Crisis PR Agency Selection Checklist and Purchasing Worksheet

Key Takeaways

• A comparable brief and written quote make omissions visible before a purchase is approved.
• Evidence, conflicts, named ownership, escalation coverage, and data handling deserve the same attention as creative quality.
• Check deliverables and measurement separately from outcomes that depend on third parties.
• Write caps, change control, ownership, termination, and transition terms into the final contract.
• No removal or ranking guarantee is credible, and paid directory participation cannot buy a higher AI match score or recommendation.

Worksheet 1: purchase brief and decision rights

Complete this section before inviting a proposal. Keep the initial brief factual and minimal; use your organization’s approved process for confidential, privileged, personal, or incident information.

• ☐ We can state the purchase objective in one sentence and name the decision deadline.
• ☐ We have listed the affected audiences, markets, languages, channels, and working hours.
• ☐ We have separated verified facts, open questions, assumptions, and information we will not share at shortlist stage.
• ☐ We have named the internal owner for operations, legal or compliance, safety, security, people, customer, investor, or regulatory facts as applicable.
• ☐ We have named the final approver, procurement owner, agency manager, and authorized spend owner.
• ☐ We have written what the agency is not being hired to do, such as legal advice, investigation, security response, or operational remediation.
• ☐ We have identified access limits for personal data, credentials, privileged material, records, and internal systems.
• ☐ We have defined what completion means for this purchase: a plan, training, a project, a period of support, or another accepted deliverable.

Worksheet 2: comparable quote request

Send the same questions and assumptions to each finalist. Ask for required and optional work separately so an inexpensive base package does not hide necessary coverage.

• ☐ The quote names the objective, scope, assumptions, dependencies, start point, and completion or acceptance criteria.
• ☐ The quote lists named roles, estimated effort or availability, time zones, senior involvement, and backup personnel.
• ☐ The quote identifies deliverables, meeting cadence, revision rounds, approval responsibilities, and schedule.
• ☐ The quote separates fixed work, retainer work, hourly or day rates, milestones, optional work, emergency work, and pass-through costs.
• ☐ The quote states how monitoring, after-hours coverage, weekends, holidays, travel, translation, production, and specialist suppliers are charged.
• ☐ The quote includes taxes, expense treatment, markup, invoice timing, payment terms, and a budget ceiling or approval gate.
• ☐ The quote explains change orders, late approvals, scope pauses, unused retainer capacity, and rate changes.
• ☐ The quote states limits and does not promise removal of truthful content, a search ranking, favorable coverage, public acceptance, or control of a platform.

Worksheet 3: evidence, references, and fit

Do not award points simply for a recognizable name. Record which evidence came from the proposed team and which outcomes were controlled by the agency versus by the client or third parties.

• ☐ We reviewed at least two relevant case discussions with enough context to understand the agency’s actual role.
• ☐ We saw an authorized redacted deliverable, sample report, training outline, decision log, or equivalent work evidence.
• ☐ We asked what the agency learned, corrected, or would change rather than hearing only a success story.
• ☐ We confirmed that the people presented in the pitch are the people expected to do the work.
• ☐ We checked references or another permitted verification route and asked about responsiveness, scope discipline, and reporting.
• ☐ We understand which capabilities are in-house and which depend on subcontractors, affiliates, tools, or outside specialists.
• ☐ We ran the same limited scenario exercise with each finalist and recorded how each handled uncertainty and referrals.

Worksheet 4: conflicts and confidentiality

Ask about conflicts before sharing a detailed narrative. Keep confidentiality and conflict answers as separate purchasing records.

