The Dreaded Vendor Workflow

The Dreaded Vendor Workflow

I’m going to say something vendors aren’t supposed to say.

Vendor approval processes are starting to get a bit out of hand.

Look, I know nobody wants to hear vendors gripe about anything post‑sale. We won, we should be happy, and we should do whatever the client needs to get set up properly.

But some of these vendor approval processes - especially the ones with zero human intervention - are starting to get… a bit much.

I recently had to go through a full vendor assessment (20+ questions) at a client who’d already had our software live for over a year.

To be clear, I get why these exist. Security expectations change, teams change, and standardized reviews make it easier to keep the whole vendor portfolio in check.

The problem is when the process takes over the purpose.

It starts to feel like those job portals where you upload your resume and then still have to fill in every single field again - repetitive and tiring.

If you’ve ever worked in Customer Success, you know the perils of “survey fatigue”: past a certain point, the effort to complete the form is higher than the energy you have to care about the answers.

As a vendor, of course we’re going to complete it - we want to keep working together - and in my case I’ll always be as accurate as possible because revenue data is highly sensitive. But more questions does not automatically mean safer.

Past a certain threshold, it actually increases the risk of unreliable or superficial answers as people rush just to get it done.

Vendor assessments should protect the client, validate real risks, and confirm how critical data is handled - not turn into a yearly endurance test.

Anyone else feeling this pain, or am I just extra sensitive from new‑puppy sleep deprivation? What does your ideal vendor journey look like?