Receiving your first security questionnaire can be overwhelming. This article helps you navigate the process and get started.

By TrustKite Team on July 10, 2025

Completing your first security questionnaire

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve just received your first security questionnaire from a customer or prospect. Maybe it’s a spreadsheet with hundreds of rows, maybe it’s in a third-party portal, or maybe it’s a PDF full of open-ended questions. However it arrives, the feeling is often the same: Where do I even start?

Don’t panic — you’re not alone. This guide will help you get your footing, organize your response, and avoid common mistakes.

Why Do Security Questionnaires Exist?

Security questionnaires are how your customers evaluate risk. Before they trust your company with their data, they want to know that:

• You follow security best practices.
• You have clear policies and controls in place.
• You take compliance seriously — especially if they operate in regulated industries.

For many companies, questionnaires are part of a broader vendor risk management process. That means your answers can make or break the deal.

Step 1: Understand the Scope

Start by reading through the questionnaire to get a sense of:

• How many questions there are
• What areas are covered (e.g., data protection, access controls, incident response, physical security)
• Whether any questions reference specific frameworks (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA)
• What format the customer expects for responses (Yes/No, short answer, attachments)

This high-level scan will help you identify which areas require input from different parts of your team.

Step 2: Gather Internal Input

Security is a cross-functional effort. Even in small companies, you may need to loop in:

• Engineering or DevOps — to answer questions about infrastructure, backups, and access control
• Legal — for data processing agreements or privacy compliance
• Founders or the CTO — for high-level security policies and future plans

Tip: Create a copy of the questionnaire and assign sections or questions to the appropriate people. Use comments or tracked changes to collaborate. A product like TrustKite can help you with this.

Step 3: Be Honest and Clear

When you’re just starting out, it’s tempting to overstate your security posture — but that’s a mistake. Most customers don’t expect early-stage vendors to have everything in place. They do expect transparency, clarity, and a plan for improvement.

For example:

Q: Do you have a formal incident response plan?
A: Not currently, but we have an informal process and are developing a formal plan as part of our SOC 2 preparation in Q4 2025.

That kind of answer builds trust — and keeps you from making commitments you can’t back up.

Step 4: Create a Reusable Source of Truth

Once you’ve answered your first questionnaire, don’t let that work go to waste. Create a central document or internal knowledge base with:

• Your standard answers to common questions
• Links to relevant policies or documents
• Up-to-date certifications or audit reports (if any)

This will save you time and ensure consistency across future questionnaires.

Step 5: Look Ahead

If you’re receiving security questionnaires, it’s a sign that customers care about how you handle their data. Use this momentum to:

• Establish a security baseline — clear roles, processes, and documentation
• Invest in policies, tooling, and frameworks (like SOC 2 or ISO 27001)
• Consider tools like TrustKite, Drata, Vanta, or Secureframe to automate and manage your responses at scale

Final Thoughts

Your first security questionnaire might feel like a test — and in a way, it is. But it’s also an opportunity: to build trust with your customer, to establish internal security practices, and to show that your company is serious about protecting data.

Take it one question at a time. Ask for help when needed. And remember: this gets easier with each one you complete.

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TrustKite helps you answer security questionnaires with AI that understands your policies, evidence, and certifications—while you stay in full control.