1up analyzed more than 10,000 real supplier questions from an anonymized and sanitized set of questionnaires. Here’s what we learned.

Whether you build APIs or sell shoes, you’ve got your fingers in tech on some level, and that reality is not going anywhere. 

This shift into tech means buyers are asking deeper, more technical supplier questions during the sales process. A polished demo or a slick UI isn’t enough anymore. Decision makers want to know how your product: 

• Works: What is really happening in the background? Is it built on a bunch of microservices? Does it rely on third-party services?
• Scales: It might work fine with 50 users, but what happens when they hit 5,000? You may ask questions about load testing, caching layers, and distributed systems.
• Integrates: Can it integrate well with the current tools being used easily? Like, can I plug into Salesforce without a week of custom dev work? 
• Protects their data: Especially in health and finance, you may encounter questions like what kind of encryption is being used, how access is managed, where data is stored, and what kind of audit logs are in place?

It’s a lot. 

Technical supplier questionnaires are now standard in the B2B sales cycle. And if you’re not already fielding them, you will be soon. Very soon. It could be InfoSec reviews. It might be enterprise architecture evaluations. Either way, sales engineers are on the front lines answering complex and critical questions. 

1up has analyzed technical questionnaires questions across thousands of sales cycles. In this post, we’ll break down the most commonly asked technical questions. We’ll also look at how sales engineers can prepare answers with clarity, accuracy, and of course, confidence. 

Top 5 Categories of Supplier Questions

So, regardless what your product is, buyers want to know: 

• Can it fit into our infrastructure? 
• Is it secure? 
• Will it work with our existing systems? 
• Can we adapt it to our needs? 
• Will it scale as we grow? 

Here’s a breakdown of how often different types of questions are asked:

The five categories you see here represent the most common areas of scrutiny during technical due diligence. Understanding them can help your sales engineering team anticipate concerns and build trust faster. It can also help accelerate your deals.

1. Deployment & Architecture

Buyers want to know if your platform fits into their existing infrastructure. Are you cloud-only? Can they run your software on-premise? Can it scale globally? These questions help them evaluate operational feasibility.

2. Security & Compliance

Security is no longer the problem of the IT team. It’s now an executive priority. Questions in this area investigate how you secure data, control access, and meet regulatory requirements.

3. Integration & APIs

No product exists in isolation. Buyers want to know how easily your solution connects to their stack. This includes whether it’s identity management, HRIS, or payment systems. 

4. Customization, Configuration, & UI

Yes. Yes. Functionality is important. But so is flexibility. Stakeholders want to customize workflows, permission, reports, and interfaces to meet their business-specific needs. 

5. Implementation, Maintenance, & Support 

Let’s get beyond tech. Why? Because at the heart of it all, customers need to know what it takes to roll out and maintain your solution. How fast can you onboard? How do you handle updates and outages? If it’s too painful, they’ll pass. Wouldn’t you?  

When you can address their concerns proactively, your team can build credibility. 

Now, here’s the list of the top 10 technical supplier questions people are asking. 👇

1. What deployment options are available for your system (cloud-hosted, on-premises, hybrid), and what are the hardware/software requirements for on-premises installation?

Why People Are Asking: IT Teams need to know if your platform fits their environment. Some industries (finance, healthcare, government) have restrictions on cloud deployments and prefer self-hosted or hybrid models for compliance or performance reasons. 

How to Respond: Outline all deployment options clearly (SaaS, on-prem, hybrid). For on-prem, include OS compatibility, required infrastructure specs, and third-party dependencies. 

Bonus: Provide an architecture diagram and a PDF with installation prerequisites. 

2. Does your system support multi-tenancy, allowing different business units to run as separate, logically isolated entities within the same system?

Why People Are Asking: Enterprise buyers tend to need to segment data and user access across regions, brands, or clients. Multi-tenancy is critical for scalability, especially in B2B2C or partner-facing models. 

How to Respond: Describe your multi-tenant architecture (shared vs. isolated databases, RBAC support). Include how data is siloed and how customization differs by tenant. 

Bonus: A diagram or matrix comparing single-tenant vs. multi-tenant modes helps here. 

3. What authentication and access control methods does your system support (e.g., SSO, SAML, multi-factor authentication, RBAC)?

Why People Are Asking: CIOs and CISOs prioritize identity and access management. They need to ensure your system integrates with their IdPs (Identity Providers) and enforces least-privilege access.

How to Respond: List supported authorization protocols (SAML 2.0, OAuth2, OpenID Connect), MFA options, and any SCIM support. Demonstrate how RBAC is configured and share documentation or a live demo of SSO setup. 

Bonus: Be ready to share your SAML metadata file or config sample. 

