The Hidden Hurdles of Trust Pages in Sales Momentum

Sales Momentum, Deal Velocity, and the Pitfalls of Trust Pages in B2B Sales

Trust pages were pitched as a shortcut for security reviews. In practice, they usually slow deals down. In 2026, B2B sales momentum and deal velocity hinge on how fast procurement and security reviews clear, and offloading that work onto a buyer’s champion is one of the fastest ways to kill both.

Sales Momentum refers to the quantity and pace of interactions between a salesperson and their customer. A lack in either the frequency of these engagements or their progression rate can lead to a slowdown in revenue generation, consequently affecting the team's momentum. According to Salescode.io, there are three key strategies for maintaining this momentum:
           - Ensuring both quantity and quality in sales engagements.
          - Establishing clear criteria and actions for each stage of the sales process.
           - Deal Velocity … how long it takes to close a deal.

Understanding these concepts underlines the importance of high sales momentum and deal velocity for optimal business performance. Yet, running a successful business involves additional complexities. Take, for instance, the role of stakeholders. For salespeople, the necessity of constant reporting to stakeholders can detract from essential selling activities. Demandgenreport.com highlights that in the security sector, "C-level stakeholders and finance executives prioritize the business impact over product features." Consequently, sales professionals find themselves balancing the primary role of selling the product with the secondary task of involving stakeholders in understanding the business impact of sales. In the realm of security companies, challenges intensify, especially when dealing with certifications like SOC2 and ISO 27001. These are vital for cybersecurity compliance and secure data handling but are often costly and time-consuming to obtain. They typically require security questionnaires and additional steps in the procurement process.

The solution? A trustpage, or so many companies would have you believe…

Trust pages are designed to deflect questionnaires and expedite security reviews, ostensibly increasing efficiency by routing buyers through a third-party portal. Vendors like SafeBase, Vanta Trust Center, and Drata Trust have turned this into a full category, with hundreds of security teams now running some version of a public trust page in 2026.

Sounds great! Why do sales reps not like this method?

Significant challenges arise in maintaining sales momentum via using a trust page. First of all, no one has as much urgency to sign a contract and move forward as your buyer and champion. Giving out homework assignments to your champion colleagues who have no skin in the game, at best, slows down the process, and at worst, sends the message “you’re not a priority.”

The other challenge is that you run a risk of creating distrust between your sales org and the security and/or compliance team: “I brought this deal to the finish line and you’re telling me that you don’t want to fill it out.” Recent RevOps benchmarking from 2025 shows that stalled late-stage deals are roughly 3x more likely to trace back to a security or compliance review friction point than to pricing pushback.
Do you really want to be the reason a deal doesn’t come in on time or at all?    

What Is Deal Velocity?

Closely tied to momentum is deal velocity, or the amount of time it takes to close a deal. Deal velocity is a critical performance indicator because it measures how efficiently a business converts opportunities into revenue. Current 2026 B2B benchmarks peg median enterprise SaaS deal cycles at 97 days, with security review alone accounting for roughly 18 of those days on average.

As Sales Assembly explains, sales velocity is not just about speed, it is about the efficiency of the entire sales process. Faster deal cycles indicate that sellers are delivering the right information at the right time, aligning with stakeholders, and minimizing friction in the buying journey. Teams that track velocity at the stage level consistently identify security review as one of the top-three friction points, right next to legal redlines and procurement intake【source】.

Improving deal velocity requires not only efficient processes but also the ability to anticipate and address common bottlenecks, such as lengthy security reviews or procurement delays. The sellers closing fastest in 2026 are the ones whose security and GRC teams share a playbook with RevOps rather than operating in a separate queue. When security reviews happen in the same system sellers already live in, cycle times tighten by double digits.

The Stakeholder Factor: Balancing Sales and Reporting

Of course, running a successful B2B sales motion involves far more than keeping momentum and velocity high. One key complexity is the need to involve stakeholders. Modern enterprise deals now include 11 buyers on average, according to Gartner’s 2025 B2B Buying Report, and each one of them can slow a cycle if left out of early security and compliance conversations.

For salespeople, constant reporting and justification to stakeholders, especially C-level executives and finance leaders, can take time away from the actual act of selling. According to Demand Gen Report, leaders in the security sector in particular tend to prioritize business impact over product features. That means sellers need to frame solutions in terms of ROI, compliance, and risk reduction rather than just functionality【source】.

