The requirements document
Scoped to your business goals, not copied from a template.
Pick the right tool.
And defend the pick.
I take you through your marketing technology RFP — analytics, attribution, tag management, consent, media verification — with sharp requirements, a fair scoring grid, and a shortlist you can defend to procurement and the board. On your side of the table, vendor-neutral.
What you gain
You buy once, correctly. The #1 cause of tech purchase regret is total cost running past the estimate; #2 is slow implementation (Gartner). Both get caught at the RFP stage — if you know what to ask. That’s exactly what goes into the requirements and the demo scripts.
You compare apples to apples. Vendor proposals are built to be incomparable. A scoring grid with criteria and weights agreed before the demos brings them all to the same denominator.
You negotiate informed. The vendor closes dozens of deals a year; you run an RFP every 2–3 years. That information asymmetry has a price. I reduce it with market benchmarks and the questions the vendor hopes you won’t ask.
The decision holds up. You get a written decision memo — why this tool, why not the others, with which risks — that you take to the board without sweating. And 18 months later, when someone asks “who picked this?”, the answer has documentation.
Your team comes out smarter. The grid, the requirements and the demo scripts stay with you, documented. Next selection, you reuse them — with or without me.
Who it’s for
For marketing, e-commerce and product teams at mid-sized and large companies choosing a measurement technology.
An analytics platform, an attribution tool, tag management / CDP, a CMP, media verification.
Why RFPs go wrong
The numbers are honest: 3 in 5 software buyers regret a purchase from the last 12–18 months. And 74% of B2B buying teams show unhealthy conflict during the decision — teams that reach genuine consensus are 2.5× more likely to land a good deal.
Source: Gartner, twice.
What we do for you
I work for the buying team. I don’t write proposals for vendors, and I take commission from none of them.
Translate goals into requirements
Not “scalable enterprise-grade platform”, but: which business questions need answers, what data goes in, what reports come out, who uses them.
Build the scoring grid
Criteria and weights agreed by the team before the first demo. The grid decides, not the last impression.
Write the demo scripts
The vendor demonstrates on your cases — your data, your flows, your edge cases — not on their presentation dataset.
Ask the uncomfortable questions
Three-year total cost (licence + implementation + training + maintenance), what happens to your data at exit, the limits you’d otherwise discover after signing.
Check references
With prepared questions, at real customers — not the three the vendor suggests.
What you get
The scoring grid
Criteria, weights, scoring method — agreed with the team before the demos.
Longlist → shortlist
Who made it, who didn’t, and why.
Demo scripts + vendor questions
Including the ones about total cost and what happens to your data at exit.
Reference-check questions
What to ask existing customers to learn what’s not in the slides.
A decision memo for the board
The recommendation, the alternatives, the risks.
How it works
What you’re buying, and why
- Goals, constraints, who decides
- If you don’t need a new tool, I’ll say so
- You may just save an entire RFP
Requirements and the grid
- Written with your team, in your language
- Criteria and weights agreed
- Before any vendor sees anything
The selection, end to end
- Longlist → shortlist
- Demos on your scenarios
- Scoring & reference checks
The decision memo, in hand
- A justified recommendation
- Alternatives and risks, in writing
- Support in the final negotiation, if you want it
— How to start
Already running an RFP — or one is coming?
Write to us with what you’re selecting and where you are in the process. I’ll reply directly, with the steps I’d take in your place.