Charter: Strategic Digital Partnership
Currently capped at 6 to 10 active partners. Every Charter relationship begins with a conversation.
For a small group of dealers who want digital strategy embedded in how they run their business.
Charter is not an upgraded Pro plan. It is a different kind of working relationship, built around custom design, direct strategic access, priority execution, and the depth that only comes from limiting the partnership to a small number of active relationships. Most TSG dealers don't operate at that level, and that's not a deficiency. Pro is the right tier for nearly everyone. Charter exists for the few situations where it isn't.
Charter exists for dealers whose digital decisions affect business direction
At a certain level of business, the questions surrounding your website stop being website questions. They become questions like:
These are not website maintenance questions. They are business questions that happen to touch the website. The challenge at this level isn't capability, it's alignment, speed, and the quality of judgment in the room when the decisions get made. Charter is built so those decisions get made with experienced digital judgment in the room.
What Charter Includes
Charter includes everything in Pro, plus the components that define a partnership rather than a vendor relationship. The included capabilities matter less than the relationship structure: what makes Charter different is how the work happens, not just what gets done.
Full TSG Dealer Authority System implementation, Search Authority Engine, SafeBuilder, manufacturer promotions support, Authority Profile content development, and safe-industry-literate support. All the Pro capabilities are included as the foundation.
Custom Website Design
Charter sites are built uniquely for the dealer. Designed and built around the specific business, brand, and customer experience. Comparable agency work for custom Shopify design alone runs $15,000 to $50,000.
Unlimited Manufacturer Packs
Every brand you carry is included, no cap at three Packs, no add-on pricing for Advanced Packs. Fort Knox, AMSEC, Liberty, Browning, Rhino, all included as part of the partnership.
SafeBuilder, All Variants
Including Fort Knox-level configurator complexity. The variant maintenance work that's priced separately at the Pro level is part of Charter.
Promotion Engine Included
Custom dealer-initiated promotions, beyond the manufacturer promotions that come standard, are covered. No per-promotion fees, no monthly add-on.
Direct Strategic Access
Charter partners work directly with the founder on decisions that touch business direction. Not a support tier or a customer success layer: the person who built the category, in the room when it matters.
Priority Execution
Charter requests move first. When capacity is finite, Charter partners get the work done before standard queue items. The 6 to 10 partner cap is what makes priority execution possible without breaking commitments to Pro dealers.
Annual On-Site Session
Once a year, we travel to your store. The session is for evaluating the previous year, refining positioning, and planning digital strategy for the year ahead. It's also the natural moment for the renewal conversation.
No Add-On Fees
Scope is defined by business need, not by line items. The capabilities Pro dealers can purchase as add-ons are included. New requests that fit the partnership are absorbed. The 12-month commitment is what makes this economically possible.
No add-on fees during the partnership year. What Pro dealers pay for as add-ons is included.
What Charter Costs
Custom website design, unlimited Pack onboarding (including Advanced), deeper Authority Profile development, strategic positioning work, and migration from your existing site.
12-month partnership, billed monthly. The depth of collaboration assumes a year-long working relationship. The annual on-site is the natural renewal moment.
What Pro dealers pay for as add-ons is included. New requests that fit the partnership are absorbed during the partnership year.
Why Charter Costs What It Costs
Charter's comparison set isn't website agencies. A dealer evaluating Charter-equivalent work in the market would assemble:
That's $20,000 to $50,000+ in setup and $6,500 to $15,000+/month assembled from multiple vendors, none of whom understand safes. Charter delivers all of that from one partner who knows the industry, at $10,000 setup and $6,000/month. The 6 to 10 partner cap is what makes those economics possible, and it's also why Charter can't scale beyond that.
Total First-Year Investment
For comparison, the same year of work assembled from a digital agency plus a fractional CMO plus a Shopify retainer plus a safe-industry consultant would run $98,000 to $230,000+, with worse industry fit and four separate vendor relationships to manage.
How a Charter Partnership Begins
Charter partnerships are intentionally limited to 6 to 10 active relationships. Because the partnership involves significant collaboration on both sides, every Charter relationship begins with a conversation to determine whether the fit is right.
Some dealers discover Charter is exactly what their business needs. Others realize Pro is the better step for where they are now. Both outcomes are valuable.
