The "SSO Tax": Why Security Compliance Will Triple Your Proposal Software Budget

You have found the perfect proposal software. The "Business" plan is $59/user, fitting perfectly within your $15,000 annual budget. You get approval from Finance. You get buy-in from Sales.

Then, one week before signing, your CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) asks a simple question: "Does it support SAML SSO?"

You check the pricing page. Yes, it does. But there is a catch. SSO is only available on the "Enterprise" plan. The price? $149/user.

Your $15,000 budget just exploded to $45,000. Welcome to the SSO Tax.

The "Security Ransom" Business Model

In the B2B SaaS world, Single Sign-On (SSO) is not treated as a basic security feature (like HTTPS or 2FA). It is treated as a "willingness to pay" signal. Vendors know that if your company is large enough to require SSO for compliance, you are large enough to pay 3x more per seat.

This pricing cliff is artificial. The technical cost to a vendor for enabling SAML is negligible. You are not paying for the feature; you are paying a tax on your own corporate governance.

Why You Cannot Just "Skip" SSO

Small teams might be tempted to stay on the cheaper plan and use password managers. For proposal software, this is dangerous.

Proposal tools house your most sensitive data: pricing models, client lists, legal terms, and discount strategies. Without SSO, you lack:

• Automated Deprovisioning: When a sales rep leaves to join a competitor, IT cannot instantly revoke their access. They might retain access to your pricing data for days or weeks.
• Centralized Audit Logs: You cannot see who accessed which contract and when.
• MFA Enforcement: You rely on individual users to set strong passwords, which they rarely do.

How to Negotiate the Tax

While the "SSO Tax" is standard industry practice, it is not immovable. As discussed in our Executive Guide to Selection, you have leverage if you act early.

1. The "Security Carve-Out":
Ask the vendor to keep you on the "Business" plan pricing but add the SSO module as a flat-fee line item (e.g., +$2,000/year). Many sales reps have discretion to do this to close a deal.

2. The Multi-Year Lever:
Offer to sign a 2-year contract upfront in exchange for waiving the Enterprise seat minimums or discounting the Enterprise rate to match the Business tier.

3. The "Compliance Blocker":
State clearly: "We are technically barred from buying software without SSO. We have budget for the Business tier. If you cannot bridge this gap, we are forced to disqualify you." This turns the tax into a deal-killer, forcing the vendor to react.

Do not wait until the final contract review to raise this. Identify the SSO requirement on Day 1, and make it a condition of your evaluation.