What should a SAAS marketing selection checklist cover before you sign?

What to take away

Shortlist only after you can describe the audience you are buying for. Audience research comes before channel ideas.
Score every supplier on one sheetaudience evidence, channel plan, measurement, compliance and exit terms. Weight the criteria before you see a pitch.
Check compliance before you check pricing. Live sales calls and advertising claims both carry UK rules.
Agree the measurement baseline in writing. If nobody can name the current cost per qualified lead, the pitch is guesswork.
Treat the contract as part of selection, not later admin.

Why the checklist exists

Most selection failures start before the shortlist. A team sees a polished deck, likes the people, and signs without agreeing what the work must prove.

Checklist order as gates

Audience first
Then channels
Then measurement
Then commercial terms
Each stage filters the next

Buyers who skip this step end up comparing agencies on price alone, which says nothing about fit. Our guide to SAAS marketing reviews and comparison methods explains how to score evidence rather than presentation.

Treat each section as a gate. If the audience evidence fails, stop there and fix it before scoring channel plans.

Audience evidence

Ask what research the supplier has done on your category, not on marketing in general. Request the method, the sample size and the date.

Audience evidence to request

Research on your category
Method and sample size
Date of research
Persona from interviews or surveys
Comparable category summary
Why buyers choose, delay, reject

If they cannot show a persona built from interviews, surveys or first-party data, the plan rests on assumptions. The CIM data and insights training courses cover the techniques a credible team should be able to describe, from sampling to analysis.

Ask to see a research summary from a comparable software category, with client names redacted if needed. A generic market report is not a substitute.

One question matters more than volume: can they explain why your buyer chooses, delays or rejects software like yours?

Compliance and claims

Marketing to UK businesses still has rules, and they differ by channel. Outbound calling needs consent records and screening against the corporate telephone preference service. The ICO guidance on direct marketing using live calls sets out what a lawful call looks like.

Advertising claims need evidence held before publication, not gathered afterwards. The ASA training and events page shows the kind of compliance briefing a serious supplier will have completed.

Ask for a sample consent record and a sample screening log. Both should exist before the first call is made.

Ask who signs off claims and where the evidence file lives. If the answer is vague, the risk lands on you.

Decision table

Choose

No documented buyer research: A supplier that runs a paid discovery phase first
Regulated or high-value category: A team with named compliance ownership
Small English team, limited budget: A narrow scope with one channel and clear reporting
Existing data but no analysis: An analyst-led engagement
Long procurement cycle: Suppliers who accept milestone-based terms

Avoid

No documented buyer research: Anyone promising a full plan in week one
Regulated or high-value category: Suppliers who treat compliance as legal's problem
Small English team, limited budget: Broad retainers across five channels
Existing data but no analysis: More content production
Long procurement cycle: Annual lock-in before a pilot

Scoring the shortlist

Build one sheet and use it for every supplier. Weights, as an illustrative example only: audience evidence 25 per cent, channel plan 20 per cent, measurement 20 per cent. Compliance takes 15 per cent and commercial terms 20 per cent.

Score out of five against written evidence, not conversation. Keep the notes beside the scores so a colleague can audit the decision months later.

Agree the weighting with whoever signs the invoice. Finance often reads risk differently from marketing does.

Two suppliers tied on total score usually differ on one criterion. Revisit the weighting rather than the scores.

Commercial terms to test

Ask what happens if performance misses the agreed baseline for two consecutive months. Ask who owns the data, the ad accounts and the creative.

Notice periods and exit assistance matter more than headline fees. A supplier that cannot describe a handover has probably never run one.

For example, a three-month pilot with a review gate gives both sides an exit without a twelve-month lock-in.

For a view of what the English market looks like in practice, see our SAAS marketing best providers in England round-up before you finalise the shortlist.

Common questions

How many suppliers should a shortlist contain?

Three to five. Fewer gives no comparison, and more than five makes genuine scoring impossible inside a normal procurement window.

Does the checklist change for an in-house hire?

No. The same criteria apply to a hire or an agency: audience evidence, measurement plan, compliance knowledge and ownership of outcomes.

When should legal review the contract?

Before the final pitch, not after selection. Terms shape which supplier you can actually work with, so they belong in scoring.

What is the strongest single signal?

A supplier that asks to see your existing data before proposing anything. It shows they intend to work from evidence rather than a template. Ask it early, then watch whether the proposal references your numbers.