Forget The Funnel review

Strong — 4 of 5 on this rubric’s scale, from Poor (1) to Excellent (5). This dimension carries 25% of the total score.

Benchmark — across the 16 other agencies evaluated in this discipline, this dimension runs Strong 5 · Adequate 10 · Weak 1. The typical agency here scores Adequate, and none scores higher than this one.

What this dimension measures: Unlike most categories, the deliverable here is public: if a firm wrote a client's homepage or sales page, a buyer can go read it.

Scores high — Named clients with pages a reader can actually find and judge score 4-5.

Scores low — Screenshots of copy with no attribution score 2-3 — a screenshot cannot be checked and may be spec work. A portfolio that shows only results claims and no actual writing scores 1-2, because the one thing this category can always show is the writing.

What we found — Nine named-client case studies are published at customerled.com/proof (sitemap-listed: rentcheck, uservoice, joist, landlordvision, sparktoro, synkedup, autobooks, stillio, hiringbranch). I read six first-hand. Each names the company and quotes named executives with titles (Rand Fishkin, Co-founder SparkToro; Matt Young, CEO UserVoice; Andrew Morton, CRO UserVoice; Ryan Chong, Sr PM Joist; Marco Nelson, CEO RentCheck; Nikolay Datsov, Landlord Vision). I confirmed sparktoro.com, uservoice.com, getrentcheck.com, joist.com, stillio.com, autobooks.co and synkedup.com all resolve 200 as live independent companies. Capped below Excellent for a reason specific to this category: the actual writing is largely not shown. There is no copy portfolio and no before/after sales pages. The deliverable is a messaging guide, and the client usually writes the final asset (SparkToro case study: 'Amanda drafted up the new onboarding email sequence'). The exception is Autobooks, where the delivered line is quoted verbatim: 'Give your customers a way to pay you by credit card, right into your bank account.' That is the high band above, which is why it scored Strong.

On the record — “Nine named client case studies are enumerated in the sitemap and all return 200: rentcheck, uservoice, joist, landlordvision, sparktoro, synkedup, autobooks, stillio, hiringbranch.” customerled.com ↗

On the record — “Named clients verified as live independent companies: sparktoro.com, uservoice.com, getrentcheck.com, joist.com, stillio.com, autobooks.co and synkedup.com all resolve with HTTP 200.” customerled.com ↗

deliverability — deliverability: whether cold email actually lands in the inbox rather than spam. The tell is infrastructure talk — warmed sending domains kept separate from your main domain — because a burned domain outlasts the engagement.

attribution — working out which marketing touch actually caused a sale. Good practice names its model and its blind spots; bad practice quotes each ad platform’s self-graded numbers, which overlap and overclaim.

CRO — conversion-rate optimization: raising the share of visitors who buy or sign up through structured testing, not redesign by taste.

Evidence: partly checkable — corroborated in part against the sources below; the remainder rests on the agency’s own account.

Excellent — 5 of 5 on this rubric’s scale, from Poor (1) to Excellent (5). This dimension carries 20% of the total score.

Benchmark — across the 16 other agencies evaluated in this discipline, this dimension runs Excellent 2 · Strong 8 · Adequate 5 · Weak 1. The typical agency here scores Strong, and none scores higher than this one.

What this dimension measures: Where the message comes from. Look for a described research step: customer interviews, review mining, sales-call analysis, survey or message testing with real respondents.

Scores high — A named research method with a described process scores 4-5.

Scores low — 'We get to know your brand' with no method scores 2-3. Copy generated from a brief alone, with no customer input, scores 2 — it may still be good writing, but the buyer is purchasing the writer's intuition rather than their customer's language, and the verdict should say so.

What we found — The strongest thing on the site. The method is named (Customer-Led Growth, three published steps: demand-side intel, map value drivers, prioritize growth levers) and, unusually, the case studies state sample sizes. Joist: 'Surveyed 151 payments-feature activated customers', 'Ran 12 Job to be Done interviews', 'Ran 4 Churn interviews with customers who'd activated but stopped using the payments feature'. RentCheck: 'Through 12 customer interviews, three distinct Jobs to be Done emerged'. SparkToro: a survey to paying, most-engaged customers with the five questions listed on the page. UserVoice: 'Human-led interviews with recent buyers', with the buyer-role finding stated (seven of ten buyers were Product Ops, not product managers). Landlord Vision adds first-party behavioural data and CX mapping. This is customer language as the input, not writer intuition from a brief. That is the high band above, which is why it scored Excellent.

On the record — “Research sample sizes are published: 'Surveyed 151 payments-feature activated customers', 'Ran 12 Job to be Done interviews with Joist's best customers', 'Ran 4 Churn interviews with customers who'd activated but stopped using the payments feature'.” customerled.com ↗

On the record — “Nine named client case studies are enumerated in the sitemap and all return 200: rentcheck, uservoice, joist, landlordvision, sparktoro, synkedup, autobooks, stillio, hiringbranch.” customerled.com ↗

churn — the rate at which customers cancel.

