- Companies only use two percent of IT budgets on cybersecurity.
- If we plan for the eventual budget constraints and managerial objections, we can calmly answer objections with detailed assets.
According to a report by Canalys, cybersecurity spending only made up two percent of overall IT budgets for 2018. You have a huge opportunity to help corporations even out IT spending by focusing on prevention, monitoring, and security tools that teams only purchase after it’s too late.
Cybersecurity budgets are difficult to argue for because companies don’t want to believe they’re vulnerable. They think “We’ve hired smart people. We’ve bought security software. We must be safe.” But if companies only spend two percent of their budgets on cybersecurity, they’re attempting to hold an ocean in a paper cup.
Let’s assume that offering discounts on your cybersecurity product is off the table — because most marketers don’t have the ability to set pricing. The items on this list are sales enablement pieces that you can prepare to help IT pros argue for more budgets. Consider packaging them in different ways to suit the buyer’s needs: one-off PDFs, worksheets to mitigate budget objections, as a full-service toolset within your nurture program, or somewhere in between.
Provide risk assessment tools
Worksheets, spreadsheets, and free tools are all ways you can help companies better understand their current risk. Prepare these tools for your customers and make them available at all stages of the sales funnel.
Be an enabler and help CISOs reduce the amount of work they have to do before they go into that boardroom to argue for more budget. Offer webinars on risk assessment and give away free counseling sessions. You know that the software that provides helpful answers is the software that gets remembered. Offer these assets because you want to help, and some of those you helped will come back to you when they need to buy.
Influence the distribution of IT budgets
To influence how companies distribute their IT budgets, you need to provide evidence that your cybersecurity product protects current assets and also drives growth. Use key metrics from case studies and testimonials to show ROI. Give your audience snackable content that prioritizes the return on investment. What are the stats that you can use to show your effectiveness? Provide these in bite-sized stats instead of lengthy downloads that no one will read.
Help your audience align security with business goals, again offering free tools, downloads, or infographics with stats that the CISO can take to the other C-levels or the executive can take to the CEO to fight for more funding.
Find an advocate
When one person touts how great a tool is, they’re easily ignored. But it’s harder to ignore a crowd of people who are all pushing for change. Internal advocacy is highly effective, so help prospects find advocates in their company.
Give advocates the resources to share with their colleagues and gather further advocacy. The more people in the office and across departments that talk about the importance of security, the more likely that mindset will meet the purse strings.
Focus on downstream activities
Data security is important for IT, but also for engineering, customer success, and HR. A recent IBM study showed that 60 percent of breaches are caused by employees. All departments need to feel their data is secure so they can focus on their real jobs.
Without proper security, initiatives like BI, artificial intelligence, and automation are put at risk. Security isn’t siloed, even if its budget is.
Draw up assets that remind decision makers how other teams are affected by a cybersecurity breach. Write individual assets for marketing, sales, engineering, supply chain, and manufacturing, and enumerate how those teams will be affected when the eventual breach happens. Maybe cybersecurity should be getting more of everyone’s pie, not just IT’s.
Landing the ship, safely
Finally, position your team as a full-service partner. You’re there to help IT departments solve problems by suggesting innovative answers, providing the right information, and investing in the success of their employees.
TechnologyAdvice works with CISOs and IT decision makers every day. We can help you find the right audience for your software while staying within your budget. Find out more about our partner programs.
