If you’re a small business that’s selling, or hopes to sell, products to larger companies /organizations, you need to level-up your cyber security posture. Any weakness in your cyber security strategy can stall the sales process.

Compliance Standards
In B2B selling it’s common practice for the larger entity to expect you, the supplier , to become compliant with at least one the following standards:

• ISO/IEC 27001 – “is a family of standards that helps organizations keep information assets secure. Using this family of standards will help your organization manage the security of assets such as financial information, intellectual property, employee details or information entrusted to you by third parties.”

• NIST – The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF) provides a policy framework of computer security guidance for how private sector organizations in the United States can assess and improve their ability to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber attacks.
  
  
• SOC 2 – SOC 2 is one of the more common compliance requirements technology companies must meet today. SOC 2 is specifically designed for service providers storing customer data in the cloud. That means SOC 2 applies to nearly every SaaS company, as well as any company that uses the cloud to store its customers’ information.

Deals slip through  the fingers of small businesses everyday because they were are compliant at the time of signing on the dotted line.

Benefits of Having Strong Cyber Security
To save yourself from the sleepless nights after a deal doesn’t close, we’re going to share a few benefits of becoming compliant:

• Ensure that your own company’s data is better protected and prevent any hurdles in future sales
• Lower legal, marketing, and operating expenses
• Customers and business partners will trust you further with their data knowing that your company takes the security seriously

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