Evidence: vendor stated — the agency’s own claim, recorded as theirs rather than ours.

Strong — 4 of 5 on this rubric’s scale, from Poor (1) to Excellent (5). This dimension carries 15% of the total score.

Benchmark — across the 16 other agencies evaluated in this discipline, this dimension runs Strong 3 · Adequate 11 · Weak 2. The typical agency here scores Adequate, and none scores higher than this one.

What this dimension measures: This category runs on conversion-lift claims and almost none are checkable. Absence of any outcome claims is not a defect; overclaiming is.

Scores high — A firm that states results WITH the test conditions — sample size, duration, what was compared — scores 4-5.

Scores low — Bare percentage claims ('increased conversions 312%') with no baseline, no timeframe and no named client score 1-2 and should be flagged: an uncontrolled before/after on a page that also changed traffic mix is not a measured lift.

What we found — Better disclosed than the category norm, but not uniformly. Joist is the best case and meets the top band: 'the squad ran an ABC experiment comparing the carousel to a step-by-step guide and the original pop-ups. Over five weeks, they tracked activation rates and time to value', producing the 23% activation lift. Autobooks gives an absolute baseline and a window: 64% increase 'from 14% to 23%' at thirty days. RentCheck gives raw numbers: 'monthly trial signups doubled (from 50 to 103)'. UserVoice notably declines to claim a lift at all, saying only that 'early A/B testing on the homepage showed promising signals'. Against that, the sprints page carries a bare stat strip ('300% increase in north star feature adoption', '90% reduction in leads time to demo booked') with no conditions, and the SparkToro 100% free-to-paid figure is an uncontrolled two-month before/after in which an in-app checklist and an email sequence shipped together, so the messaging change is not isolated. The page is candid about that sequencing rather than hiding it. That is the high band above, which is why it scored Strong.

On the record — “The 23% Joist lift is reported with its test design: 'the squad ran an ABC experiment comparing the carousel to a step-by-step guide and the original pop-ups. Over five weeks, they tracked activation rates and time to value.'” customerled.com ↗

On the record — “The UserVoice case study makes no lift claim, stating only that 'Early A/B testing on the homepage showed promising signals that the new content pillars convert better.'” customerled.com ↗

Evidence: vendor stated — the agency’s own claim, recorded as theirs rather than ours.

Weak — 2 of 5 on this rubric’s scale, from Poor (1) to Excellent (5). This dimension carries 15% of the total score.

Benchmark — across the 16 other agencies evaluated in this discipline, this dimension runs Excellent 3 · Strong 5 · Adequate 3 · Weak 5. The typical agency here scores Strong, and 11 of them score higher than this one.

What this dimension measures: Score scope clarity alongside price: a firm that states plainly what a project covers (how many pages, how many revision rounds, whether research is included) is more useful than one implying open-ended collaboration.

Scores high — Published prices, per-asset rates, or defined packages with stated inclusions score 4-5.

Scores low — Ranges on request score 2-3; bespoke-only with no anchor scores 1-2.

What we found — No price is published anywhere on either forgetthefunnel.com or customerled.com. Both /pricing and /services return 404 on customerled.com and no figure appears on the sprints page; the only money reference on-site is inside a testimonial ('My team paid tens of thousands of dollars'), which is not a rate card. The single anchor a buyer can find is the vendor-completed Clutch profile, which I read first-hand: minimum project size $10,000+, hourly rate $200-$300. Scope is better than price: the sprint is defined as done-for-you over 3-6 weeks and the deliverables are named (positioning and messaging framework, product growth roadmap, GTM operating model, messaging guide). What is not stated is how many sessions or workshops, how many stakeholders, or what is excluded. The FAQ accordion answers on the sprints page do not render in the served HTML, so I did not score anything from them. That is what the low band describes, which is why it scored Weak.

On the record — “No pricing is published on either domain; https://customerled.com/pricing and https://customerled.com/services both return 404. The only price anchor is the vendor's Clutch profile: $10,000+ minimum project size, $200-$300 per hour.” clutch.co ↗

On the record — “The Clutch profile publishes zero client reviews.” clutch.co ↗

deliverability — deliverability: whether cold email actually lands in the inbox rather than spam. The tell is infrastructure talk — warmed sending domains kept separate from your main domain — because a burned domain outlasts the engagement.

Evidence: verified — checked against a named source you can open; the links under Sources below are where to check it yourself.

Stronger here: Fletch PMM scores Excellent on the same dimension.

Adequate — 3 of 5 on this rubric’s scale, from Poor (1) to Excellent (5). This dimension carries 10% of the total score.

Benchmark — across the 16 other agencies evaluated in this discipline, this dimension runs Excellent 2 · Strong 4 · Adequate 10. The typical agency here scores Adequate, and 6 of them score higher than this one.

What this dimension measures: How a project runs: discovery, draft, revision rounds, handoff format, and who implements. Note whether the firm hands over a document or implements in the client's CMS, since that determines who carries the last mile.

