Do You Make This Mistake With Your Network Security Assessments?

By The Business Solutions Network

In last month's issue of Business Solutions magazine, I talked with Charles Johnson, CEO of $5.5 million network security consultant and VAR EDTS. (See 4 Secrets Of A  Trusted Network Security Advisor) His company experienced 45% revenue growth in 2011, and it's projecting 15% growth this year. One of the secrets Johnson shared with me was that he's learned to take a more consultative approach to interacting with his customers. I hear that statement so often from interviewees that it feels like a cliché at times, but the reality is that manyVARs are still stuck in the mode of trying to push products.

There was one other part of EDTS' consultative approach that struck me as unique. Here's a paragraph from the article:

To better align with customers' needs, EDTS has learned to take a consultative approach to selling, oftentimes approaching a prospect as a pure consultant that can give them a neutral third-party perspective on the state of their network security. "We put no pressure on them to ditch their current reseller partners; we simply present them with the facts our network assessment," says Johnson.

He later goes on to say that in many cases, once a customer sees the results of their network assessment, they will ask EDTS for a quote. "But, if they don't, we never initiate a discussion about the cost of fixing their security problems."

I remember during my interview with Johnson that I was taken aback when he told me this last part. Really, you never suggest to them that you can help them with this problem? I probed. 'Never,' he insisted. His reason was that he didn't want to hurt his credibility as a consultant. I guess the moral of the story is that if you do a good enough job at the network security assessment, you don't need to worry about having to 'sell' the client on your services capabilities.

I'd love to hear from you to find out how much your experience lines up with EDTS' experience.