Selling Information Disposition by the Book
April 12, 2017
Bob Johnson, NAID CEO
The new Information Disposition textbook (Information Disposition: A Practical Guide to the Secure, Compliant Disposal of Records, Media and IT Assets) is an amazing tool for service providers to use with customers to help them truly understand the value of your offerings.
NAID has always operated from two guiding principles and are both at the heart of the new textbook:
- An informed customer is the best way for reputable service providers to promote secure information destruction
- Information destruction service providers should be professionally qualified
As reported elsewhere, NAID’s ambitions for the book are VERY high:
- It will be used in universities to educate future data security and information professionals on a critical subject largely ignored in their current curriculum.
- It will be used by current information managers, data security professionals and risk managers to improve the way they qualify and contract service providers.
- It will educate current and future Certified Secure Destruction Specialists (CSDS) so they can better serve their employers and customers.
It can also increase sales. Here’s how…
- During the RFP or contracting process: When a prospective client is in the midst of an RFP or rebidding a contract, let them know you can give them, lend them, or direct them to a book that contains everything they need to know about the regulations, contract elements, and service provider requirements. If you know some particular weak link in their approach, you can point them to the section of the book that dispels that misconception. They might tend to ignore you when you raise an issue, but it is completely different when they see it in black and white with the sources identified. Customers also appreciate a vendor who is willing to partner with them vs. just sell to them.
- To welcome a new customer: You place bins at a new customer location, but you know there is a lot more business there. The book stresses the importance of assigning accountability, employee training, “destroy all” programs, the need to be comprehensive, etc. All of these topics are important to your customer’s compliance, but they also allow you to be of more service to them.
- Reward an existing customer: This may have occurred to you while reading the previous point. If you have a long-standing relationship with an account but you know they are not destroying all they should be (or are otherwise non-compliant), give them the book. You are doing them a favor. Over time, as they look at it or when you seek to improve what they are doing, you can point them to the book.
NAID is already aggressively pursuing its ambitious plans for introducing the book to universities and professional associations. I urge you to proactively explore how you can use it to reduce your customers’ risks by increasing the services you provide to them.
Keep following the NAIDnotes Blog and watch for my series on how this same Information Disposition textbook can be used to overcome customer misconceptions that put them at risk.
Order your copy of the book today and start putting it to work for you!