How to Sell Cybersecurity to Your MSP Clients in 6 Easy Steps

Selling Cybersecurity Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult 

Are you struggling to convince your MSP clients of the importance of cybersecurity? 

You’re not alone. 

But don’t worry. We’ve simplified the process so you can approach your MSP clients with more confidence by showing them why they need cybersecurity and how it can benefit their business by boosting ROI and preventing emerging threats. Let’s jump right in, shall we? 

6 Convincing Ways to Sell Cybersecurity to Your MSP Clients 

1. Highlight the Risks of a Cyber Attack in Dollars: Telling your clients about the latest data breach won’t exactly convince them to sign a POC. Sure, it’s crucial to have a plan of action in the event of a ransomware attack, but it might not be enough to get them on board just yet. Instead, highlight the actual costs of a potential cyber attack to your client. Costs of a breach extend beyond monetary loss. Here are a few ways a cyber attack can impact your client:

• Class action lawsuits from clients whose data was compromised 
• Severe regulatory fines, such as those issued by GDPR and CCPA
• Reputational damages 
• Significant loss of market share
• Operational disruption and business continuity
• Higher insurance premiums 
• Customer attrition 

Once your clients fully grasp the actual loss associated with a potential cyber attack, convincing them of the importance of cybersecurity seems quite reasonable.

2. Test Their Cyber Readiness by Conducting Phishing Simulations: One way to make a convincing case is to evaluate the effectiveness of their current cybersecurity posture. The best way to approach this is by conducting a phishing simulation and seeing how many employees (your MSP client included) fall for the bait. A lot more than you might think. Data showed that 33.2% of untrained end users will fail a phishing test. Use this as a perfect opportunity to discuss cybersecurity and phishing awareness for employees. You will have a much easier argument with actual data from their end. Huge. Leverage these results to your advantage. 

3. Benchmark Against Industry Standards: How well does your MSP client stand against industry benchmarks? Are they ahead of the curve or miles behind? 

Show them the FOMO in terms of potential cybersecurity risks and ways to unlock new growth opportunities. Position them as industry leaders and point out how they can focus on mitigating the risks that impact their business most. Which business-critical risks should they prioritize? This is a major selling point. This approach strengthens their competitive position and reinforces the value of investing in comprehensive MSP cybersecurity solutions without the hard sell. 

4. Lower Insurance Premiums: Do you really want to get your clients’ attention? Ask them Who’s Liable in a Breach? And see if they truly understand where sensitive data is stored. That answer might be a bit more complex for them to answer, and that’s perfectly fine. Your role is to show them how implementing a complete cybersecurity solution can help reduce their insurance premiums, especially if they receive a class action lawsuit or pay out-of-court settlements to a client that experienced data loss. Regardless of which insurance policy they have, they can expect their premiums to skyrocket substantially if they lack preventive cybersecurity measures. No one wants that. 

5. How Your Solution Complements Their Existing Security Stack: Will your cybersecurity solution complement your clients’ existing IT stack or break it entirely? If your solution integrates smoothly with their current infrastructure, you’ve saved them additional investments in multiple security solutions, enhanced their cyber risk and threat visibility, and made their IT team your most loyal advocates. 

Speak about ongoing maintenance and customer support. These are crucial yet neglected selling points when your potential buyer is in the consideration stage of the funnel. Provide them with flexible service level agreements (SLAs) and support options that enable them to scale. They need to know that they can depend on you if a security crisis arises. 

6. Conduct a Thorough Cyber Risk Assessment: When was the last time your potential client updated their access controls? Last year? 2015? Anytime at all? 

Do they have inactive third parties no longer under contract that have full access permissions to sensitive company resources? 

Don’t be afraid to ask them this question. Something as “basic” as removing a stale user account from your AWS S3 environment can lead to a massive breach. A cybersecurity risk assessment can prevent dangerous situations by evaluating their current access controls and security policies. This is also extremely important for protecting your endpoints from BYOD-related threats. A cybersecurity risk assessment can show them the security gaps that require immediate attention. 

7. Demonstrate Clear ROI: Let’s talk numbers for a moment. The best way to sell cybersecurity is by demonstrating a clear ROI to your potential client. Here’s how you can demonstrate the return on investment. Begin by quantifying potential losses that accompany a data breach. Draw a hypothetical scenario and show them the losses firsthand. Present them with a clear and visual understanding of their current cybersecurity posture and ways in which your solution can assist them. 

Position cybersecurity as a long-term strategic investment that protects their current business operations and also supports future growth and scalability. If your cybersecurity solution consolidates multiple cybersecurity tools and platforms into a unified solution, like Guardz does, then you have saved them the costs associated with purchasing fragmented security solutions.  

Win More MSP Clients with Guardz 

Selling cybersecurity to your clients doesn’t have to be an uphill climb. Demonstrate the value you bring to the table as an MSP and gain visibility into your clients’ external postures with Guardz. Consolidate your cybersecurity and give your clients peace of mind. 

Schedule a demo today and learn how implementing a comprehensive cybersecurity solution can help you close more deals and win more clients.