According to a global study, almost 92 percent of malware is sent through email. Scott Bennett, Senior Director, MSP Sales, Barracuda, says, “These emails are the front door into your business’ or your customers’ sensitive data, and there are more ways for cybercriminals to break in than ever before. Whether it is phishing, identity theft, or spam, every employee can be the key to opening the door for an attacker.”
Bennett adds that regardless of which vertical your customers are in or what size their company is, email is an integral part of how businesses operate today. However, convincing your clients and prospects that the solutions you provide are the best choice for their business and deliver value takes some research, planning, and strategy.
Bennett answers four questions to help MSPs achieve greater success in selling email security solutions.
Which pain points can marketers or sales reps focus on to get an email security prospect’s attention?
Bennett: It’s estimated that there were over 125 billion emails sent in 2018 and that number is expected to grow to 320 billion in 2021. With the high volume of emails entering and exiting an organization on a daily basis, cybercriminals have recognized that this is an easy threat vector to exploit.
The chance of an attack verges on the inevitable.
There are a lot of stories that marketers and sales reps can pull from in the news. For example, Pitney Bowes was recently hit with ransomware. While this is a larger company, it shows that no company is really safe from sophisticated attacks. For SMBs, it isn’t a matter of if they will be impacted by attacks, but rather when. Cyberattacks can be very costly for MSPs and their SMB customers in terms of time spent remediating attacks, investigating the malicious emails, and fielding service desk calls for email issues.
Which features of email security solutions will have the most appeal to end users?
Bennett: Depending on the customer, different aspects of an email security stack might seem more appealing. Using Barracuda as an example, security awareness training might be more appealing to a CEO with a hundred employees, whereas it might not be as appealing to a one-man shop. However, Essentials complete email protection is something that any business could benefit from. With Barracuda’s Total Email Protection, there are multiple security layers built into the product to help protect customers from advanced threats — including antispam, protection against zero-day threats, account takeovers, spear phishing, and more.
There are so many different types of attacks — new and evolving — to protect against, so it’s important for SMB customers to take a multi-layered approach to protect and prevent these attacks from happening.
It’s also vital for any MSP to have the tools to show their clients that they’ve got email security covered. These days, customers are fickler due to their security needs, and if they feel their current MSP isn’t up to the task, they’ll happily look elsewhere.
Should MSPs bundle email security with other services or offer it alone?
Bennett: Every MSP has a unique approach to its offerings. Some like to offer services a la carte, whereas others like to simplify things and bundle in services for their end-users. When it comes to offering a multi-layered email security solution, bundling is a great way to simplify the different layers customers need to keep their businesses safe from sophisticated attacks. This offers MSPs and their customers predictable costs, predictable outcomes, and revenues for MSPs.
What other advice can you give marketers or sales reps on selling email security solutions and services?
Bennett: My advice is to use the stories and statistics to sell email security solutions to your customers. There are so many examples out there to get the conversation started. All you need to do is open up a newspaper, read a blog, and you are bound to find a new story to help you validate how pervasive attacks by email are. 
