Sales & Operations
Beating Security Questionnaires
How to use your SOC 2 to skip 80% of questionnaires and speed up sales cycles.
Establish Your Audit Baseline
Get your readiness score, identify critical gaps, and unblock enterprise deal velocity in under 2 minutes.
Key Considerations
How to use your SOC 2 to skip 80% of questionnaires and speed up sales cycles.
- Mapping SOC 2 controls to common questionnaire sections.
- Creating a "Security FAQ" for your sales team.
- The "Standard Information Gathering" (SIG) shortcut.
Action Plan for Founders
- Create a dedicated "Security & Trust" page on your website to host basic compliance info.
- Train your sales team on how to answer the top 5 security questions using your SOC 2 report.
- Set up a process for sharing your full report under NDA using a secure portal.
- Track when your report expires and set a reminder to request a bridge letter or start a new audit.
Top 5 Security FAQ for Sales Teams
Q: Where is our data stored?
A: We use AWS (US-East-1) with full encryption at rest (AES-256) and in transit (TLS 1.2+). Our SOC 2 report covers these infrastructure controls.
Q: How do you handle backups?
A: Daily automated backups with point-in-time recovery. We test restoration procedures quarterly as part of our SOC 2 compliance.
Q: Who has access to production data?
A: Access is restricted to essential engineering personnel only, gated by MFA and SSO, and reviewed quarterly.
Q: What is your incident response time?
A: We maintain a 24/7 on-call rotation with a documented IR plan. Critical incidents are acknowledged within 1 hour.
Q: Is our data encrypted?
A: Yes, 100% of customer data is encrypted at rest and in transit. Keys are managed via AWS KMS with strict rotation policies.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Beating Security Questionnaires help accelerate sales?
Beating Security Questionnaires removes friction during security reviews by proactively addressing common enterprise concerns, allowing your sales team to focus on value rather than compliance overhead.
When should we start implementing Beating Security Questionnaires?
Ideally, you should plan for this as soon as your SOC 2 audit concludes (or even during the audit) so you are ready to leverage the report immediately for upcoming deals.
What are the common pitfalls in Beating Security Questionnaires?
The biggest pitfall is being reactive. Waiting for a customer to ask for a bridge letter or a trust center access often adds days or weeks to a deal cycle.
How do auditors view Beating Security Questionnaires?
While auditors focus on the audit itself, they expect you to have processes for vendor management and incident response that tie back to how you maintain trust with customers.
Can we automate part of Beating Security Questionnaires?
Yes, trust centers and security portals can automate NDA workflows and report distribution, significantly reducing manual work for your security and sales teams.
Is Beating Security Questionnaires required for SOC 2?
Not all aspects of sales enablement are "required" for the audit itself, but they are essential for realizing the ROI of your SOC 2 investment.