Trust is currency in the world of security systems procurement

Trust is one of the most important factors in sealing a business deal.

It’s one that a wise person will treat as currency. Like money, trust is hard earned and – if you’re not careful in your decision-making – easily lost. It filters through all personal and business transactions, yet the stakes are particularly high when it comes to security.

With security systems procurement, the cost of placing trust in the wrong partner or provider is not just financial. Doing so can cause irretrievable damage to reputation and in the most extreme cases put lives at risk.

Furthermore, at a time of state-sponsored hacking and regular cyber-attacks the threats have evolved since almost every piece of physical security equipment is IP-enabled and acts as a potential entry point to an organisations’ critical infrastructure. The cost of a poor decision is no longer a local incident contained to one site.

It potentially undermines the security of the entire organisation, its employees, customers and partners. A vendor that doesn’t acknowledge and appreciate the gravity of this situation should be treated with suspicion.

IFSEC itself has acknowledged the changing landscape and expanded its initiatives for training, education and awareness to installers and end-users. The event may have begun 40 years ago squarely in the world of physical security, but it’s adapting to a changing security environment in which matters of IT and cyber security are all-encompassing and key components of the buyer’s decision-making process.

Lesser-known brands need to work twice as hard to put themselves in the public eye

Outside  cybersecurity all the traditional factors that help to engender trust continue to apply. It could be argued that one of the key aspects a security professional looks for is a name that they know.

This might put start-ups or smaller players at a disadvantage as, even when a better-quality brand exists, people may instinctively go with the names they know and trust. This is why lesser-known brands need to work twice as hard to put themselves in the public eye.

When you’re the new kid on the block, business doesn’t just fall into your lap. New vendors and those looking to break into a new territory or vertical must aggressively put themselves in front of national, trade and vertical media outlets, analysts, reviewers and influencers.

Word of mouth, case studies from happy customers, positive press coverage and a strong social media presence all contribute greatly to building a brand’s reputation.

Valuable commodity

Trust is an even more valuable commodity given that the average number of customer stakeholders involved in a purchasing decision is now estimated to be 6.8, up from 5.4 in late 2014. Therefore, even when the sales team has convinced one decision-maker on the merits of the solution, there are plenty of  competing agendas from other decision makers in the mix that could bring the deal grinding to a halt.

Take for example an access control system that has been in place and worked well for the past 15-20 years. The facilities manager may be convinced of the need to modernise the infrastructure and the head of security may support it, seeing it as an opportunity to enhance physical and cyber resilience.

However, the finance department may need to be convinced to allocate money to invest in a new system that fundamentally does the same as the old one. Or an already overworked IT department may simply want to push the project back indefinitely.

To overcome this, vendors must equip their customers with details on the state-of-the-art features that future-proof the investment or that can save money over time. They must instil trust that they are the right partner for a project of this magnitude by helping end users to mobilise and make the business case internally.

And finally, since honesty breeds trust, they should be up-front about the fact that software vulnerabilities are a fact of life and that legacy systems must be regularly maintained to remain secure.

This is another reason why public perception is so important. If vendors are known as forward-thinking thought leaders with an understanding of industry trends present and future, they will be trusted not only by security buyers but also by decision makers on the board.

Apathy is the biggest barrier to a sale so there needs to be a compelling reason for change

Selling an individual on the merits of a solution is one thing, but without the backing of wider stakeholders it will rarely conclude in a successful deal. Apathy is the biggest barrier to a sale so there needs to be a compelling reason for change.

Fundamentally, trust is one of the most essential aspects of business and a vitally important part of selling security solutions. For a security vendor, earning the trust of a prospective customer is essential in securing a sale – but it can be an uphill struggle.

With countless established players whose legacies speak for themselves, vendors with less of an established brand need to prove their credentials under a great deal of scrutiny. Building a positive reputation, proving yourself to be forward-thinking in terms of cybersecurity and cognisant of industry issues, and creating a competitively priced product that generates value are all key.

This doesn’t just apply to up-and-comers; established names need to work just as hard to prove their ideas and products are fresh, because staying static in this industry is the same as moving backwards.

But that’s just the start. Say Communications is in the process of commissioning research to understand the key factors physical security decision-makers take into consideration when determining the trustworthiness of a security vendor. Click here if you’d like to register to receive an overview of the key findings.