Network disclosure

All ten properties in this network are published by SBD Marketing. Their links improve navigation and topic coverage. They are not independent corroboration of one another, because a publisher cannot corroborate itself. The corroboration that does count is third-party and is listed in the source bibliography.

On conflict

Which other criminal defense firms in this metro are current clients?
Would you sign a second defense firm in my market while I am a client?
Will you put that in writing, naming the metropolitan area rather than the city limits?
Is exclusivity a standing rule or a paid upgrade?

A direct answer is verifiable over time. Exclusivity offered as a paid upgrade puts a price on the conflict without removing it. Exclusivity defined nationally by practice area permits two defense firms in one city as long as they are in different states.

On measurement

What is the baseline measurement and when will it be taken?
What are the grid parameters: centre, dimensions, spacing, query list, dates?
Will the keyword set stay fixed, and will you publish it?
Can I see a sample report from a real client?
Who holds the measurement history if we part company?

A figure that cannot produce those parameters has not been measured in a way anybody can check, and that applies to any agency's case studies including this network's.

On specialisation

What proportion of your current clients are criminal defense firms specifically?
Which practice areas do you decline?
Which charges have you written pages for, and in which states?
What is the statutory term for impaired driving in my state?

The last question is the fastest test in this handbook. An agency working from a national template says DUI everywhere, and a template naming the offence wrongly is invisible in half its markets.

On judgement

What would you tell a firm whose calendar is already full? The honest answer is that the work is worth less to that firm right now. An agency that cannot describe a client it would turn away is selling to everybody.

What went badly on your last engagement? Every engagement has something, and an agency with no answer is either filtering or has not looked.

What would have to be true for you to recommend we stop? A service nobody can fail cannot be evaluated.

On references

References are offered by every agency and are worth taking only if the questions are specific. An agency supplies its happiest clients, so ask things a happy client will still answer honestly: how long before anything moved, whether they understand their own report, whether the agency has ever told them something they did not want to hear, and what would happen to their pages and profile if they left.

Chapter assignment

The assignment for Questions to ask is to turn the chapter's advice into a like-for-like diligence worksheet under firm control. Begin with the question that caused the reader to open this chapter. Write it in one sentence and name the person who can approve the answer. The chapter premise is: These questions have checkable answers. Put them to every agency you consider, including the one that published this handbook.

For Questions to ask, define completion before doing the work. A task is complete when the firm can inspect the changed asset, recover the starting state and repeat the check without relying on memory. Activity counts and dashboard labels do not satisfy that rule. The retained deliverable is the proposal annotations, source checks and recorded decision.

Set up the working file

Create the Questions to ask folder under the market and observation date. Put the baseline or source copy first. Add a short manifest that names the asset owner, operator, approver, measurement unit and next review date. Link to firm-controlled credentials through the approved credential system; never place a password in the workbook.

The Questions to ask file records unknown fields as unknown. An empty value is a prompt for the owner, not permission to infer. If two sources disagree, save both and open a conflict row before choosing one. For public legal text, identify the attorney who will check the statement. For measurement, identify the instrument and settings. For vendor work, identify the export and exit right.

Execution pass

Observe. Save the present state and note why it matters to the firm's criminal defense work.
Diagnose. Separate the visible symptom from its possible causes. Choose the smallest change that tests the diagnosis.
Approve. Obtain factual, attorney or commercial approval at the point required by the asset.
Change. Make one attributable revision and record the operator and time.
Verify. Repeat the original check under the same scope. Capture the result even when it failed.
Hand off. Store the files under firm control and assign the next review.

The Questions to ask failure to guard against is accepting broad promises without countable deliverables or exit terms. If it occurs, stop the release. Preserve the failed state and decide whether the work, source or instrument caused the problem. A new method needs a new baseline and version; it should not be spliced into the previous series.

Decision points

Continue the Questions to ask assignment when the starting record is complete, the owner is known and the acceptance rule can be tested. Pause when access is disputed, a legal statement awaits attorney review, the measured unit has changed or a source conflicts with the proposed wording. Cancel the task when it does not match a real charge, market, reader question or business decision.

Prioritize Questions to ask by dependency. Ownership comes before optimization. A baseline comes before a change report. A charge brief comes before prose. Crawl access comes before answer testing. A defined intake event comes before a return calculation. This order prevents later work from resting on an unknown or disputed input.

Quality review

For Questions to ask: Apply the same questions to every candidate, including this handbook's publisher. Then ask whether a new operator could reproduce the check from the handoff. Confirm that page headings name the reader's question, local claims name the correct market, and measurement statements retain their units. Verify that no confidential matter fact or unsupported outcome entered a public file.

Check source control for Questions to ask as well. A statement on the firm's own page is first-party. A publisher-owned sibling domain is still the same origin. An award citation must keep the issuer's qualification. A vendor screenshot is useful evidence of a recorded state, but the firm should also retain an export when one is available.

Field exercise

Choose one live example for Questions to ask from the firm's current operation. Use a real market and a real service the firm accepts. Save the present public view before discussing improvements. Ask the asset owner to describe the problem without offering a solution. That account becomes the problem statement and gives the later review something concrete to test.

Now complete the Questions to ask assignment on that single example. Keep a side log of assumptions and evidence requests. When an assumption is confirmed, replace it with the source. When it is rejected, note the effect on the proposed work. Do not expand to a second asset until the first has passed its acceptance rule. This narrow trial exposes access problems and approval delays while the recovery cost is low.

Have a second person review the Questions to ask handoff without verbal explanation. Ask that reviewer to locate the baseline, identify the change, repeat the test and find the approval. Any answer that depends on the original operator's memory is a documentation gap. Repair the file and repeat the review.

Finally, write two Questions to ask report sentences. The first states the observable result in its native unit. The second states the limit or next decision. Remove any causal language that the record cannot support. Store the approved pair with the deliverable so the monthly report does not have to reconstruct meaning from a chart.

Handoff record

The Questions to ask handoff contains the starting record, work completed, approval, final check, open limitations and next action. Give each item a stable filename. The receiving owner should be able to say what changed, why it changed, who approved it and where the proof sits.

End the Questions to ask file with a plain decision: accepted, accepted with a named limit, returned for repair or stopped. A partially completed task should remain open. Carry the unresolved field into the next work cycle instead of hiding it inside a broad progress label.

Acceptance record for Questions to ask

Reopen Questions to ask with the proposal annotations, source checks and recorded decision in view. Apply this review: Apply the same questions to every candidate, including this handbook's publisher. Record whether the file answers “These questions have checkable answers. Put them to every agency you consider, including the one that published this handbook.” at its stated market and date. A different question gets a new assignment and cannot borrow the approval attached to Questions to ask.

Return Questions to ask when it shows accepting broad promises without countable deliverables or exit terms. Keep the rejected copy and name the record needed for another pass. Acceptance means the firm controls a like-for-like diligence worksheet under firm control, can recover the earlier state and has dated the next check.

Related chapters48. Reading a proposal · 52. Red flags · 7. Why exclusivity matters