CFO decision guide
Agency versus in house. The model, with your numbers in it.
The question every CFO asks is whether $10,000 a month is worth it against hiring. The honest answer depends on four numbers you already have: the salary you would pay, your benefits load, the tools the hire would need, and how long a hire takes to produce. Put them in below and read the result before the call.
The three real options.
In house
One marketing hire, sometimes two. Full control, institutional memory, and a person in the room. Also a 90 day ramp before output, a single skill set doing six jobs, and the risk that the person leaves at month fourteen with the system in their head.
Agency
A firm that runs the steps for a monthly fee. Faster start, a senior team across every discipline, and a written number to hold it to. Also less control, and, with most agencies, no accountability past the report.
Hybrid
One in house owner who approves work inside 48 hours, with a firm running the production. This is how most ISOVERTIC engagements actually run. The in house person owns the relationship and the number; the firm owns the output.
The fully loaded cost model.
Defaults are placeholders, not benchmarks. Change every field to your own numbers. Ad spend is excluded on both sides because you pay it either way.
In house, 24 months, fully loaded
$516,000
$21,500 a month, fully loaded
Per productive month
$24,571
After 3 ramp months with no output
Qualified meetings a month needed to pay for it
5
In house, at $5,000 of expected revenue per meeting
The break even count divides the monthly cost by deal value times close rate. It is the number of held, qualified meetings a month that makes the program pay for itself at your close rate, before any compounding from content or brand.
Break even against the tiers.
Each ISOVERTIC tier over 24 months on the 12 month term rate, beside the in house figure from your inputs. The term includes the $15,000 website, so the tier column is the whole cost of the marketing function, not a fee on top of one.
| Option | Per month | 24 months | Against in house | Meetings a month to break even |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In house hire | $21,500 | $516,000 | Baseline | 5 |
| Baseline | $2,500 | $60,000 | $456,000 less | 1 |
| Catalyst | $5,000 | $120,000 | $396,000 less | 1 |
| Kinetic | $10,000 | $240,000 | $276,000 less | 2 |
| Critical Mass (from) | $25,000 | $600,000 | $84,000 more | 5 |
Tier figures are the 12 month term rate from the pricing page, excluding ad spend and media. Critical Mass is priced from $25,000 and scoped per brand.
When each option wins.
In house wins when
you can hire a proven operator who has already run every one of the six steps, you have a manager who can direct them, and you can wait two quarters for output. That person is rare and expensive, and if you can get them, hire them.
Agency wins when
you need meetings inside a quarter, the buyer has to be educated before they take a meeting, or nobody on staff can judge whether the marketing is working. A firm with a written number and a two clock scorecard removes the judgment problem.
Hybrid wins when
you already have one marketer. Keep them, make them the owner, and put a senior team behind them. The Protocol training day exists to hand that person the runbooks so the system becomes theirs.
The decision checklist.
- 01Write down the number the function has to produce: qualified meetings a month, or pipeline a quarter.
- 02Name who will own that number on your side, whichever option you pick.
- 03Price the in house option fully loaded over 24 months, including the ramp months with no output.
- 04Ask every agency for its meeting definition in writing and the month it agrees to be judged on revenue.
- 05Match the review window to your sales cycle. A four month cycle can be judged at month six; an eighteen month cycle cannot.
- 06Decide what happens at exit: who owns the accounts, the content, the sequences, and the runbooks.
One page version
The agency versus in house checklist
The six questions above on one printable page, with room for your numbers. Email required.
What CFOs ask first
Because you pay it whether a person or a firm manages it. Including it makes the agency look more expensive without changing the decision.
No. It is a placeholder so the form is not empty. Put in the offer you would actually make. The model only means something with your numbers.
Then compare what each produces in the same 24 months, not the price. A $90,000 generalist cannot run outbound, paid search, content, and a website rebuild at once. Price the steps you would leave undone.
Yes, and the agreement is written for it. Everything we build lives in your accounts, and Protocol is the training day that hands your team the runbooks.
George Stoff, Founder and Lead Engineer
Thirty years building software, brands, and demand. On every account.