In our agency we have adopted these "5 Ways of Cyber Knowing":

Don't sell fear. Leave fear mongering to news anchors and investigative reporters. Your clients, particularly privately held businesses, are full of risk takers who have squared off against significant risks in their careers and won. Although you may be able to scare someone into a decision, typically it will not stick. Let the media fulfill the role of bogeyman.
Use facts to convey issues. Every day, more information comes to the forefront on this issue and its impact on businesses. Do your homework. Subscribe to a newsletter to get familiar with the details. Provide your customers with information rooted in facts, not hyperbole.
Understand the policy offering. Get acquainted with the coverage terms and conditions in the cyber policy from more than one carrier. Ask your underwriters questions. Read through an application so you can accurately convey the value your clients receive by going through the underwriting process.
Position the policy correctly. As a value-based provider, focus on the response team assembled by the carrier to respond to a data breach. This is similar to a D&O policy and the value gained when an experienced SEC attorney is in support rather than a Main Street litigator who doesn't understand the nuances of the issues. Let the carrier's response team make you look good.
Do risk management work. Wouldn't you rather your clients not have a claim? Help them build an infrastructure and process to preclude the more common causes of cyber loss. Internal procedures which eliminate the use of thumb drives, locks on server room doors limiting access, IT audits and testing data systems and firewalls will provide your clients a better sense of what they need to do and what they can control before a loss. It may assist them in getting a reduced premium.

We can't prevent the underemployed 13-year-old living in the Ukraine from working as a hacking subcontractor for organized crime. But by helping our clients control many other areas of cyber exposure, we can make a significant impact on their cost of risk. Unless we return to an all-cash economy and revert to using the U.S. mail as a primary means of communication and transaction, cyber theft and the liability associated with it is not going away. Use your time with your clients and the current events of this past year to do the good, hard work your clients expect from you.

Special Reports /

You Don't Need Fear to Sell Cyber Insurance

Related Stories

Recommended For You