Three quotes that cannot be compared usually means three different briefs. Here is what to write down before you ask anyone for a price.
By Will Nash
9 November 2026
Firms usually approach three suppliers with a sentence: we are thinking about a podcast, what would it cost. Three numbers come back, they are wildly different, and none of them can be compared to the others.
That is a briefing problem rather than a market problem. Each supplier has quoted for a different show, because each has filled in the gaps you left.
Start with the outcome, not the output
The first line should say what the show is for. Reaching a kind of buyer you cannot currently get in front of. Keeping existing clients engaged between engagements. Giving your leaders a way to be heard internally. Supporting a specific launch.
This matters more than any production detail, because it changes what a sensible show looks like. A supplier who knows the outcome can tell you that your plan will not achieve it, which is the most valuable thing they can say and impossible if you only asked for a price.
Say who it is for, specifically
Not "senior decision-makers". A named kind of person: general counsel at mid-sized manufacturers, finance directors of family businesses, your own client-facing staff in two offices.
If you have a list of the organisations you want listening, include it. It changes the promotion plan entirely, and it changes what can be measured.
Be honest about the time available
The single largest variable in any quote is how much of your people's time the supplier can have. Say how many hours a month your partners will genuinely give, and give the real figure rather than the aspirational one.
Say who those people are and how reliable their diaries are. A show built around one very senior person who travels constantly is a different job from one built around four mid-level specialists who are usually at their desks.
State the constraints, not the design
Constraints: how often you can publish, any regulatory review, whether recordings must be kept, what cannot be discussed, whether external guests are allowed, the budget range.
Leave the design to the response. Do not specify the format, the episode length or the number of hosts, because those are what you are paying the supplier to have a view on. A brief that specifies the answer gets you three identical quotes for the wrong show.
Give a budget range. Firms withhold it thinking it protects them, and what it actually does is produce quotes aimed at the middle of an imagined market.
Define what a delivered episode includes
This is where quotes diverge most, and it is entirely fixable. List what you expect with each episode: the audio, a cleaned transcript, an episode description, cover art, a page on your site, short clips, hosting, publishing to the apps, and whatever promotion is included.
Then ask every supplier to price the same list, with anything they would add or remove noted separately. You will find one of the three cheaper quotes was cheaper because it stopped at the audio file.
Ask for the twelve-episode total
A per-episode price is close to meaningless, because setup costs are sometimes folded into it and sometimes not, and cadence changes everything. Ask what a year of the show costs in total, including setup, and where the figure changes if the cadence does.
Settle ownership in the brief
Who owns the audio files, the transcripts, the artwork and the feed. The answer should be you, and it is much easier to establish before a contract than after a year of episodes.
Ask what happens at the end of the arrangement: whether the feed moves with you, how the files are handed over, and in what format.
Say how it will be judged
Tell suppliers what success looks like at six months and who will be assessing it. If the answer is that your managing partner will look at download numbers, say so, because a good supplier will then either manage that expectation or tell you it is the wrong measure.
Keep the process proportionate
A twelve-episode pilot does not need a formal procurement exercise. A two-page brief, three conversations, and a sample of each supplier's existing work is enough, and it will tell you more than a scored questionnaire.
Ask to hear something they made for a client with a similar constraint, rather than their best-sounding work. Anyone can produce one excellent episode with an ideal guest.
Where this does not help
If the firm has not decided what the show is for, no brief will rescue it, and you will simply be asking suppliers to invent a purpose. Settle that internally first, even roughly.
In short
Write down the outcome, the specific audience, the hours your people will really give, the constraints, and the exact list of what each episode should include. Ask for the twelve-month total and settle ownership of the files. Then let the supplier design the show, because that is the part you are paying for.
We are an AI-native podcast agency, and we would rather answer a proper brief than win against a vague one. If you are putting one together and want a straight read on what is missing from it, get in touch, whoever you end up appointing.
