Vendor Management · · 6 min read
Vendor Ecosystem Oversight: Why Your Marketing Vendors Are Underperforming
By Scott Hashisaki, Fractional CMO & Growth Executive
Most marketing vendors underperform not because they're incompetent, but because they lack clear direction, accountability, and the right success metrics.
Key Takeaways
- Vendor problems are usually oversight problems
- Define outcomes not activities
- Run QBRs against your benchmarks
- Preserve the right to audit
Most marketing vendor problems are not vendor problems — they're oversight problems.
When a company hires a paid media agency without a CMO to manage that relationship, the agency defaults to optimizing for what they can easily measure — impressions, clicks, CTR — rather than revenue-qualified pipeline. This isn't dishonesty; it's what happens when a knowledgeable client-side leader isn't setting strategic direction.
Building a vendor management framework: define outcomes not activities — your paid search agency should be accountable for cost-per-qualified-lead not cost-per-click.
Establish quarterly business reviews with every significant vendor reviewing performance against defined benchmarks, not metrics the vendor chose to report.
Maintain the right to audit — any vendor resisting third-party audit of their performance data should be replaced.
The fractional CMO as vendor director: an experienced marketing leader knows what good looks like across every function and holds each vendor accountable to appropriate benchmarks.