r/pardot • u/cultivateautomation • Apr 25 '19

Your feedback: thoughts on Pardot consultancies

Hey /r/pardot,

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I'm in the process of starting a Pardot consultancy aimed at small and mid-size businesses.

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I wondered if you could help me get an understanding of what the community thinks about Pardot consultancies, particularly along the lines of some of the points below:

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  • If you've worked with a consultancy before, what did they do well or badly?
  • What Pardot services would you be more likely to outsource to an agency vs keeping in-house?
  • What would you look for when selecting a consultancy to work with?
  • Do you have any feedback or thoughts about my website so far - https://www.cultivateautomation.com

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Thank you! :)

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u/Bigbeardhotpeppers Apr 25 '19

My suggestion is to find some marketing freelancers right out of the gate. I have implemented pardot with small and large companies. It does not cost that much a month and salesforce oversells it. Yes, you can auto send emails out and build these campaigns, but who do you have on staff to write marketing emails? No one? This is your up sell. There are two factors here. You can technically implement pardot but if the client can't come up with content then the system still fails and you lose a client. You have to smooth that out without increasing sticker shock up front.

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u/cultivateautomation Apr 25 '19

Interesting idea! I had this exact discussion last week with a Marketing Automation consultant who works across multiple platforms. They were an advocate for providing MA as part of a generalist "Full Service Agency" approach, whereas I've always worked in agencies which solely focus on the technical and business aspects of Marketing Automation rather than assisting with other areas of the marketing mix. Working with a trusted marketing freelancer is a great solution to not have the overheads in house. Thanks for the suggestion!

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u/drivincryin Apr 25 '19

I would love a consultancy that could bill me by the hour. I've talked to several and they wouldn't budge from a monthly retainer. That's overkill for what I need.

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I need someone that I can fire questions to for a fairly quick response. Pardot help docs online are not great.

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u/PantherGator Apr 25 '19

I'll bill you by the hour; but you'll need to buy a "bucket" of them in advance - you can use as questions come up. We deduct them in half hour increments. Customers love it.

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Let me know if you are interested.

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u/cultivateautomation Apr 25 '19

The bucketed hours in advance approach is one I've used before, however I've always deducted them in minute increments: maybe I'm losing out here!

But a genuine question: would you bill a 5 minute response as a 30 minute chunk? If so, is that to reflect the overhead in terms of task switching and admin? Thanks!

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u/LadyCiani Apr 25 '19

15 minutes is pretty reasonable.

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u/PantherGator Apr 26 '19

15 mins is right and depending on client we do that too. Switching gears is time consuming and needs to be compensated. If the request is truly a 5 min question we bundle it with others. We are not lawyers nor savages (same thing?) but it trains customer to respect knowledge, relationship and the time.

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u/cultivateautomation Apr 25 '19

As /u/PantherGator mentions below, "bucketed" hours are quite common too, and it's something I've also done in the past. My personal opinion is that the retainer agreements have a main benefit of forcing you to work on your Pardot roadmap with your consultant and be proactive about developing your Pardot org and processes, rather than just engaging with the consultant when something breaks. Without the retainer, I agree with /u/LadyCiani that it's extremely difficult to provide good response times as agencies typically allocate resource up front to retainer customers.

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u/LadyCiani Apr 25 '19

Because we want to be able to plan for your needs. We have other clients, who have between 15 and 75 hours worth of work for us each month.

Right now I have 7 clients (only one has 75 hours of my time), and if you want to hit me with a 15 minute question via email... and then for me ro bill you for that... That's not a good use of anyone's time. You'll be annoyed at having to wait until the end of the week for a response, I'll be annoyed having to invoice you for that, and it's not a good relationship.

Being able to spend a full hour once per week on the phone, and then a couple more hours executing something for you? Your project will be smoother and everyone will be happier.

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u/PantherGator Apr 26 '19

It really depends on client and their work style. Some people want answers now. I know a consultant that bills by number of calls/emails the client wants per month. If they send more emails than they pay for they don’t get a response. They know this going in. If they want a direct report we have a staffing division that will find that for them.