How To Speak To SMBs About Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is an ever-evolving discipline that isn’t always easy to explain to non-technical business owners. So how can you be expected to sell a product that’s easily misunderstood to a small to mid-sized business (SMB)?

The answer is simple. You sell them on the benefits the solution provides and speak in terms that are easy to understand. These solutions will provide not only protection for SMBs, but also the peace of mind they need to continue doing business with confidence.

Approaching these cybersecurity conversations thoughtfully is just as important as the solutions your sales team is selling. To ease into these conversations, check out our eBook, A Guide to Selling Cybersecurity, which is meant to help your sales team have more effective dialogue through the lens of the following five solutions:

• Antivirus 
• DNS Security
• Firewalls
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
• Managed Detection and Response

Read on for a sneak peek at how you can frame your next cybersecurity pitch to speak to the importance of layered security for SMBs.

Antivirus Solutions for the Next Generation

When adversaries attack, the last thing you want is to be caught unprepared. Offering a next-generation antivirus solution in your stack can help you prevent, detect and remove costly malware and ransomware. 

With traditional antivirus software, these typically search for known malicious patterns and behaviors in programs, scripts and commands. Next-gen antivirus solutions take network monitoring a step further. They focus on operating system (OS) interactions to understand the full nature of an attack. 

For business owners that aren’t familiar with the nuances between traditional antivirus software and next-generation antivirus solutions, it is vital that you break down their distinct roles in your cybersecurity sales conversation. 

Share how traditional antivirus software takes a malware-centric approach, which can help your clients detect pre-identified malicious patterns, whereas next-gen AV picks up where traditional antivirus software stops. Next-gen AV uses AI techniques to “self-learn” and detect malware that may have slipped through. Together, they provide detection that grants your clients peace of mind.

Pro Tip: Our eBook contains specific talking points you can use to establish those differences while speaking with clients.

Lock Down Your SMB Clients’ Networks with DNS Security

Leverage records and queries to prevent your SMB clients’ devices from downloading the malware that gives hackers the access they need to:

• Steal your SMB client’s personal information
• Vandalize your network
• Damage your client’s reputation

DNS security is an essential piece to a solid security posture. It essentially focuses on securing DNS data—the records and queries that form the new relationships between domain names, IP addresses and autonomous system numbers.

Many clients may be unfamiliar with DNS security or confuse it with the firewalls they already have in place. So how can your sales team effectively communicate the need for DNS security to your SMB clients?

The key will be in establishing the difference between DNS security and firewalls at the onset of your conversations. For example, this could include how it can protect their employees against threats on the internet wherever they physically are (not just behind the corporate firewall). Once you have laid the foundation for what DNS security is, then you can begin to talk about benefits to help clients better understand its need.

Prevent Intrusions with Firewalls and Unified Threat Management 

Designed to restrict network traffic based on source, destination, port and protocol details, firewalls create a barrier between an unsecured internet and your devices. 

When installed, firewalls offer a variety of benefits, such as:

• Protecting externally-facing systems from attack
• Monitoring outbound track for anomalies
• Preventing access to unpatched vulnerabilities

Firewalls have been a staple in cybersecurity stacks for many years and face less resistance than newer layers. And while the ones that are in place today may have served your clients well in the past, hackers are getting smarter. 

We typically recommend going beyond the basic security measures—you can do that by stepping into unified threat management territory and offering advanced add-on features like data decryption, file inspection, and spam and virus filtration.

Protect Access with Multi-Factor Authentication

Let’s be honest: multi-factor authentication (MFA) can be a tough sell. It’s one of the least popular security features offered to SMBs because of its added cost and perceived inconvenience. 

However, having one or more additional authentication requirements after initial login is instrumental in protecting SMBs from compromised passwords. 

MFA technology is based on challenging the user with more than what they know (a password). Instead, they must also verify their identity with something they have (a security code sent to a cell phone) or something they are (biometric scanning). 

Today, MFA is simply a must-have—and discussing its benefits with your SMB clients is an equally critical step. When entering a conversation with your clients, be sure to highlight how multi-factor authentication reduces the risk of compromised passwords, ensures the confidentiality and integrity of the network and starts them down the right path to zero-trust security by making all users pass the same authentication steps.

Go On the Offensive with Managed Detection and Response

The best defense is a good offense. This old adage doesn’t just apply to sports and military combat, but to cybersecurity, too. 

Managed detection and response (MDR) focuses on quickly identifying and responding to threats that have bypassed preventive security measures. It typically uses advanced analysis, threat intelligence and human expertise to complement any gaps in existing security layers. 

MDR is similar to a guard dog in your backyard. When a burglar hops your fence, the dog chases down the intruder—preventing the theft of any valuables. When hackers slip into a network, MDR takes that same offensive approach. It’s one of the few layers of security that proactively looks for indicators of compromise and takes the fight to the hackers—making MDR a worthy inclusion to any SMB security strategy.  

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We know that keeping up with cybersecurity is hard, and sometimes advising non-technical SMBs on their security is even harder. Download our guide below to make these conversations with clients less of a hassle and help raise the bar for their security.