5 ways to turn SOC 2 compliance into a growth strategy

Your company may be considering getting its SOC 2 as a way to prove your security and compliance practices to potential customers — or maybe, you already have your SOC 2 and are not sure what do next. At Vanta, we encourage our customers to treat their SOC 2 compliance as a key element to their sales and marketing strategy. In this post we’ll explore the top five ways to turn this achievement into a growth strategy.

1. Fold your company’s SOC 2 compliance into your sales pitch. A SOC 2 provides a standardized framework to prove your company’s strong security posture, and can often be a competitive differentiator. Find opportunities for your sales team to share your SOC 2 status with prospects in initial qualification calls or in other sales collateral that your team uses early in your sales process.

2. Share your SOC 2 as you learn that a security review is required.  Perhaps you got your SOC 2 to close a particular deal with a key client; now you can make the most of that investment by leveraging  it in other sales conversations as well. Providing a SOC 2 often negates the need for lengthy and time-intensive security questionnaires, helping you close the deal sooner and proactively demonstrating your commitment to security.

3. Announce your SOC 2 on your blog and social media. Achieving a security certification is a major milestone for your company — take a moment to share your SOC 2 story with your prospects and your network on social media, in a blog post, and via your PR team if you have one.

4. Add a SOC 2 badge to your website. Your SOC 2 certification is an investment in security that your prospects will want to know about. Make sure your SOC 2 compliance has a strong presence on your website: show it off and share the news with SOC 2 badges from the AICPA and Vanta.

5. Add a Security Status page to your website. A public trust center makes it easy to demonstrate the current state of your security program and provide secure access to compliance information - so you know who's requesting access to your SOC 2 report and can automate NDA processing. Vanta customers get one year of SafeBase for free.

Bonus: Apply time saved with SOC 2 back into your business.  

• Getting a SOC 2 can help preserve your engineering team’s time — ensuring that they’ll spend fewer hours participating in the security review stage of the sales cycle, and more time focused on your company’s goals. 
• Sending your SOC 2 report early can increase the velocity of deal cycles and gives you a good chance of heading off time-consuming vendor questionnaires
• You’re likely to find that going through a SOC 2 audit can help your company build in forward-looking processes that streamline your security and compliance operations — saving time for your whole team and improving your overall security posture.

Want to learn more about how a SOC 2 can help your company close larger customers in less time? Request a demo or reach out to sales@vanta.com.

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