It is usually self-inflicted. You've done this to yourself.

Did you think the threats and risks of data protection were just those huge fines?

...or the risk of "non-compliance"?

Then you have been misinformed.

Yes they are risks of course they are. They are the high profile risks it was fashionable to focus on and used to scare business owners and managers. Their potential impact is high but in reality their likelihood is very low.

Yet the practical risk, this real risk - it's happening and losing you cash right now - is a silent sales killer.

It is costing you new customers and repeat sales every day because it is all about inividuals and how you treat them.

It is this:

This is a threat that impacts most commercial organisations because they have built their collection, use and sharing of customer information on shaky foundations.

We're not in 2018 any more. The way personal data is collected and used is now far more sophisticated. The technologies are so much more complex and the marketing requirements so much more demanding.

If you are going into yet another year of collecting and using customer data without having the privacy and data protection basics in place to look after it properly, good luck.

Your investment of time, effort and money which goes into finding and creating new customers is likely to be wasted. Every day opportunity is lost simply because you are not telling your customers what they want to know.

They want to trust you - yet they can't.

They have one simple question they want you to answer.

They ask because they want to know whether or not they can trust you with their personal data.

They want what you offer but they don't want it to come with a risk of their information being lost, stolen or compromised.

Without data most businesses can’t find new customers.

Your customers are now more privacy aware then they have ever been before.

They know more about the value of their information - to themselves, to a business such as yours and to criminals who would seek to exploit that value.

They know how vulnerable their information can be in the wrong hands.

When you ask for their information, they want to know that you are going to look after their interests first. Not your own.

They want to know that you can be trusted with the information you are asking for.

They want to know that there will be an equal and fair exchange of value when they share their information with you.

They want to know that you will keep them safe.

This is a silent sales killer because if you don’t answer this question with clarity, if you don’t prove you can be trusted, then they will not trust you with the data you need to make and complete a sale.

Your customers will either go elsewhere or simply not commit to the purchase at all.

...and if this happens everyone loses.

All because you don’t prove why you should be trusted with personal data.

You don’t put the individual front and centre of your marketing and business operations.

An indication that you might be a victim of the silent sales killer is the state of the privacy information you publish on your business website.

When was the last time you looked at it?

This is the only privacy and data protection information your potential customers are likely to see.

If it’s not good - if it doesn’t answer their questions or you don’t make it easy for them to find or use - then this can tell us a lot.

You see, your published privacy information is a statement of how you value your customers and indeed your own team of employees in your business.

If it is out of date, badly written, difficult to read, hard to find and full of sweeping generalisations and weasel words, then it tells us what we all need to know about your attitude to customers and people.

You might not mean to do it yet this is the jaundiced message you transmit - all day, every day, to anyone who takes the time to look.

And they do look. This might be the only part of your data protection and privacy management which is visible to your customers, if it is not good it then calls into question the status of all the essential data protection and privacy items which should be in place.

To a privacy professional, litigator or regulator, weak data protection and privacy information tells us more about you than you can imagine.

To a prospective customer or employee, it is simply a statement of how little you value the relationship you want to have with them.

And if that relationship is going to be heavily skewed in your favour, why would they want to have anything to do with you?

The solution is straightforward. We have gone to some lengths to simplify it for you.

The world of data protection and privacy management is not always easy. If it was, everybody would be doing it properly and as you have probably worked out for yourself having read this far, most organisations are not making a good job of this.

You start by deciding to put individuals first and value your relationship with each one. To be clear about why you need personal data and what you’re going to do with it, you probably need some help.

Which is where you can take advantage of our services.