Chapter 4: Don’t Sell Compliance —Sell Risk Assessment & Management

Risk Assessment vs Management: What Your Clients Really Need

[Chapter 4

Chapter 4 illustrates how to change the conversation around compliance with your clients. Rather than selling compliance, showcase how compliance can streamline their risk assessment and risk management processes.

4.1

Shifting the Narrative

Many small businesses view compliance as something they must maintain to operate, but few of them truly understand its value. Some ignore compliance management entirely. Others simply check off the box and move on to the next item on their to-do list without giving it another thought.

As an MSP, it’s your responsibility to shift the narrative. Compliance isn’t just about getting a check mark that lets your clients operate legally based on some government or industry regulations — it’s about proving they can protect sensitive data and proactively assess and manage risk.

Achieving compliance isn’t a one-time thing or a one-off task — it’s not something they can do today and never think about again. To scale successfully and reduce risk over the long term, your clients must maintain compliance by building it into their risk management process using compliance management software. But they need your help.

So, how do you change the conversation?

1.

Focus on continuous improvement.

Don’t position compliance as a one-and-done effort — position it as an ongoing process. Ongoing risk management is significantly more effective at preventing threats and shoring up vulnerabilities than one-time compliance checks. Help your client build out a scalable, sustainable risk management process now so they don’t have to stress about potential consequences in the future (or worse, find themselves unprepared when an incident occurs).

2.

Highlight the need for operational resilience.

Compliance monitoring tools help you establish a baseline for security practices. The goal is to identify gaps and vulnerabilities and then adopt best practices to protect against likely threats. This approach lets you focus on monitoring threats and vulnerabilities (and preventing them altogether!) rather than scrambling when incidents occur. By building out an incident response protocol, you can help clients proactively mitigate the impact of cyberattacks.

3.

Think about the long-term.

Ongoing risk management provides deeper insight into organizational vulnerabilities. Once you establish a baseline, your clients can adopt new technologies with risk management built into the process, allowing them to confidently scale. If you can help them align risk management practices with long-term business objectives, they will be better positioned for future growth.

4.

Make it easy for them to adopt.

The best thing you can do to help your clients adopt risk assessment and management is to make it easy. You can do this by bolting on compliance and risk management solutions to your existing offerings. Be sure to tailor your compliance automation solutions to each client’s needs (based on industry, region, offerings, etc.). If you can prove your expertise in the space, gain credibility in the market, and take risk management out of their hands, your clients can focus their energy on what they do best.

4.2 Why Risk Management Matters More Than Just Compliance

Many small businesses treat compliance as a checkbox — a minimum requirement to operate legally or meet industry standards. But focusing solely on compliance without a broader risk management strategy can leave serious gaps in protection.

Compliance frameworks are often static, based on regulations that may take years to update. Cyber threats, however, evolve daily. By the time compliance standards catch up, a business may already be exposed. That’s why risk management is essential — it goes beyond rules and addresses real-time vulnerabilities that compliance alone may overlook.

4.3

Key Components of Risk Assessment and Management

Follow this 9-step roadmap to roll out risk assessment for your clients.

Asset Audit:

Determine which assets (e.g. data, systems, hardware, software) are critical to business operations and client services.

Threat Identification:

Identify external threats and internal vulnerabilities that could compromise business assets (e.g. natural disasters, critical outages, cyberattacks, human error).

Risk Analysis:

Evaluate the likelihood of each threat occurring, including its impact, potential damage, and estimated downtime.

Risk Prioritization:

Prioritize risks based on their likelihood of occurrence and level of impact on the business.

Risk Mitigation:

Develop strategies to reduce and mitigate identified risks, including compliance monitoring, disaster recovery plans, backup solutions, redundancy measures, system updates, and security controls.

Ongoing Monitoring:

Continuously monitor for threats and adapt risk mitigation strategies as necessary. Regularly review risk assessments to account for changes to business operations and evolving threats.

Incident Response Protocol:

Create a protocol to follow during a cyber incident so everyone in your organization knows how to address these incidents and mitigate the damage.

Training and Awareness:

Build a culture of compliance within your organization to ensure all employees and stakeholders are aware of security protocols and potential threats.

Client Communication:

Communicate potential risks and risk mitigation techniques transparently to clients to help build trust and enroll clients in the risk management process.
4.4

Risk Assessment Matrix

Use this Risk Assessment Matrix to identify and prioritize risks based on their likelihood of occurring and their level of impact on the business

Risk Analysis Matrix Template

Risk ID Likelihood (1-5) Impact (1-5) Risk Score (Likelihood x Impact) Risk Score (Likelihood x Impact) Responsible Party Status
Cyberattack 4 5 20 Implement strong cybersecurity measures, backups, regular training, and incident response plans. IT Manager Active
Hurricane 2 4 8 Develop a disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan. Operations Manager Active
Power Outage 3 4 12 Install backup generators and create an emergency response plan. Facilities Manager Monitored
IT Employee Departure 5 2 10 Develop knowledge transfer programs and cross-training initiatives. HR Manager Under Review
Minor IT Glitch 5 1 5 Maintain regular software updates and support resources. IT Support Monitored

Columns:

  • Risk ID: A unique identifier for each risk.
  • Likelihood (1-5): The probability of the risk occurring (1 = very unlikely, 5 = very likely).
  • Impact (1-5): The potential impact of the risk on the business (1 = low impact, 5 = high impact).
  • Risk Score: The overall risk score calculated by multiplying likelihood x impact.
  • Mitigation Strategies: Actions or plans to reduce the likelihood or impact of the risk.
  • Responsible Party: The person or team responsible for managing the risk.
  • Status: Current status of the risk (e.g., "Under Review," "Mitigated," “Monitored,” "Active").

How to Use the Template:

  1. List all potential business risks in the first column (we’ve included five examples to get you started).
  2. Assess and score the likelihood and impact for each risk.
  3. Calculate the risk score and prioritize risk management starting with the highest risk level.
  4. Develop and note mitigation strategies.
  5. Assign responsibility and track the status.

Feel free to customize this template according to your specific needs!

4.5

Benefits of a Proactive Approach to Cybersecurity

1

Early Threat Detection:

A proactive cybersecurity strategy enables early threat detection, helping MSPs and their clients identify and address potential vulnerabilities before they escalate. Continuous monitoring and real-time alerts make it easier to act swiftly, improving incident response time and significantly reducing the risk of data breaches.
2

Reduced Downtime:

With cybersecurity best practices such as regular system updates, endpoint protection, and automated data backups, your clients can minimize downtime during security incidents. This ensures their daily operations remain stable, maintaining client trust and productivity even in the face of cyber threats
3

Cost Savings:

Investing in proactive cybersecurity measures helps prevent costly breaches. Although initial investments in cybersecurity infrastructure can seem high, they are substantially lower than the financial losses and reputational damage caused by a security incident. Prevention is not just better—it’s cheaper.
4

Scalability and Flexibility:

A strong cybersecurity foundation allows your clients to scale confidently. As they adopt new technologies and expand their digital footprint, a proactive cybersecurity framework ensures their systems remain secure and adaptable. This flexibility is vital for MSPs supporting growing businesses that require reliable and secure digital environments.

Now that you have the “why” covered, let’s move on to the “how.”

Learn how to package your CaaS offering in Chapter 5.

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