Overview
Iterable is a marketing technology leader with over 500 employees and more than $200M in annual recurring revenue. The company helps brands orchestrate personalized, cross-channel customer experiences at scale.
As Iterable grew, so did the demands on its security and trust programs. Enterprise buyers needed detailed assurance of compliance, data protection, and risk management. For Heather McDonough, Customer Trust Lead, this wasn’t just about checking boxes — it was about showing that trust is a measurable value driver.
“It’s unfortunate that security questionnaires often feel like a checkbox exercise, when in reality they’re a reflection of how much a company cares about security. At Iterable, we wanted to prove that trust is part of the customer experience.”
– Heather McDonough, Customer Trust Lead at Iterable
The Challenge
When Heather joined Iterable as Customer Trust Lead, the security team was weighed down by inefficient processes. The company had invested in RFPIO to handle RFPs and questionnaires, but adoption was low. Team members found it clunky, expensive, and ultimately ineffective without the right processes to support it.
“Without process, a tool is bound to fail. It’s less about the technology and more about how you use it — and at Iterable, we knew we needed something that fit how our teams worked together.”
– Heather McDonough
The stakes were high. Like many organizations, the security team risked being viewed strictly as a cost center. To show measurable business value, Heather needed to bridge two critical gaps:
- Between Sales and Security: Sales wanted quick, reliable responses. Security wanted to protect accuracy and integrity.
- Between Process and Technology: The team needed a solution that didn’t just capture data, but streamlined the entire customer trust lifecycle.
On top of this, requests were ballooning. At any given time, the queue held 40–60 open questionnaires or RFPs, dragging out sales cycles and frustrating internal teams.
The Solution
Heather’s first move was to roll out SecurityPal AI’s interactive Trust Center. Unlike static “trust packages,” the Trust Center gave Iterable’s customers a self-service experience that scaled instantly. Prospects could find documentation, NDAs, and policies on their own — freeing Security and Sales from repetitive tasks.
“The Trust Page is huge. From the other side, it’s the first thing I look for to gauge a security program’s maturity. Having one that I can manage and update myself — without going through web dev — makes everything so much faster and more seamless.”
– Heather McDonough
Beyond the Trust Center, Iterable leaned on SecurityPal AI’s:
- Security Questionnaire Concierge, which combines AI automation with expert human oversight to complete security questionnaires in under 12 hours, while still allowing Heather’s team to QA.
- Browser Extension + CoPilot, which embedded the knowledge base where teams actually worked, cutting down time spent hunting for content and documentation.
- Ticketing and Reporting Tools, which made it possible to track metrics, identify bottlenecks, and demonstrate the value of security and customer trust to leadership.
Equally important was the partnership itself. Heather notes that SecurityPal AI was responsive to feedback in a way that few vendors are:
“I’ve given feedback to SecurityPal AI and sometimes the requested feature shows up almost immediately. Little things like a search function for authorized emails might not sound exciting, but when you’re managing customer trust, they make a huge difference. That responsiveness builds loyalty.”
– Heather McDonough
The Results
Within weeks, Iterable’s investment in SecurityPal AI was paying dividends across efficiency, sales velocity, and revenue enablement.
- Reduced average response times by 1 business day.
- Self-service Trust Center delivered an immediate turnaround for customer documentation requests.
- $3.3M in sales enabled within weeks, directly tied to faster access to trust documentation.
- Request backlog shrank from 40–60 open items to under 10, dramatically improving throughput.
- Sales cycles accelerated, with security no longer seen as a blocker but as an enabler.
- Team resiliency improved, thanks to a new on-call rotation schedule supported by SecurityPal AI’s tools, reducing burnout and facilitating knowledge sharing.
Heather emphasizes that these improvements came even as the team onboarded new members and adjusted to new processes:
“With SecurityPal AI — even with new people learning the ropes — we cut our average response time by a full business day. The platform’s browser extension and CoPilot were immediate time savers. And now, with AI assistance, the gains just keep growing.”
– Heather McDonough
Why It Worked
The success of Iterable’s Customer Trust program with SecurityPal AI came down to three factors:
- Executive Buy-In: With the CISO championing trust as a value driver, not just a compliance function, Heather had the air cover to build a program that mattered to the business.
- Cross-Functional Alignment: Sales, Compliance, and Security all benefitted from a single source of truth, ensuring speed without sacrificing quality.
- A True Partnership: SecurityPal AI’s flexibility and responsiveness meant Iterable wasn’t just using a tool — they were shaping it.
“SecurityPal AI gives me time back to focus on building trust, not just answering questions. That’s the real value.”
– Heather McDonough
What’s Next for Iterable
Looking ahead, Iterable plans to continue expanding its Customer Trust strategy with SecurityPal AI. New metrics, advanced AI concierge capabilities, and private data rooms are on the horizon for Iterable, all designed to show customers and executives alike that trust is a revenue driver.
