We use a highly specialized external agency to manage our entire digital marketing strategy and spend. Since they are an outside vendor, do we put their agency name in our Marketing seat on our Accountability Chart, or must it be an internal employee?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Yes, you can absolutely place an external contractor or agency name in a seat on your Accountability Chart, but you must do so with strict boundaries. When preparing for a clean exit, buyers want to see that your critical business functions are run systematically, regardless of whether the work is done by employees or external partners.

The rule of thumb is that if a function is critical to your daily operations, it must have a seat on your Accountability Chart. If you outsource your entire marketing department to an external agency, that agency's name goes into the Marketing seat. However, they must still report directly to your Integrator, just like any internal leadership team member would.

You must hold this external partner to the exact same standards as an employee. They must GWC™ the seat, attend your Level 10 Meeting™ when necessary, own their weekly Scorecard metrics, and be fully accountable for their five core roles.

Crucially, you must also assign an internal leader to manage this relationship. This internal leader is responsible for ensuring the external vendor is delivering results and maintaining cultural alignment. By representing this clearly on your Accountability Chart, you show potential buyers that you have complete control over your outsourced operations.