How To Talk About GRC With Your Sales Teams

Table of Contents

Destination - Show Me The Money

A bit about the local population:

Sales teams are some of the hottest stakeholders for security compliance folks. They are fast-talking, get-to-the-point, live-for-the-weekend types. They work hard and play hard. If they do not see the point of a conversation, they will quickly tell you that you are wasting their time. With Sales teams, time is definitely money.

Why Should Sales Teams Care About Security Compliance?

Sales teams are revenue driven, so they must understand that security compliance can increase their bottom line. Salespeople will care that they can shorten the sales cycle by having a proper security compliance program in place and that such a program can open doors for new business opportunities in new markets, segments, and industries.

Examples:

Give the sales team an example of a typical enterprise deal cycle that can take months to a full year. The procurement team's due diligence for a vendor is generally long and arduous, especially considering all possible regulatory requirements. This process can be significantly shortened when the vendor shares a high-level report of their controls and related tools that support the security practices that the customer cares about.

Because of the business’ high level of dependence on the sales team, the risk and compliance impact they face is high as it affects roadmap, prioritization, and revenue. The governance of the organization would be moderately impacted since management relies on sales to indicate organizational needs.

Organizational Structure

Depending on your organization, these titles and the way they are organized may differ. Do some digging to understand the structure of your sales team before applying any of the suggested controls here.

Sales Development Representatives

First touch point with the company. Set the tone of security and compliance as they interact first with customers.

Account Executives / Managers

Relationship builders with customers. Most knowledgeable about the risks associated with deals, whether it be rising competition, competitive pricing, or even lifecycle of redlining.

Sales Operations Managers

Enablers of the sales process. Most attuned to the trends across all teams within the sales organization and enforce the policies set by the organization.

Chief Revenue Officer / Executive Leader of Sales

Strategy and leadership. Sets policies that are followed by the sales and sometimes marketing processes, and prioritizes what markets to focus on.

Important Travel Phrases

Fun Fact:

Over one trillion dollars (that’s nine zeros) are spent annually on sales forces. To make it easier to visualize, you can cover every rent check in the US for three years with that amount of money.

GRC Elements

Controls

 Framework Priority

Their primary focus will be on how to generate revenue for the organization. Enabling the sales process for customers in certain geographies, industries, and sizes to have more trust in the procured organization is a way to resonate with sales teams.

Common Tools

GRC Elements

Risks

GRC Elements

Policies

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