27th July 2018
Apologies for mis-quoting Stanley Kubrick and Peter Sellers in the title but we thought it was really important to let you know how you can gain a REAL commercial advantage from the new GDPR rules!
Some of our clients are beginning to reap the benefits of GDPR compliance, in fact one of them described the new rules as creating BRILLIANT Marketing opportunities as a Preferred Supplier.
Many businesses understand the benefits of being a preferred supplier and in some industries a lot of time and money is spent achieving the required criteria for being on the Preferred suppliers list.
What if there was a way to be a preferred Supplier for ALL of your clients and beat your competition into the bargain! – Well there is….
GDPR requires all Data Controllers to check the compliance status of their suppliers. The reason for this is that if a supplier provides them with personal data that is not compliant then by relying on it the otherwise compliant Data Controller will have committed an offence themselves.
For example, imagine someone says to you, I’ve just recommended your firm to Mr John Smith, here is his telephone number, very few small business people would resist the urge to call John. However, if Mr Smith has not authorised the transfer of his data and ‘opted in’ it is ILLEGAL to call him!
There are a myriad of other ways non compliant suppliers, introducers, sales people, franchisees etc can ‘drop you in it’ which is why it is included in GDPR.
All of which, leads us to how this rule can work for you:
Once a small business is compliant, they can use that fact to their advantage by making sure it is very clear in their advertising and marketing. NB: This approach is recommended by the Information Commissioners Office to enhance a businesses reputation!
The compliant business can contact all their existing commercial clients and let them know about their new compliant status, reassure them that they have nothing to worry about by dealing with them and in doing so, warn them of the dangers of dealing with their non-compliant competitors!
We have even heard of one business who, having discovered one of their competitor’s were not compliant visited all their clients and pitched their compliant services instead!
All entrepreneurs should have an ‘opportunity’ mentality and this is one of the best we’ve seen in a long time!
Remember, any money spent on becoming compliant will be offset against your tax as a legitimate business expense, so effectively costs you nothing, adds to your business credibility, protects your reputation and can gain you new business from your non compliant competitors.
Seriously - What’s not to love?
If you want help with your GDPR compliance contact Transition Law on 0330 2233 506 for a FREE initial assessment and consultation.
