How it works
There is no shortlist at the end of this, and no directory to work through. You tell us what needs to change, we do the evaluation, and we introduce you to the one specialist we are prepared to put our name to.
Why there is no shortlist
Your brief starts with one firm. Agency Network Solutions does the assessment work, so the conversation ends with one relevant specialist rather than a pile of names.
The three steps
Start to finish, this is the whole process. Everything below the steps is detail about how the middle one is done.
One short form, or a conversation if you would rather. We start with the outcome you are after and the situation around it, not with a service you are supposed to have chosen already. Most partners do not know which discipline they need at this point, and they are not expected to.
Agency Network Solutions reviews every enquiry. We work out what the firm actually needs, whether an agency is the right answer at all, and which specialist in the network has done this work before, for a firm of your size, inside your constraints.
We introduce one specialist and tell you why we chose them. You take the conversation from there, on your own terms. We stay reachable afterwards, because we are answerable for the judgement and not only for the introduction.
Step two, in full
An independent recommendation is worth nothing if nobody can see what it rests on, so here is what it rests on. The same criteria are published on the page agencies read before they apply.
What outcome the firm is buying, what it has already tried, and whether the thing being asked for is the thing that will help. Sometimes it is not, and that is worth finding out before anyone is introduced.
Whether the agency has worked inside professional services constraints before, or can give a credible account of why its experience transfers. Regulated marketing and long referral-led buying cycles are not a detail you learn on a client's budget.
Work we can inspect in the discipline we would recommend them for, and clients we can speak to. Not credentials, not awards, and not how much they spend on their own marketing.
Capacity to start now rather than to queue the work. Terms we have read, covering what the client owns and what happens to the accounts and the code at the end. A named person accountable for the account.
One name, and the reasoning behind it.
Straight answer
It happens, and it is the outcome that costs us money, so it is worth being clear about. An enquiry can end without an introduction, and none of the ways it does should come as a surprise.
If the work is outside what our specialists have genuinely delivered, we say so. We will not stretch an agency into a discipline it is learning on your budget, and we will not send you a name simply to have sent one.
Sometimes the problem is a decision the firm has not made rather than a supplier it has not found. When that is what we see, we tell you, even though telling you costs us the introduction. There is a longer version of this on the professional services page.
We would rather come back to you in a quarter with the right specialist than introduce an approximate one now. If that is where we land, we will say what would need to change for the answer to be different.
In all three cases you get the reasoning, not a polite decline. That is the part you can use whether or not we are the ones who help.
Clear about who pays
The service is free to your firm. The agency pays us, and only once an introduction turns into a working relationship.
Pays us nothing at any stage, and is under no obligation to proceed.
Agrees the scope and the price directly with the agency.
Pays us only when an introduction becomes a working relationship.
Cannot buy a better position, because there is no position to buy. No ranking, no premium tier, no placement fee.
Most enquiries get a considered answer within two working days. If we need a conversation first, we will say so rather than guess.
No. There is no obligation at any point. You agree the work directly with the agency, on your own terms, or you do not.
Bring it to us directly. We are paid on the relationship working, so we have a reason to care about it beyond politeness.
No. A shortlist hands the evaluation back to you, which is the part we exist to take on. If we cannot pick one, we will tell you why instead.
No. The service is free to your firm. The agency pays us, and only once an introduction turns into a working relationship.
One conversation
Tell us what needs to change. We will take responsibility for finding the right specialist.
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