Many times, the day-to-day operations of an InfoSec team looks a little different than one might expect. Instead of focusing on critical security measures, some InfoSec teams spend most of their time assisting with internal requests from different departments. While this connection and conversation between teams is vital for smooth internal operations and the business’s growth, it’s inefficient for InfoSec teams to spend too much time on ad hoc requests and projects for other teams.

A smooth partnership between InfoSec and Sales

One team that is often at the forefront of many InfoSec requests is sales. When a salesperson works with a new partner, vendor, or customer, verifying security protocols is a must. Here is how this process often plays out: a salesperson puts in a request with InfoSec, which is put into a queue alongside the team’s other work. The sales process stalls while waiting for security verification, which can derail the conversation entirely.

As we head into a new year, it’s time for your sales and InfoSec teams to rethink how they partner on vendor security assessments and verifications. Here are three ways your team can streamline this partnership for your customers, vendors, and partners:

1. Give your sales team the tools to self-service vendor assessments.

Many times, waiting around for a security team’s review during a sales process is a roadblock. Instead of keeping this responsibility on their plate, InfoSec teams should give sales teams the tools to self-service many of these requests. This means giving salespeople the ability to securely access an organization’s risk assessment profile so they can answer any questions a new account may have and move the relationship forward.

2. Keep editing and updating restrictions in place.

Just because your InfoSec team is giving salespeople access to risk assessment information doesn’t mean they should have the power to update or change this data. All internal, vendor, and customer risk information should be kept locked down and editable only by the InfoSec team. This way, salespeople have the most recent, most correct information at their fingertips when talking to new accounts.

3. Make security a company-wide objective.

Sometimes, salespeople ask InfoSec teams questions simply because they don’t know how these processes work or what the purpose of security measures are. By making data security and privacy a company-wide objective, InfoSec teams can organically transfer knowledge, skills, and information to sales teams to help them down the road.

How the Whistic platform can help

The Whistic platform is a modern vendor risk management solution built for modern organizations. InfoSec teams are busy, and dealing with internal departments can take time and effort away from more critical projects.

WithWhistic, your InfoSec team can enable salespeople to be more efficient and more effective with their customer and vendor conversations—without risking compliance or security.