VettedIntelContact

The same buyer, the same script, for every vendor

A comparison is only fair if every vendor meets the same buyer asking the same questions. That discipline is the product.

Four stages

  • Scope.You name the competitors that matter and describe a typical buyer. We propose a buyer profile matched to your category and deal size, and you approve it, along with the persona, budget, timeline, and question set, before anything starts.
  • Shop.The evaluator approaches each vendor as that buyer: inbound form, discovery call, demo, quote, follow-up. Emails are exported, calls are noted with timestamps, screenshots are kept.
  • Compare.Each vendor is scored on the same criteria. What reps claimed is checked against what they did, and against what competitors did in the same situation.
  • Report.You receive the scorecard, the evidence trail, and the specific moments that decided the buyer's ranking, followed by a review call with the evaluator.

Five criteria, applied to every vendor

  • Responsiveness.Time to first reply, time to a human, and how follow-up was handled.
  • Discovery quality.Whether the rep learned the buyer's situation before pitching.
  • Demo relevance.How much of the demo addressed what the buyer had asked about.
  • Pricing clarity.How quickly a quote arrived, how clear it was, and what was offered unprompted.
  • Follow-through.Whether promises made on calls were kept, and how the vendor closed.

The scoring rubric

Each criterion is scored 1 to 5 against written anchors, and no score is recorded without the evidence named beside it. A 2 or a 4 means the record sits between two anchors; the buyer's note says which way and why. The anchors below are the ones we use.

Responsiveness

Evidence required. Email headers for every reply time; form confirmation screenshot; call log with timestamps.

1
No human reply within five business days, or the buyer had to chase twice.
3
Human reply within one business day; at least one follow-up required a nudge.
5
Personal reply within one hour in business hours; every promised follow-up arrived on time without prompting.

Discovery quality

Evidence required. Call notes listing each question the rep asked, in order, and which of the buyer's stated problems were never raised.

1
Rep pitched without asking about the buyer's situation, or asked only budget and timeline.
3
Rep covered the basics (role, size, current tool, timeline) but did not probe the stated problem.
5
Rep uncovered the stated problem and at least one the buyer had not volunteered, and tailored the next step to it.

Demo relevance

Evidence required. The buyer's written asks before the demo, set against a timestamped outline of what was shown; consented recording where it exists.

1
Standard demo; the buyer's asks were not shown or were deferred to a later call.
3
Most asks were shown, but as a detour from a standard script, with at least one left out.
5
The demo was built around the buyer's asks, each shown in the buyer's context, with time left for questions.

Pricing clarity

Evidence required. The quote document; the email thread around it; a list of every discount, term, or fee the vendor raised without being asked.

1
No written quote within the cycle, or a quote that could not be compared like for like.
3
Written quote after more than one request; line items clear, terms partly missing.
5
Written quote from the demo or within two business days; line items, term, and renewal terms all explicit.

Follow-through

Evidence required. Each commitment the rep made, with the date promised and the date delivered; the closing exchange.

1
Commitments missed or forgotten; no close, or pressure after the buyer declined.
3
Most commitments kept, some late; a generic close.
5
Every commitment kept on the day promised; a graceful close that left the door open.

Consistency

One buyer scores every vendor in a shop. Scores within a shop are comparable because the same person, with the same brief, met every vendor. We do not pool scores across shops run by different buyers.

Every score points at evidence. A reviewer who was not on the shop checks each score against its evidence before the report goes out. Where the evidence does not support the score, the score changes, not the evidence.

Calibration. Buyers on our bench score a shared sample record against these anchors before their first shop and once a quarter after that. Disagreements of more than one point are discussed and the anchors are tightened where they caused it.

What a score is not. It is one experienced buyer's judgment against a written standard, with the record attached so you can disagree. It is not a survey, and we do not present it as a statistical measure.

How we keep it independent

We never share findings between vendors. What we learn about a competitor in your evaluation is reported to you. What we learn about you in someone else's is never reported to anyone but them.

We report what happened. Every finding points to a timestamp, an email, or a quote. Opinions are labeled as the evaluator's notes.

We don't waste vendors' time beyond a normal buying cycle. The evaluator behaves like a credible buyer and exits the process the way a real buyer who chose another vendor would.

Tell us your category and the competitors you lose to.

We reply within 24 hours, with a proposed scope, price, and start date to follow.

Request a shop