Agency, builder, advisor. All three, on purpose.
Most home services operators have to assemble three vendors to get a working marketing function: an agency to execute, a software vendor to build the infrastructure, a consultant to advise leadership. Sheppard does all three under one roof, scoped to one engagement, reported as one number. Senior operators, AI-forward systems, and operator-grade counsel for residential home services.
Founder & Principal
Chris Sheppard
Two decades inside marketing organizations, in-house leadership, agency partnerships, and performance frameworks built from the ground up. The throughline: every marketing problem worth solving is an operating problem first, and an operating problem is solved with software.
After watching too many operators trust a busy agency while the P&L stayed flat, watching attribution drift away from the financial system, and watching brand erode through roll-up integration, Chris built Sheppard to fix them. Not with a deck. With a working operating model and production systems underneath it.
Sheppard does not sell creative. We do not pitch retainers against unclear briefs. We do not chase impressions. We design the operating model, build the software underneath it, and run it inside the portco.
Based
Chicago, IL
Tenure
20+ years in marketing leadership
Reach
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Sheppard Consulting Group
How we work, and what you can count on.
Sponsor-grade rigor.
Every recommendation is one we'd defend in a board pack, tied to EBITDA, sourced revenue, or operating cadence. If we wouldn't run it ourselves, we don't bring it.
One operating model, platform-wide.
We don't run portcos as silos. We run the platform. The dashboards, the playbooks, and the vendor map are one system.
Operator respect.
The CEOs and integrators running these portcos aren't the problem, they've been handed a marketing function nobody equipped them to run. We arm them, we don't second-guess them.
No vendor protection.
We're not an agency rolling up. We have no incentive to keep the wrong vendor in the chair. We will consolidate, cut, or recommend in-house, whatever the unit economics demand.
Exit-aware from Day 1.
Every system we build is designed for transfer. The next sponsor inherits dashboards that work, a vendor map that's clean, and a data room that supports the growth narrative.
We answer the phone.
We work with three to five platforms at a time, on purpose. We are not a high-volume agency, we're a small senior team that operates inside your business.
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