Scores high — Defined stages with a stated revision count score 4-5.

Scores low — No described process scores 2-3.

What we found — Stages are described, revisions are not. The published three-step framework plus the case studies make the sequence legible: research (survey plus JTBD and churn interviews), analysis into job statements and value themes, positioning and messaging guide, CX mapping, then a solutions workshop with the client team. Handoff is a document, not implementation: the guide is described by clients as 'our pillar for brand clarity across the whole company' (Tomas Sugar, CMO Smartlook) and 'a single source of truth', and the case studies show the client shipping the work (SparkToro: 'Casey launched the in-app recommendations, and Amanda drafted up the new onboarding email sequence'). So the buyer carries the last mile. No revision count, no draft-and-review cycle, and no handoff format are stated anywhere I could read. That is between the two bands, which is why it scored Adequate.

On the record — “The client implements the copy, not the firm: at SparkToro 'Casey launched the in-app recommendations, and Amanda drafted up the new onboarding email sequence' after the firm delivered a positioning and messaging guide.” customerled.com ↗

On the record — “The Clutch profile publishes zero client reviews.” clutch.co ↗

churn — the rate at which customers cancel.

Evidence: vendor stated — the agency’s own claim, recorded as theirs rather than ours.

Strong — 4 of 5 on this rubric’s scale, from Poor (1) to Excellent (5). This dimension carries 10% of the total score.

Benchmark — across the 16 other agencies evaluated in this discipline, this dimension runs Excellent 3 · Strong 5 · Adequate 2 · Weak 6. The typical agency here scores Strong, and 3 of them score higher than this one.

What this dimension measures: Stated timelines per deliverable and how far out the firm books. Small studios and solo-principal firms are common here; a stated booking lead time is a mark of honesty rather than a limitation, and should be scored as such.

Scores high — Published timelines score 4-5.

Scores low — Undisclosed scheduling scores 2.

What we found — The timeline is published in the headline rather than buried: 'A 3 to 6 week sprint built on real customer evidence', and elsewhere a roadmap and GTM operating model 'in 4-6 weeks. Done for you.' The UserVoice case study is titled 'The Six-Week Reset' and RentCheck is described as 'a six-week Growth Sprint followed by implementation support', so the stated window is consistent with the worked examples. Held below Excellent because booking lead time and concurrent capacity are not disclosed, which matters here: the about page says Gia Laudi 'leads every engagement personally' and names a core team of three, so availability is a real constraint a buyer cannot size. That is the high band above, which is why it scored Strong.

On the record — “The offering is explicitly done-for-you, not a course: 'A 3 to 6 week sprint built on real customer evidence' and 'Done for you. No playbooks. No long retainers.'” customerled.com ↗

On the record — “Team is three named people with the principal on every engagement: Georgiana Laudi as Chief Strategist who 'leads every engagement personally', Heidi Kreis as Principal Researcher & Insights Strategist, Beatriz Bonsolhos as Success Manager & AI Specialist, plus external resources.” customerled.com ↗

deliverability — deliverability: whether cold email actually lands in the inbox rather than spam. The tell is infrastructure talk — warmed sending domains kept separate from your main domain — because a burned domain outlasts the engagement.

Evidence: vendor stated — the agency’s own claim, recorded as theirs rather than ours.

Weak — 2 of 5 on this rubric’s scale, from Poor (1) to Excellent (5). This dimension carries 5% of the total score.

Benchmark — across the 16 other agencies evaluated in this discipline, this dimension runs Strong 1 · Adequate 2 · Weak 13. The typical agency here scores Weak, and 3 of them score higher than this one.

What this dimension measures: Independent, verified reviews. Low weight deliberately, because in this category the published writing is stronger evidence than a review count.

Scores low — A substantial verified base scores 4-5; a handful scores 2-3; none located scores 2.

What we found — No independent verified review base located. The Clutch profile at clutch.co/profile/forget-funnel exists and I read it first-hand: zero published reviews. No G2 or Trustpilot listing for the consultancy was found. What exists instead is a large volume of self-published testimonials attributed to named, checkable executives at real companies (Bitly, UserVoice, SparkToro, Boundless, Smartlook, HelloPrenup, Mailosaur, AutoCloud, Life Lapse, Nektar, Invoice Simple/Joist), which is stronger than anonymous praise but is still vendor-hosted and unverified. Book reviews on Amazon and Goodreads are for the book, not for client services, and were not counted.

On the record — “The Clutch profile publishes zero client reviews.” clutch.co ↗

On the record — “Named clients verified as live independent companies: sparktoro.com, uservoice.com, getrentcheck.com, joist.com, stillio.com, autobooks.co and synkedup.com all resolve with HTTP 200.” customerled.com ↗

funnel — the path from stranger to customer — awareness at the top, purchase at the bottom. “Full-funnel” means owning the whole path, not one stage.

Evidence: verified — checked against a named source you can open; the links under Sources below are where to check it yourself.

Stronger here: Olivine scores Strong on the same dimension.