For businesses
Vendor and Agency Selection
Most agency engagements go wrong before they start. At the brief, the vendor shortlist, or the contract.
You're about to commit significant budget to a digital agency. A website rebuild. A new platform. A transformation program. You've been burned before, or you're smart enough to know you could be. You don't have the internal expertise to write a credible brief, evaluate proposals properly, or spot the contract clauses that should worry you.
This is the engagement that happens before the agency engagement. It's the one that makes the next one work.
Why this exists
Why this service exists
Buying agency services isn't intuitive. Agencies have information advantages the client doesn't have: they know what questions to ask, what to over-scope, where to build in margin, what contract terms protect them versus you. A poorly scoped brief invites inflated proposals. The wrong vendor shortlist means you're comparing the wrong options. A contract with no teeth means there's no recourse when things go sideways.
None of this is about agencies being adversarial. Good agencies want good briefs and clear contracts too. Both sides lose when the engagement starts wrong.
What I bring
Receipts and credentials
Years of writing and evaluating proposals, from both sides of the table. At a large residential homebuilder I reduced external vendor spend from $25,000–$30,000 per month to $5,000 per month, then cancelled it entirely. $250K+ recovered in year one, achieved by running the vendor relationship properly rather than accepting the existing arrangement.
The $250K+ agency tender I ran was end to end: I authored the brief, assessed responses, appointed the vendor, and served as internal product owner through design, build, and launch. That's not a consultant perspective. That's having done it. And having done it as a generalist means I can evaluate technical scope, commercial terms, and delivery confidence, not just one of those layers.
What the engagement covers
- Requirements workshop Align the business on what you actually need, not what you think you need.
- Vendor shortlisting The right three to five agencies for the job, matched to budget, scope, and working style.
- RFP management Brief authored to elicit useful responses, not marketing decks. Clear evaluation criteria upfront.
- Scored evaluation Objective framework applied consistently across responses. No agency charming their way through.
- Recommendation with rationale Not just who, but why, and what to watch for.
- Contract guidance The clauses that matter, the ones that should worry you, and what to negotiate before signing.
What this looks like in practice
At the same homebuilder the $250K+ tender was the single largest digital procurement the business had run. Brief authored to reflect the actual platform needs, not agency sales language. Five agencies shortlisted. Scored evaluation across capability, cultural fit, commercial terms, and delivery confidence. I then served as internal product owner through the engagement, which is where most vendor selections actually succeed or fail: the handover from selection to delivery.
The $250K in recovered spend in year one came from getting that selection, and the relationship that followed, right.
Pricing
Pricing
$3,500 to $6,000 for the full engagement. Scoped by project size and number of vendors in the process. Engagements begin with a $250 paid intake call, applied to the engagement fee if you proceed.
Next
What happens next
A 30-minute paid intake call covers the project, the budget, and the timeline. The $250 intake fee is applied to the engagement if you proceed. Proposal within two business days. Typical engagements run 3 to 6 weeks from kick-off to vendor appointment.
This service frequently leads to ongoing oversight of the agency engagement once the vendor is in. That's the cleanest path to a fractional retainer, and usually the one clients want.