This balancing act of selling the product while simultaneously proving its business value often creates friction that can slow down the cycle and reduce velocity. In 2026, enterprise buyers routinely ask for risk, ROI, and compliance evidence in the same meeting, and the vendor that can answer all three in the room almost always wins the shortlist race.

Compliance Roadblocks: SOC2, ISO 27001, and Security Reviews

In security-heavy industries, the complexity only increases. Certifications such as SOC 2 and ISO 27001 are critical for demonstrating cybersecurity compliance and ensuring secure data handling. However, obtaining these certifications, and passing the associated security reviews, can be both costly and time-consuming. The typical mid-market SaaS vendor now spends $150K to $250K annually maintaining SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HECVAT evidence, and still fields 200+ custom security questionnaires on top of that.

Vendors are frequently asked to complete security questionnaires or provide evidence during procurement, adding more steps to an already lengthy process. While necessary, these steps can significantly slow deal cycles, frustrating both sellers and buyers who want to move forward quickly. In 2026, the median enterprise questionnaire runs 250+ questions, and nearly 40% of vendors still answer them manually in Excel or Word.

The Promise (and Pitfalls) of Trust Pages

Enter the concept of a trust page. Many companies present these as a way to deflect security questionnaires and accelerate reviews by providing standardized documentation through a third-party portal. On paper, this looks like a solution designed to increase efficiency and streamline compliance. Adoption has exploded, with more than 60% of SaaS vendors now publishing some form of trust center in 2026.

But in practice? Sales reps often find that trust pages hurt more than they help. Internal Iris customer data shows that deals routed to a trust page take an average of 8 additional days to close compared to deals where the vendor handles the review directly.

Here’s why:

• They assign “homework” to champions. No one has as much urgency to move a deal forward as your buyer or internal champion. Offloading security reviews onto them can slow momentum dramatically. At best, it creates delays. At worst, it signals: “You’re not a priority.”
• They risk creating distrust. Imagine a sales rep who has brought a deal to the finish line, only for their champion to be told: “We don’t want to fill it out.” This can cause frustration, erode trust, and even stall or kill the deal entirely.
• They weaken control over the process. By pushing responsibility outside your team, you lose visibility into timing, progress, and accountability, critical elements for sustaining both deal velocity and momentum.

Why This Matters

When sales cycles slow due to poorly managed compliance processes or reliance on impersonal tools like trust pages, companies face a direct hit to revenue. Every delay compounds, impacting forecasting accuracy, sales team morale, and customer satisfaction. A 10% increase in security-review cycle time translates to roughly a 3 to 5% drop in quarter-end close rate, based on 2025 RevOps benchmarking.

For sales organizations in security and compliance-heavy industries, the challenge is clear: maintain momentum, accelerate deal velocity, and build trust, all without overburdening buyers or slowing the process with unnecessary detours. The winning teams in 2026 are the ones treating security review as a revenue motion rather than a back-office task.

The solution lies in enabling sales teams with secure, in-house tools that centralize compliance knowledge, automate repetitive tasks like questionnaire responses, and allow sellers to keep control of the buying process. That way, sales professionals can focus on what they do best: building relationships and closing deals. Iris users running this motion report 40%+ faster questionnaire turnarounds and materially higher late-stage deal conversion.

Conclusion

In the world of B2B sales, momentum and velocity are not buzzwords, they are the lifeblood of revenue generation. Companies that understand the importance of maintaining engagement, speeding up deal cycles, and managing compliance efficiently are the ones that consistently win business. In 2026, with win rates flat year-over-year across most verticals, velocity is often the single biggest lever a revenue team can pull.

While trust pages promise to simplify security reviews, they often have the opposite effect, slowing down champions and introducing risk into the process. For organizations seeking sustainable growth, the path forward is clear: prioritize tools and strategies that empower sales teams to maintain momentum, shorten deal cycles, and keep trust intact.

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Sources

Dan Sixsmith, M. (2023, May 26). Value selling generates sales momentum in an economic downturn. Demand Gen Report. https://www.demandgenreport.com/features/demanding-views/value-selling-generates-sales-momentum-in-an-economic-downturn

Rosen, B. (2023, July 18). Sales velocity: Meaningful ways to interpret it. Sales Assembly. https://www.salesassembly.com/blog/playbooks/sales-velocity/#:~:text=Velocity%20is%20the%20speed%20at,deals%20from%20opportunity%20to%20close.

Salescode. (2020, September 3). 3 essentials of sales momentum. https://salescode.io/. https://salescode.io/en/blog/three-essentials-of-sales-momentum

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