4. Does your platform provide RESTful APIs for major functionalities? Is API documentation and versioning information available?

Why People Are Asking: Modern enterprises expect API-first platforms for automation and integration. Strong APIs cut down on manual work and increase extensibility. This is critical for developers. 

How to Respond: Confirm the breadth of your API coverage (read/write access, admin-level actions, webhooks). Share your API docs (OpenAPI/Swagger), versioning strategy, rate limits, and example calls. 

Bonus: If you’ve got SDKs, make sure you mention that. 

5. How do you integrate with external systems and applications (e.g., HRIS, payment gateways, identity management, third-party data sources)? What integration methods and standards (such as SCIM, JIT provisioning) are supported?

Why People Are Asking: Most companies are already using 10+ SaaS tools. They don’t want yet another siloed system. Seamless integration saves time and reduces security risk. 

How to Respond: Highlight supported integrations like native connectors, API endpoints, middleware (Zapier, Workato, Mulesoft). Mention support for standards like SCIM, JIT, or LDAP. 

Bonus: Show a sample integration flow or success story with a known tool. 

6. What mechanisms and protocols are used for data security, including encryption (at rest and in transit), backup, data residency options, and compliance with data privacy regulations?

Why People Are Asking: Security is now a board-level concern. Buyers have to make sure your product meets their legal and risk thresholds, especially around GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and SOC 2. 

How to Respond: Break down your security model: 

• Explain the encryption standards your system uses, such as AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.3 for data in transit. 
• Describe your key management process, including whether customers can manage their own keys. 
• Outline your backup strategy and data retention policies, including how often backups occur and how long data is retained. 
• Specify the geographic locations of your data centers and any controls you offer for data residency or regional isolation. 

Bonus: Provide a copy of your latest SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001 certification. And clarify any shared responsibility models that apply. 

7. What is your software release strategy, including the frequency of new releases, patch management, upgrade processes for SaaS customers, and support for backward compatibility?

Why People Are Asking: Buyers need confidence in the maturity and stability of your product. Yes. They want regular updates. But not if those updates break things. Enterprises usually require predictable release cadences and patch schedules. 

How to Respond: Explain your release cadence (monthly stable releases, biweekly hotfixes). Include details about: 

• How customers are notified of changes. 
• How patches are applied.
• Whether downtime is required. 
• How long deprecated APIs or versions are supported. 

Bonus: Include a real changelog or release note URL if you can.

8. Describe your disaster recovery and business continuity provisions, including backup frequency, restoration process, geographic redundancy, and disaster recovery testing.

Why People Are Asking: If your platform becomes a critical dependency, customers need to know it won’t go down. Or if it does, that it can be restored quickly. 

How to Respond: Detail your DR architecture’s: 

• Backup frequency and storage method
• RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective)
• DR test schedule
• Redundancy strategy

Bonus: If you have a Business Continuity Plan (BCP), provide a summary or redacted version. 

9. What tools and technologies does your development group use for automated testing, DevOps pipeline, and SDLC management? How are new releases tested before deployment?

Why People Are Asking: Your engineering maturity is a reflection of your product quality. Buyers want to feel confident that your releases are stable, secure, and tested rigorously. 

How to Respond: List your CI/CD stack (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, ArgoCD), types of automated tests, and use of static code analysis or security scanning. Also be sure to mention release gates and rollback capabilities. 

Bonus: Offer a diagram of your pipeline for increased credibility. 

10. What reporting, analytics, and dashboarding features are available out-of-the-box, and how can users create custom reports or dashboards? What options exist for exporting or integrating reporting data with other systems?

Why People Are Asking: Decision-makers want visibility. It’s as simple as that. Analysts want data they can work with. Period. Your platform must provide actionable insights without locking data in. 

How to Respond: Show screenshots of standard dashboards, reporting filters, and customization features. Mention export formats and integrations with BI tools (Power BI, Tableau). 

Bonus: If your users can query data directly or connect to a data warehouse, you’ve got a major selling point. 

How Sales Teams Automate Answers to Supplier Questions

So now you know: technical validation is no longer an option. It’s expected. Buyers insist on knowing exactly how your product works, and that means lots of questions.

Lots. 

The questions we’ve outlined here are more than just a checklist. They reflect the real concerns from real stakeholders across IT, security, and operations. 

When you can prepare thoughtful, transparent answers in these key areas, you can build trust and remove friction. 

You can also close more deals faster. 

Now, how can you get all this done? See for yourself:

1up can centralize your company’s product and compliance documentation into a single knowledge base so you can automate responses to any technical question.

Try it for yourself.

FAQs on Technical Supplier Questions