Enterprise buyers are not making life difficult for suppliers when they send over long security questionnaires; they are trying to protect themselves. In practice, that means many promising B2B deals now slow to a crawl at the point where procurement, legal and security teams begin asking for proof that a vendor can be trusted with sensitive data.
That scrutiny has intensified because third-party risk is no longer a theoretical concern. BlueVoyant’s 2025 State of Supply Chain...
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Defense report found that 97% of organisations were affected by at least one supply chain breach in the past year, while Vorlon’s survey showed that 99.4% of CISOs experienced at least one security incident in their SaaS or AI ecosystems in 2025. Blackduck has also warned that software supply chain attacks remain widespread, with malicious dependencies, unpatched vulnerabilities and compromised build pipelines among the main threats. For enterprise customers, these figures reinforce a simple conclusion: vendors are part of the attack surface.
For sales teams, that reality can be costly. A late-stage deal may already have commercial approval, only to stall when a buyer sends a dense vendor security review and expects detailed answers on access controls, encryption, backup processes and governance. If the supplier is forced into a hurried internal scramble, the delay can damage credibility as well as momentum. In fast-moving deals, time lost to back-and-forth over security can be enough for a competitor to move in.
The companies that turn this moment to their advantage tend to do one thing differently: they treat security readiness as a commercial capability, not just an IT task. That means maintaining policies, controls and evidence before a prospect asks for them. It also means replacing ad hoc responses with a repeatable process for handling reviews, including pre-empting common questions, reusing approved answers, and routing sensitive requests through a controlled portal, as VendorLens suggests in its workflow guidance.
The shift from reactive to prepared matters because enterprise buyers are now expecting more than broad assurances. They want recognised frameworks and proof that internal controls have been tested. SOC 2 remains a key signal for SaaS and other B2B service providers, while HIPAA, PCI DSS and CMMC carry weight in healthcare, payments and defence-related sales. In many cases, a recent audit report, a clear Trust Page and documented testing can shorten or even replace a lengthy questionnaire exchange.
That kind of preparation is especially valuable because the number of third-party relationships has exploded. Gartner has said that many organisations now work with more than 1,000 vendors, making it harder for suppliers to stand out on product alone. In that environment, a mature compliance posture becomes part of the pitch. It tells buyers not only that a vendor understands security, but that it has made itself easier to approve.
The same logic is shaping procurement beyond traditional software. IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach report found that 13% of organisations experienced breaches of AI models or applications, and almost all of those lacked proper AI access controls. As companies rush to adopt AI tools, buyers are increasingly extending their due diligence to those systems as well. Vendors that can show strong governance, access management and monitoring are likely to move faster through review.
This is where managed governance, risk and compliance services can have a direct commercial impact. By centralising policy work, evidence collection and continuous monitoring, they reduce the burden on internal engineering and security teams while giving sales people a cleaner story to tell. Instead of promising that controls exist, they can point to documented proof. Instead of waiting days for an answer, they can provide it immediately.
The business case is straightforward. Security readiness helps avoid deal delays, reduces friction in procurement and increases trust at the precise moment when trust matters most. In a market where supply chain attacks are common and scrutiny is rising, the vendors most likely to win enterprise business are not only those with strong products, but those that can demonstrate, quickly and convincingly, that they are low-risk partners.
Source: Noah Wire Services
