Screened. Referenced. Visited. Re-checked.

Getting in

1. Application and disclosure screenOwnership, years operating, facilities, volumes, headcount, certifications, systems, insurance, client concentration, and anything pending: litigation, a sale, an insurance lapse. Commission terms accepted up front. Incomplete disclosures and hard-stop answers are declined automatically.
2. Document reviewCapabilities deck, certificate of insurance, certifications as applicable (FDA registration, SQF or BRCGS, ISO, C-TPAT, hazmat), a sample contract and full rate card, an index of SOPs, and twelve months of reporting: inventory accuracy, order accuracy, on-time ship, dock-to-stock, claims. We read the rate card specifically for accessorials that never appear in a quote.
3. Five client references, calledCalled by us, with a standard question set. The five must include two current clients of 12+ months, one client onboarded in the last six months, one client who went through a peak season with them, and one former client or a client who downsized. If they cannot name a former client we ask why. We ask about invoices versus quotes, what went wrong and how it was handled, response time when something broke, and whether they would sign again.
4. Leadership interviewThe owner or CEO and the head of operations, in person where possible. Capacity plan for the next twelve months, client concentration, labor model and turnover, who they turn away and why, their worst month in the last two years and what they did about it, ownership intentions. We are listening for candor as much as for answers.
5. In-person site visit, every facility, before admissionWe arrive during a live shift and walk receiving, put-away, pick, pack, returns and the dock, watching the work done at pace. We meet the site leadership, the account team who would run a client day to day, and the floor: the leads and associates who will handle the product. We ask them how a mis-pick is caught, what happens when a carrier misses a pickup, and how a new client's SKUs get set up. Their answers tell us whether the SOPs are real. We check scan validation at pick and pack, cycle-count cadence, housekeeping and safety, access control, temperature zones and monitoring where applicable, the WMS and RF tools actually in use, supervisor-to-associate ratio and temp-labor dependence. A facility we have not walked is not in the network. Carriers and forwarders: we visit the operating terminal or office, sit with dispatch, and review tracking and claims data on live loads.
6. Scorecard decisionEight weighted dimensions, filled in by the person who did the visit: capability, execution evidence, people and leadership, systems and data, commercial transparency, financial stability and insurance, integrity and candor, market and vertical depth. Three outcomes: admitted; admitted with conditions, with named items to fix before the first introduction and a re-check inside 90 days; or declined, with reasons, and welcome to reapply after twelve months.
7. Partner agreement and profile buildCommission terms, a bill-as-quoted commitment, SLA disclosures, reference permission, and an agreed statement of what they are not a fit for. The profile enters matching only after the agreement is signed.

Staying in

8. Introduction follow-upTwo weeks and sixty days after every introduction we check with the client. Billing that does not match the quote, unanswered emails and missed onboarding dates go on the scorecard the same day.
9. 90-day re-confirmationPartners confirm capacity, headcount, certifications and pricing structure every 90 days. Unconfirmed profiles are paused from matching until they do.
10. Quarterly business reviewLeadership and account management: introductions received, conversion, client feedback, open issues, capacity and growth plans. Two missed reviews pauses the partner.
11. Annual re-checkOperators: the same floor walk, the same questions and an updated scorecard for every site in the network, every year. Service providers: an annual working session and refreshed security, licence and insurance documents.
12. Probation and removalProbation: a client complaint about billing, service level or communication not resolved within 30 days, a drop in a tracked metric, or a lapsed certification. Removal, immediately: misrepresentation on the application or in references, billing materially different from the quote, an insurance lapse, or treating a GrowthSteer client as a lead to be sold around us. Removed partners are told why.