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Why Buyers Scrutinize SMB Data Protection Practices

Why Buyers Scrutinize SMB Data Protection Practices

It’s no surprise that customers have high expectations for companies when it comes to data protection. In fact, 71% of consumers believe organizations have an obligation to control access to their information.

Data Protection is a Big Deal in B2B

In the case of B2B businesses, data protection is a top priority. Data breaches cost businesses money and customers. As a business, your data is one of your critical assets, and if it were to be gone, corrupted or used against you for nefarious purposes, your business could be gone in short order.

Regardless, if your business can survive a significant breach, the tarnish to your brand will still be there. Enterprise and government organizations are deeply aware of the damage and fallout that a significant data breach can cause. Because of this, they’re scrutinizing the data protection strategies of the vendors they buy products and services from with the same vigor that they apply to their own organizations. If you’re selling to any organization of significant size, you need to be prepared to answer questions about what your company does to protect data.

Protect and Serve Your Customers

When a company is breached, its customers start to question the integrity of their data. A large number of people have already had private information stolen in data breaches of social media companies like Facebook. There’s a particularly high risk for small businesses that have lots of competition and often minimual security standards.

Basically, once you lose customer trust it’s extremely difficult to earn it back. And because cyber threats aren’t going away anytime soon, it’s important to prove to customers that you’re doing everything in your power to protect their data.

A good place to start with data security is with the following:

  • Talk to your team and raise awareness
  • Reinforce team awareness and knowledge with regular training
  • Enforce a secure password policy
  • Encrypt and backup your data
  • Consider your Business Continuity Plan and ask your service providers and partners about theirs

The costs associated with cyber breaches and why a strong cybersecurity posture is important in the B2B sales process are just a few topics we cover in our white paper here.

For more on these data protection tips, check out our post here: 5 Things You Can do to Help Secure Your Company Against Cyber Threats.

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