You sit down with a prospect and walk them through the results of their third-party security assessment.
Your team didn’t perform it—an independent security firm did. A fresh set of eyes. No bias. Just the cold, hard facts.
And the facts? They’re brutal.
Their users are reusing passwords on 253 different sites, and the assessment team cracked them in under 18 seconds.
Their current IT provider missed every single red flag—the security team was able to get in and out of their network without even trying. No alerts. No alarms. Nothing.
The CFO has a goldmine of sensitive data sitting in their downloads folder—Social Security numbers, payroll records, client PII, all exposed.
The testers hijacked a browser session and accessed M365, where they found 14 global admin accounts—only two with MFA enabled.
Now, the question: Are you manipulating them by telling them this?
Is pointing out these risks and showing them exactly where they’re exposed some kind of unethical scare tactic?
No. This is generosity.
The Cybersecurity Blood Test
Think about it this way: If a medical lab ran bloodwork on a patient and found they were diabetic, would it be manipulative for the doctor to share the results?
If they explained that their blood sugar levels were dangerously high, that they were at risk for blindness, amputations, or worse—would that be fear-mongering?
No. It would be malpractice to keep that information from them.
It’s the same with cybersecurity.
Your third-party assessment is the blood test. The security solutions you recommend? The treatment plan that keeps them from losing everything.
This Isn’t Sales. It’s Survival.
Most businesses have no idea how bad their cybersecurity really is.
They don’t realize that they’re one click away from a ransomware attack.
They assume their IT provider is doing more than they actually are.
They think cyber insurance will bail them out.
Your job isn’t to “sell” security.
Your job is to wake them up before they end up as another cautionary tale.
That isn’t manipulation. That’s leadership.