Request a Charter Conversation
You complete a short form with basic context about your business, the brands you carry, and what's prompting your interest in Charter. Five questions, no commitment.
Initial Review
We review what you shared and respond within a few business days. If Charter looks like a potential fit, we schedule a conversation. If Pro looks like the better starting point, we tell you that and explain why.
Charter Conversation
If we're scheduling, the conversation is direct. We want to understand your business; you want to understand whether Charter is what you actually need. The conversation is with the founder, not a salesperson, and runs about an hour.
The Right Outcome
Either Charter is the right fit and we move forward into onboarding, or Pro is the better step and we help you start there. Both are good outcomes. We'd rather be honest about fit than fill a Charter slot.
Charter onboarding follows the same site-completion structure as Pro: TSG signals when the site is ready for review, you have 15 days to review and request in-scope corrections, and monthly billing begins at the end of the review period or earlier sign-off. Out-of-scope discoveries during review are renegotiated in writing before proceeding.
What Charter Is Not
Charter is intentionally focused. The 12-month partnership commitment and "no add-on fees" structure only work because the scope of what Charter does, and doesn't do, is clear from the start.
Not an advertising or marketing agency
No Google Ads, no Facebook campaigns, no paid acquisition. Those are separate disciplines. Charter partners often have those capabilities elsewhere; Charter focuses on the digital infrastructure that makes those investments work harder.
Not unlimited random requests
"No add-on fees" means scope is defined by business need within the partnership, not that anything goes. Requests that fall outside the working partnership get scoped honestly.
Not for early-stage dealers
If your business is still proving out the model, finding its market, or operating below the scale where digital affects business direction, Charter is over-investment. Pro is built for that stage.
Not an experimental sandbox
Charter partners get strategic depth and execution speed because the partnership is focused. Constant pivots, untested tactics, or "let's try this" requests dilute what Charter is good for.
Charter Is Often the Right Fit For Dealers Who:
Operate at scale where digital decisions affect business direction, typically $2M+ annual revenue
Carry premium or complex brands (Liberty, Browning, Fort Knox, AMSEC) and want their digital presence to reflect that
Want direct access to experienced digital judgment, not a support queue
Treat their website as long-term business infrastructure, not a project, and value speed and decisiveness over feature breadth
Want a partnership relationship, not a vendor relationship
Most independent safe dealers don't operate at this level, and that's not a deficiency, it's the reality of the industry. Pro is the right tier for nearly everyone. Charter exists for the few situations where it isn't.
Pro and Charter
TSG operates two tiers: Pro and Charter. Pro is the standard relationship and where most TSG dealers operate long-term. Charter exists for the small group of partners whose business needs the depth a partnership structure provides.
The capabilities at Pro are deliberately complete. Pro dealers aren't missing features that Charter dealers have; they have everything they need to run a serious safe business online. What Charter adds is relationship depth: custom design, direct strategic access, priority execution, an annual on-site partnership session, and unlimited scope without add-on fees.
The right way to think about it: Pro is a standard Dealer Authority System relationship that does excellent work for a dealer who wants their website functioning as part of their sales process. Charter is a partnership relationship that does that work plus brings experienced digital judgment into business decisions that touch beyond the website. Different relationships for different needs, not a hierarchy.
Learn about Pro →What Charter Partners Notice First
Charter partners describe the relationship working differently than vendor relationships they've had:
Decisions move faster, ideas don't sit in a queue waiting for scope review
Strategic conversations happen alongside execution, not as a separate engagement
"Is this in scope" friction disappears because the partnership covers what the partnership covers
The annual on-site changes the relationship; once you've sat across the table in your own showroom, the dynamic shifts
Strategic missteps get caught earlier because someone with experienced digital judgment is in the loop
The biggest shift isn't capability. It's alignment.
Request a Charter Conversation
Charter partnerships are limited to 6 to 10 active relationships. Every partnership begins with a conversation to determine fit; some inquiries result in Charter, some result in Pro being the better starting point. Both outcomes are valuable. If you believe Charter would fit your business, the next step is the qualification form: five short questions, no commitment, and a real response within a few business days.
Most dealers belong at Pro. Charter exists for the few situations where the depth of partnership is the right fit. If you're not sure which is right for your business, the conversation usually clarifies that quickly.