Perkuto and/or Blast AM as a consulting resource?

[Shamus_Kelley]

I'm curious if anyone in this community has used Perkuto and / or Blast AM consulting services as they relate to Attribution Modeling, Lead Lifecycle or Reporting. If so, how was your experience and would you recommend them? Any feedback is greatly appreciated! 

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Shamus,

Here's a link to the topic a couple months back:

Looking for a Marketo Consultant

I sent you a Linkedin message with this link as well.

-Brent

[Josh_Hill13]

I don't know Blast AM at all. I'm pretty familiar with Perkuto (used to work there).

As a Consultant and person who hires consultants, here are some thoughts on evaluation:

• Go with the team that fits your gut. Usually it's better to work with a team that seems to get you and your needs.
• Don't let a consultant pigeonhole  you into their specific model or process....unless it makes sense for you. A good consultant will explain their usual process and relate it back to your needs.
• Ask for real references related to the project if available.
• Ask for detail on the team that will manage your project. I've seen way too many junior and novice staff on projects that should require an experienced team, not just a "team leader". Ask to speak with the people leading the project or on it.
• Ask them about their mistakes and see how they respond.
• Do research on the issue so you can ask better questions. Consultants will push a solution on you and it's up to you to give the green light. This isn't about ethics, it's about you understanding the solution and if it will really solve your problem.
• Make sure they are giving you constant updates through scrum calls or at least weekly check ins. Good consultants will present a real plan and specs before working. A great way to burn hours is just to go in and do stuff.
• Does their business model make sense? Most of us work on hourly rates with estimated total SOWs. Does the engagement time frame make sense? How confident are they in hitting the deadline?
• Does their operational model make sense? Some vendors will be on call staffing, some will essentially be an extension of your team. Others want you to route requests through one person. What will work for you and them?
• How does their billing work? Can you see the proper detail on time worked and what was done? Is it grouped properly? I know this can be hard to do as a freelancer, but most agencies should offer this transparency and make it easy for you to audit things if you suspect they are going over hours.
• Is this work doable in house or not? What do you really need help doing?

[David_Gaible]

Hi Shamus,

I worked with Perkuto at my current gig - they helped set up our system before I came on to run it (Josh Hill​ actually led the marketers' training before I started).

Anyways, I'd highly recommend Perkuto for help with setting up lifecycle processing and reporting - reporting specifically. We've successfully implemented RCE and one of the Perkuto engineers Justin Norris (a marketo champion) has been very helpful in answering some of our in-depth questions.

Feel free to contact me directly if you have any other questions about my experiences with Perktuo!

[Simon_Lessard]

Hi Shamus,

I assume you're asking yourself the right questions, the ones Josh Hill underlined.

We're doing business with Perkuto for the past 2 years (maybe 3) and they're ninjas. We've gained tremendous value to our marketing activities with their help. Depending on your needs, they will have a custom team to help you out. Justin Norris ​is indeed an attribution master and explainer in chief. you can have a glympse of his art in a webinar he hosted with Bizible, last March on the topic of attribution.

The biggest challenge we succeeded at was a major instance redesign. The project was led by David Desrosiers​, innovator guru over there.

Also, feel free to contact me if you have more questions about my experiences with Perkuto.