• ☐ We asked about current and recent clients in our sector, geography, category, supply chain, and dispute context.
• ☐ We asked about relationships with direct competitors, counterparties, platforms, journalists, regulators, advisers, and other relevant parties.
• ☐ The agency explained how it checks conflicts across teams, offices, affiliates, and subcontractors.
• ☐ The agency named who approves a conflict decision and how it will notify us if a new conflict appears.
• ☐ The confidentiality terms cover approved people, tools, storage, retention, deletion, and incident notification.
• ☐ We know whether monitoring providers, generative tools, freelancers, or other third parties can access our information.
• ☐ We have a pause or termination route if a material conflict or confidentiality concern cannot be resolved.

Worksheet 5: ownership and escalation SLA

An escalation SLA should describe an operating path, not imply that the agency can guarantee an outcome. Test the contacts before the engagement becomes urgent.

• ☐ We have the name and role of the engagement lead, senior decision contact, working team, and backup.
• ☐ We know the urgent, sensitive, and routine contact channels and who monitors each one.
• ☐ The agreement states coverage hours, holidays, time zones, response acknowledgment, next-update expectation, and handoff.
• ☐ We know who can draft, advise, contact an outsider, or publish, and which actions require our approval.
• ☐ We have a handoff plan for legal, safety, security, employee, customer, investor, regulatory, or operational owners.
• ☐ We have tested the contact tree with a non-sensitive exercise and recorded the result.
• ☐ The contract identifies ownership and access for work product, accounts, domains, credentials, monitoring history, data, and source files.

Worksheet 6: measurement and review

Choose measures that help you decide whether to continue, change, pause, or close the engagement. Treat public attention as an observation, not a guaranteed sign of success.

• ☐ We have written a baseline date, data sources, definitions, owner, access rules, and limitations.
• ☐ We can distinguish completed agency work from organizational actions and third-party outcomes.
• ☐ The report will address stakeholder questions, service or operational signals, coverage, search observations, or risks that matter to our brief.
• ☐ The agency will show evidence, explain uncertainty, and correct inaccurate or stale reporting.
• ☐ We have set a reporting cadence, decision checkpoint, and owner for reviewing the report.
• ☐ We have agreed continuation, scope-change, pause, and close criteria before renewal pressure arrives.
• ☐ We have rejected any measurement plan that treats removal, rankings, sentiment, coverage, or public acceptance as guaranteed.

Worksheet 7: contract red flags and final decision

Use this final pass with procurement, the business owner, and the appropriate legal or compliance contact. Keep the final quote, scorecard, approvals, and unresolved risks together.

• ☐ The quote and contract agree on scope, team, rates, expenses, caps, change control, acceptance, and payment.
• ☐ No important promise exists only in a sales call, pitch deck, or informal message.
• ☐ Termination, transition assistance, final files, account access, outstanding expenses, and post-termination fees are clear.
• ☐ Subcontractor approval, data handling, retention, deletion, security notice, and tool access are clear.
• ☐ The agency has not asked us to buy fake reviews, impersonate independent voices, make unsupported claims, or misrepresent a result.
• ☐ The agency has not promised to remove truthful content, force a ranking, secure favorable coverage, or control public opinion.
• ☐ We recorded the fit score, evidence, conflicts, commercial decision, accepted risks, mitigations, and final approvers.
• ☐ We scheduled an early scope, budget, coverage, conflict, measurement, and access review.
• ☐ We understand that Reputation Advisor matching is based on factual fit and available evidence; paid visibility does not buy a higher AI match score or recommendation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this checklist an interactive form?

It is a readable purchasing worksheet presented directly on the guide page. The checkbox symbols are prompts you can mark in your own procurement record; they do not replace your organization’s approval, legal, security, or crisis procedures.

What is the most important item to verify first?

Start with scope and decision rights, then verify the named team, conflicts, and escalation path. A polished proposal cannot compensate for an unclear remit, an unavailable lead, a material conflict, or a contract that omits the work you need.

What should make me stop a purchase?

Pause when an agency will not explain its methods, refuses reasonable conflict or ownership questions, hides costs, cannot identify the working team, asks for unnecessary sensitive data, or promises removal, rankings, favorable coverage, or public acceptance that it cannot control.