep the conversation with customers active at all times. What better way to engage and up sell your existing clients than to ramp up the dialogue on their network security.       

At the latest ASCII Success Summit in Boston, several channel executives shared their thoughts on the subject during the panel discussion, “Approaches to Leverage the ‘Security’ Conversation to Retain Customers.” Before starting the discussion, providers should assess their client’s security concerns around bandwidth usage, the introduction of additional mobile devices, the use of social media by employees and other issues. Understanding the industry and legal compliance issues that your customers face is the first step. “One good way to bring up the security issue with customers is to inquire about the new devices their employees are using within their network, such as iPads that aren’t secured properly,” says Todd Thibodeaux, CEO of CompTIA.

Obviously bringing up the potential problems is not going to solve the problem, but it does allow you to offer consulting services to fully assess their needs and then review solutions that could be deployed in their business. Each state and industry presents its own challenge for clients and providers, with no easy way to ensure all requirements are met. “There isn’t a central clearinghouse where providers can search for the latest compliance issues, but CompTIA is working to develop a program to solve that problem for our members,” says Thibodeaux. Providers that wish to promote their security expertise should also consider getting a CompTIA Security Trustmark, which not only validates the business' expertise, but confirms their dedication to the practice.

Not only will this discussion allow you to get into security solutions such as multilayer protection for their network, but it could also lead to additional revenue streams from secure backup and data recovery as well as other services. The first step is to strike up the conversation and listen carefully to the needs of that particular customer. Don’t make the talk a complete portfolio review of all your products and services; ensure the client’s needs are real and then offer them alternatives that make sense. Even if you aren’t able to up sell the customer, or even retain their business in some cases, you will be following a best practice that will likely increase your company’s revenue streams over time.