Industrial-technology companies often choose marketing vendors while technical, safety, procurement and commercial stakeholders are already busy. A proposal may sound strategic and still leave basic questions unanswered: which audience is in scope, what evidence will be delivered, who can approve a technical claim, how will account data be handled, and what happens when the first draft fails acceptance.
This checklist treats vendor selection as a quality-assurance exercise. It helps a team test the proposed scope, not merely compare presentation quality or hourly rates. It is not a procurement policy, cybersecurity certification, legal opinion or guarantee that a vendor will produce demand or revenue.
1. State the decision and the failure boundary
Write the decision: shortlist, run a bounded pilot, select a supplier, extend an existing engagement or stop the evaluation. Define product lines, regions, buyer roles, channels, systems, technical reviewers and excluded work.
Add a failure boundary. Examples include an unsupported performance claim, exposure of restricted product information, an unusable asset, missed technical review, non-reconciling report or deliverable that cannot be transferred to the internal team. A clear boundary makes later acceptance less subjective.
2. Convert the brief into testable requirements
Separate outcomes, deliverables, dependencies and assumptions. A requirement should identify the object, user, condition, evidence and acceptance rule.
| Requirement type | Example test | |—|—| | Audience | A reviewer can identify the buyer role and use case from the brief | | Technical content | A subject-matter reviewer can trace each material assertion to supplied evidence | | Workflow | The internal owner can approve, reject or revise without vendor-only access | | Data handling | The vendor can explain fields, access, retention and deletion route | | Reporting | A sample report includes definitions, period, denominator and limitations | | Transfer | The company receives editable source files, versions and ownership notes |
Avoid a requirement such as “excellent content” unless it is decomposed into observable checks. The vendor should know what will count as accepted before work begins.
3. Test vendor evidence, not only references
Request a sample relevant to the industrial context, with permission to inspect the underlying method. Ask what the vendor did personally, which parts were hypothetical, what changed after review and what limitation remained.
Do not treat a logo list or a polished case study as proof of fit. Capture source, date, scope, role, measurable outcome if available, permission and a contact route for verification. Mark any example that cannot be independently checked as illustrative rather than conclusive.
4. Review technical-risk handling
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is a framework for helping organisations understand and improve cybersecurity risk. It is not a vendor approval or a substitute for the company’s own controls. Use its risk-management vocabulary to ask how a vendor identifies, protects, detects, responds to and recovers from relevant information risks.
Ask for the practical boundary: systems accessed, account roles, credential method, subcontractors, transfer channels, incident notification, retention, deletion and evidence of access review. A vendor that cannot describe the boundary should not receive broad access while the decision is still open.
5. Check the quality of information and claims
The NIST Information Quality Standards provide a vocabulary for utility, objectivity, integrity and correction. Use it to review proposed research, market statements, technical explanations and reporting. It does not certify a vendor or the company’s claims.
For each important assertion, record source, context, method, scope, reviewer, expiry trigger and correction path. Distinguish a vendor opinion, a customer example, a product fact, a target and a comparative claim. Make the claims reviewer a named role rather than an assumed step at the end.
6. Inspect privacy and account-data boundaries
Industrial marketing work can include named contacts, account plans, drawings, incident context, facility details and confidential product information. The NIST Privacy Framework is a voluntary reference for discussing privacy risk and control; it is not a transfer agreement or legal permission.
Write a data map before selection: field, purpose, source, access role, retention, export route, deletion route and incident owner. Ask whether a vendor can work with minimised or synthetic records during the pilot. Check that a subcontractor inherits the same restrictions and that internal users can remove access promptly.
7. Score the proposal with evidence weights
Use a scorecard that separates capability from evidence and risk:
| Dimension | Question | Evidence | Non-fit signal | |—|—|—|—| | Domain understanding | Can the team explain the buyer decision without invented certainty? | Interview and work sample | Generic terminology replaces questions | | Delivery method | Are stages, owners, inputs and acceptance gates visible? | Workplan and sample artifact | Activity list with no dependencies | | Technical review | Can subject-matter feedback change the output? | Review protocol and example | Technical reviewer appears only after release | | Data control | Are access and retention bounded? | Data map and role matrix | Broad credentials or unclear deletion | | Measurement | Are definitions and limitations explicit? | Report sample and metric contract | Vanity totals presented as outcomes | | Transfer | Can the company operate the result later? | Editable files and handoff plan | Vendor-only system is required |
Record the weighting and the reason. A single total score should not hide a blocking security or claims defect.
8. Run a representative acceptance test
Give shortlisted vendors the same bounded scenario, such as a technical product page, a buyer question, a permitted evidence pack and a reporting requirement. Specify what they may assume and what they must flag. Evaluate interpretation, source discipline, review route, clarity, transferability and time-box adherence.
Keep the scenario synthetic or authorised. Do not distribute live confidential drawings or customer data merely to make a selection exercise feel realistic. The test is to observe method, not to obtain unpaid production work.
9. Define defect severity and ownership
| Severity | Example | Action | |—|—|—| | Blocking | Restricted information exposed or a material technical claim unsupported | Stop evaluation and preserve evidence | | High | Acceptance requirement missed or report cannot be reconciled | Correct before release decision | | Medium | Limited clarity, formatting or workflow defect | Assign owner and retest | | Low | Cosmetic inconsistency with no decision impact | Log for controlled clean-up |
Assign a defect owner, vendor response date, evidence location and retest rule. A defect is not closed because a new file exists; it is closed when the acceptance test passes or the decision owner explicitly accepts the limitation.
10. Connect measures to a decision
The GOV.UK Measuring Success guidance can help structure the relationship between a measure, a review and an action. It is not an industrial-marketing performance benchmark.
Specify what will be measured during the pilot, who reads it, the denominator, period, source, bias and response rule. “More visibility” is not a sufficient acceptance criterion. A better rule might be that an internal reviewer can locate the evidence for every reported value and explain what decision the report informs.
11. Review public marketing statements
The FTC Advertising and Marketing guidance is a U.S.-scoped prompt that advertising claims should be truthful, non-deceptive and evidence-based. It is not a complete review for every market or a substitute for specialist advice.
Check claims about performance, safety, compliance, savings, reliability, delivery time, customer results and comparative superiority. Require a population, period, method, qualification and permission. If the vendor proposes a claim that cannot be supported, narrow it or place it behind an open review rather than letting a deadline decide.
12. Set release and transfer gates
Use gates for brief acceptance, access approval, draft review, claims and technical review, final QA, handoff and post-release correction. Each gate needs an approver, evidence location, stop rule and rollback route.
At handoff, verify editable source, content inventory, version history, rights record, measurement definitions, account access, open defects and maintenance owner. The company should be able to continue or retire the work without asking the vendor to reconstruct the decision.
13. Copy-ready vendor QA record
“text Selection decision / scope / excluded work / decision owner: Requirement / user / condition / evidence / acceptance rule: Vendor evidence / role performed / date / permission / limitation: Technical-review route / claims reviewer / privacy and security boundary: Data field / purpose / access / retention / deletion / incident owner: Pilot scenario / permitted inputs / synthetic-data rule / time box: Defect / severity / owner / vendor response / retest evidence: Measure / denominator / period / source / action rule: Release gate / approver / rollback / transfer and maintenance owner: Final decision / accepted limitations / next review / version: “
A good vendor decision is a controlled release decision. Industrial-technology teams protect themselves when they can show what was required, what was tested, which defects remained, who accepted the risk and how the work can be operated after handoff.
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