How to Leverage Compliance Certifications to Win More Business
For organizations that make cybersecurity a priority, achieving compliance isn’t just about checking boxes—it’s about moving the needle on trust, efficiency, and expansion. By investing in security compliance, organizations can not only reduce friction in the sales process, but also signal maturity, reliability, and a strong commitment to protecting customer data.
Here’s how five forward-thinking companies leveraged compliance as a growth strategy—and how working with the right auditing partner made all the difference:
Streamlining Security Questionnaires
GYANT is a SaaS solution that uses AI assistants to guide patients through their healthcare journeys. GYANT’s services not only improve patient outcomes, but also increase efficiency in the healthcare industry with virtual, on-demand features that empower providers to focus on what they do best—providing care.
As a healthcare organization subject to strict regulations, GYANT’s potential clients must undergo rigorous security reviews prior to beginning services. These reviews come in the form of extensive questionnaires issued by GYANT. Once complete, GYANT’s team is responsible for reviewing the documents and responding to individual questions and concerns. This process ensures adequate protection of sensitive customer data—but it can be time-consuming.
“Our questionnaires sometimes follow a particular template, other times they’re tailored to the organization’s unique structure. The more specific the questionnaire, the longer it takes to review. Through this process, it can be difficult to convey our true capabilities to potential clients,” said Kirill Kireyev, CTO at GYANT.
To cut down on time spent mulling over questionnaires, GYANT decided to pursue HITRUST certification, and they chose BARR to help them prepare with a thorough readiness assessment.
“While it initially felt daunting to obtain a HITRUST certification, our engagement team at BARR assured us that the readiness assessment would be manageable, and they’ve walked us through each step of the process,” Kireyev said.
Compliance also helped RFP360—a SaaS platform designed to simplify the request for proposal (RFP) process—significantly cut down their time spent on security questionnaires.
“Our customers told us it would be a lot easier if we had a SOC 2 report to communicate our security posture. Plus, our business development team was consumed with security questionnaires,” said David Hulsen, co-founder and COO of RFP360.
Their solution was to work with BARR and Vanta, a leading compliance automation platform, to complete a SOC 2 examination.
“Using both Vanta and BARR was turnkey. The technology and tools both organizations brought to the process was a tremendous time saver and made it easy,” Hulsen said. “The tools also reassured me our information would remain confidential and secure.”
As a result of their SOC 2 report, RFP360 saw a 90% drop in security questionnaire requests and increased customer trust.
“Because of this practice, we’ve seen a 90% drop in security requests. I just send prospects our SOC 2 and there’s never any issue,” Hulsen said.
Expanding Across Borders
In addition to helping streamline vendor risk assessments, achieving compliance can help organizations aiming to break into new markets accelerate their international growth. That was the primary motivation for JourneyTrack, a leading customer journey management platform that decided to expand its compliance program with the help of BARR’s expert team.
From the outset, JourneyTrack embedded security and compliance into their operations, making SOC 2 attestation a priority. But as they expanded their reach beyond the U.S., JourneyTrack recognized the need for ISO 27001 certification, which is more widely recognized internationally—especially in Europe, where customer experience management is more advanced.
“SOC 2 is not as recognized in other parts of the world, whereas ISO [27001] is,” said Claudia Panfil, chief marketing officer at JourneyTrack. “So for us to truly be a global company, it was essential to have both.”
Leveraging BARR’s coordinated audit approach, which allows organizations to streamline the path to compliance across multiple frameworks, JourneyTrack successfully achieved both SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance, enhancing their credibility and trustworthiness, especially in international markets, reducing sales cycle friction, and positioning them as a secure and reliable partner.
Kinsta, a leading WordPress hosting provider, took a similar approach to compliance as they eyed international expansion. With the goal of enhancing their marketability, especially among enterprise clients, Kinsta pursued a SOC 2 report as well as ISO 27001, ISO 27017, and ISO 27018 certifications.
Working with BARR to achieve these compliance milestones helped drive growth for Kinsta and shortened their sales cycle, allowing them to close deals faster and accelerate revenue growth in key segments. The attestations also contributed to a significant reduction in customer churn, as clients gained increased confidence in Kinsta’s security measures.
“Our SOC 2 report and ISO certifications have become key differentiators in the market, giving our customers confidence in our security and data management practices,” said Nathan Bliss, chief sales officer at Kinsta. “We’ve seen an increase in customer retention rates and have received positive feedback from clients who appreciate our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of security and compliance.”
Building Credibility in a Crowded Market
In addition to accelerating international growth, a strong security posture can also help you gain a competitive advantage on your home turf. For ECS—a leading provider of solutions in science, engineering, and advanced technologies, including cloud, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), and data—building a robust governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) program was key to helping their organization cement their place as a market leader.
“When you’re managing clients’ infrastructure, including their systems and data, that requires a level of trust, reliability, and adherence to security standards and mature frameworks,” said Beverly Goodwin, senior director of cyber compliance at ECS.
To satisfy customer expectations and differentiate themselves from the competition, ECS partnered with BARR to achieve compliance against standards including SOC 1, SOC 2, ISO 27001, HITRUST, and PCI DSS. This multi-framework approach allowed ECS to meet client requirements across a diverse range of industries while demonstrating its commitment to security. However, as the number of required certifications grew, so did the complexity of maintaining compliance.
To address these challenges, ECS leveraged BARR’s coordinated audit approach to streamline the auditing process and accelerate the timeline to compliance. By conducting a single, integrated audit that covered multiple frameworks, BARR helped ECS reduce redundancies and optimize resources.
“From an organizational standpoint, it makes things cleaner for us,” said Sydney Will, GRC project manager at ECS. “Not only does it relieve or reduce some of that administrative burden, but it also helps engrain the security into our culture here at ECS.”
By meeting top security standards, ECS has strengthened its credibility and industry standing in the U.S. public and private sectors.
“It really does just put us in more of a competitive space within the industry,” Will said. “We do maintain many other standards as well…all of that gives ECS a competitive edge, and it has allowed us to grow as a GRC department and have that collaboration and that trust in each other.”
The Bottom Line
Achieving compliance is no longer just about avoiding risk—it’s a strategic investment that can help you scale faster, sell smarter, and stand out in a crowded market. Whether you’re looking to reduce the burden of security questionnaires, expand globally, or earn the trust of prospective clients, the right attestations can be a major accelerator in reaching your goals.
With the support of experienced partners like BARR, achieving and maintaining compliance is more attainable—and more valuable—than ever before.
Not sure where to begin? Use our exclusive Compliance Compass tool to map out your journey, or contact us today for a free consultation.
*ISO certifications are issued by BARR Certifications, the certification body of BARR Advisory.