Advise on it. The counsel mode of Sheppard's practice.

Senior marketing counsel from operators who've sat in your seat.

Strategic counsel to home services CEOs, CFOs, operating partners, and PE sponsors. Marketing operating model, M&A integration, exit prep, agency-stack rationalization, leader hiring. The mode that wraps the other two: we advise from inside the work, not from a slide deck.

Schedule a working session See how we engage

Counsel from inside the work.

Management consultants build frameworks and present recommendations. Sheppard advises from inside the work. We run marketing functions and build the systems underneath them as our day job. That means the counsel we give is grounded in what's actually operating today across home services platforms, not in what a 2019 case study said worked once.

We don't deliver bound-and-printed decks. We work in your tools, on your cadence, alongside your people. The output is operating decisions made better, not artifacts produced.

What we advise on.

Six areas where operators most often engage Sheppard as a counselor, regardless of whether we're also running execution or building systems for the same business.

Marketing operating model.

How marketing should be organized inside your business. Embedded function, managed agency stack, or hybrid. Reporting cadence. KPI architecture. The structural decisions most operators make once and live with for years.

M&A integration counsel.

When a roll-up acquires an add-on, what to keep, what to consolidate, what to rebuild. Brand architecture decisions. Lead-ops integration sequencing. Vendor rationalization. The 90-day post-close marketing playbook.

Pre-exit strategy.

12 to 24 months ahead of sale. Marketing data-room construction. Buyer-side stress testing. Multiple-defense KPIs. The work that determines whether marketing shows up as a defensible asset in DD or a discount lever for the buyer.

Agency-stack rationalization.

You inherited or accumulated a stack of agencies and dashboards that don't reconcile. We diagnose what's actually working, what can be cut, what needs to be rebuilt, and which relationships should stay. Outside perspective that pays for itself in the first quarter of recovered spend.

Marketing leader hiring.

When to bring in a VP of Marketing or fractional CMO. What profile to look for. How to structure compensation and equity. We sit in on final-round interviews as a technical screen. We don't run executive search. We do help you get the hire right.

Strategic decisions that don't show up in any dashboard.

The calls a CEO or operating partner has to make where the data is ambiguous and the stakes are real. Whether to rebrand. Whether to enter a new DMA. Whether to fold a sister portco's marketing into the platform. We bring the outside perspective and the operator fluency, and we say what we actually think.

Three ways operators engage us.

Advisory scopes from monthly board cadence through fractional CMO-style ownership to bounded project work. Scoped to what the operator actually needs, priced accordingly.

Engagement shapesDIAGRAM / ADVISORY

Board · Fractional · Project. Three advisory cadences mapped to operator scenarios

Board or sponsor advisor

Monthly working session, quarterly board presence, on-call between.

Anchored to a specific platform or business. The operating partner or CEO gets a senior outside voice on the marketing function continuously, without committing to channel execution. Best when internal marketing capacity is strong and the question is direction, not delivery.

Fractional CMO-style

Weekly working sessions, ownership of the marketing operating model.

Deeper than monthly advisory, lighter than full execution. We own the marketing operating model and the strategic direction while your internal team or agencies handle channel execution. Best when the business needs senior marketing leadership but doesn't yet justify a full-time CMO hire.

Project-based advisory

Bounded engagement around a specific decision or initiative.

M&A integration. Exit prep. Agency-stack rationalization. Operating-model assessment. A strategic decision the operator needs an outside perspective on. Scoped in weeks, priced as a project, delivered as a working memo and a working session.

Stand alone, or wrap the other two modes.

Advisory engagements often start standalone and grow into Run-it or Build-it work as the relationship deepens. Some stay advisory-only for years, where the operator has strong internal capacity and just wants a senior outside voice.

When advisory wraps the other two modes, the counsel informs the execution and the execution sharpens the counsel. We're not advising in the abstract about a business we don't know. We're advising about a function we helped build and may also be running.

See the Run-it mode See the Build-it mode

Frequently Asked

On Sheppard's advisory practice.

What does an advisory engagement with Sheppard look like?

Three common shapes. (1) Board or sponsor advisor on a specific platform: monthly working session with the operating partner, quarterly board presence, on-call between. (2) Fractional CMO-style engagement: weekly working sessions with the CEO and operating leadership, ownership of the marketing operating model, no channel execution. (3) Project-based advisory: a bounded engagement around an M&A integration, exit prep, agency-stack rationalization, or a strategic decision the operator needs an outside perspective on. All three are operator-grade counsel, not slide decks.

How is Sheppard's advisory different from a management consultant?

Management consultants build frameworks and present recommendations. Sheppard advises from inside the work. We run marketing functions and build the systems underneath them as our day job. That means our advisory is grounded in what we're actually seeing operate, not what a case study said worked in 2019. We don't deliver bound-and-printed decks. We work in the operator's tools, on their cadence, alongside their people.

Can I hire Sheppard for advisory without engaging Run-it or Build-it?

Yes. Many engagements start with advisory and grow into execution; some stay advisory-only for the duration. Advisory-only fits operators who already have strong internal marketing capacity and want a senior outside voice on operating model, M&A integration, or strategic direction. The fee structure is monthly retainer scoped to the engagement, typically $8K to $25K per month depending on cadence and depth.

What does Sheppard advise PE sponsors on specifically?

Pre-LOI marketing diligence as a deal-team input. Post-close 100-day plan design. Mid-hold operating-model assessment when a portco's marketing isn't moving EBITDA. Pre-exit data-room strategy and buyer-side stress testing. Cross-portfolio marketing standardization for operating partners running multiple platforms. Agency-stack rationalization when a portco has inherited vendor sprawl. The work that determines whether marketing shows up as an EBITDA contributor or a line item the next sponsor has to rebuild.

Will Sheppard help me hire a marketing leader?

We don't run executive search. We do advise on the hire: when to bring in a VP of Marketing, what to look for in the profile, how to structure compensation and equity, and how the role should be scoped against the company's stage. We frequently sit in on final-round interviews as a technical screen. The right hire depends on the operating model the business is moving toward.

Do you work with founders preparing to exit?

Yes. Sheppard's Founder-Operators track is a sell-side advisory engagement specifically scoped to home services founders preparing for PE sale. The work covers marketing data-room preparation, buyer-side stress testing, multiple-defense positioning, and the 12-tab marketing diligence packet a sophisticated buyer's CDD provider will inspect. Engagement typically begins 12 to 24 months pre-LOI.

Advise on it. One of three modes.

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