5 Questions to Ask Any Growth Agency Before You Sign
A framework for B2B leaders who have been burned before. Ask these questions. The answers tell you everything.
You have been here before. It didn't work.
Most B2B companies have tried at least one external agency. Most have been disappointed. The agency sold a vision in the pitch meeting and delivered something different after the contract was signed. The problem is not that agencies are bad. The problem is that the wrong questions get asked before the deal closes.
Volume over quality
They sold you 20 meetings a month. Half didn't show up. The other half weren't decision-makers. Your sales team wasted hours on calls that were never going to close. The agency hit their numbers. You didn't hit yours.
No understanding of your market
They read a one-pager about your product and started dialling. Your prospects could tell. The messaging was generic, the targeting was broad, and the people they booked had no buying authority. Research was a checkbox, not a process.
Disappeared after signing
The senior partner sold you. A junior you have never met runs the account. Strategic input stopped after week one. Monthly reports replaced monthly thinking. You are paying for a partner but receiving a vendor.
Five questions. Five minutes. Complete clarity.
Ask these in your next agency evaluation call. The answers will tell you more than any pitch deck ever could.
How do you get paid, and how does that change your behaviour?
Incentive structures shape everything. Pay-per-lead is not a scalable model for any organisation. An agency paid per lead will optimise for volume, not quality, and that misalignment compounds over time. A retainer model means the agency invests in your success. They train their team, build infrastructure, invest in best-in-class systems and data platforms. They become an extension of your team, not a vendor you chase for updates. You need to understand what the commercial structure motivates the agency to do, because that is exactly what they will do.
Retainer model with clear KPIs tied to pipeline outcomes. Transparent about what success looks like and how they measure it. Willing to share attribution data openly.
Pay-per-lead or pay-per-call with no quality filter. Vague definitions of what counts as a qualified meeting. Resistance to sharing outcome data beyond activity metrics.
What happens in the first 30 days?
The first month reveals everything about how an agency operates. Good agencies spend weeks understanding your market, your buyers, and your competitive position before anyone picks up the phone. Bad agencies start dialling on day two because activity looks like progress. It is not.
Structured onboarding: ICP deep-dive, messaging workshops, competitive analysis, and infrastructure setup. First outreach starts week four after the strategy is built. Clear milestones for each week.
"We can start calling tomorrow." No discovery process. Template messaging from day one. No mention of research, strategy, or testing before volume begins. Speed without substance.
Do you create demand or just capture it?
Outbound alone reaches people who already know they have a problem. Demand generation reaches the 95% of your market that is not actively buying yet. The best agencies connect both: building brand awareness that makes outbound warmer and outbound that converts awareness into pipeline. If your agency only does one, you are leaving money on the table.
Integrated approach: content, brand, and outbound work together. They can explain how demand generation feeds lead generation and vice versa. They measure brand impact, not just reply rates.
Outbound only. "Marketing is your job, we just book meetings." No content strategy. No brand building. No understanding of how awareness affects conversion. A lead generation assembly line with no fuel.
Who actually does the work?
The people in your pitch meeting are rarely the people running your account. Senior partners close deals. Juniors execute them. Offshore teams handle the volume. None of this is visible until the contract is signed. Ask to meet the team before you commit. If they hesitate, that tells you everything. Look for a senior leadership team with real commercial experience, not agency experience. Experience running large sales and marketing teams inside technology companies is a different calibre of insight you will not find in most agencies.
Meet the actual team before signing. All execution is in-house. Named account manager with relevant experience. Clear escalation path to senior leadership. The people you meet are the people who do the work.
"We have a great team, you'll meet them after onboarding." Outsourced or offshore execution hidden behind a local front. High staff turnover. Different people on every call. No continuity.
What does your average client tenure look like?
Tenure is the one metric an agency cannot fake. A 3-month average means clients leave as soon as the minimum contract allows. An 18-month average means clients stay because the results compound. Ask for tenure data. Ask for references. If they dodge the question, you have your answer.
12+ month average tenure. Willing to share references from current and past clients. Can explain why clients stay and what makes the relationship work long term. Low churn rate spoken about openly.
90-day campaign structures. No references available. Vague about retention numbers. High volume of new client logos but no long-term relationships. The portfolio looks impressive until you ask how many are still clients.
The Agency Scorecard
Rate your current or prospective agency on each criterion. Be honest. The score does not lie.
| Criterion | What to look for | Score (1-10) |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial alignment | Retainer model tied to outcomes, not vanity metrics. Transparent reporting on pipeline contribution. | /10 |
| Onboarding depth | Structured first 30 days with discovery, strategy, and infrastructure before outreach begins. | /10 |
| Full-funnel capability | Brand, content, demand gen, and lead gen under one roof. Integrated strategy, not siloed services. | /10 |
| Team transparency | Named team members you can meet. In-house execution. Low turnover. Senior involvement throughout. | /10 |
| Client tenure | 12+ month average. References available. Clear evidence of long-term client relationships and compounding results. | /10 |
Under 30: Keep looking. The agency is not structured to deliver sustained results. You will be searching again in 6 months.
30 to 40: Potential, but gaps exist. Clarify the weak areas before committing. Ask harder questions on the low-scoring criteria.
Over 40: You have found the right partner. An agency that scores this high is built to deliver compounding, long-term pipeline growth.
Want to see how ORRJO scores?
We become an extension of your team. Senior leadership with almost 20 years of experience running large sales and marketing teams across the global tech sector. Operating across 15 countries and 20+ sectors gives us a perspective most agencies simply do not have. There are no quick fixes or silver bullets. We build real value over time.
If you are looking for a cheap, quick fix, ORRJO is not the one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Two to four weeks is enough. Any agency worth hiring can answer these five questions clearly in a single call. Get references, check tenure data, and ask to meet the team. If everything checks out, move. Overthinking the decision costs pipeline.
Six months minimum, twelve months ideal. Anything shorter means the agency is optimising for quick wins, not compounding results. The first 60 days are setup and learning. Months three and four are when campaigns start hitting stride. Agencies offering 90-day contracts know most clients will churn before seeing real results.
Industry familiarity helps but is not essential. What matters more is whether they understand complex B2B sales cycles, how to reach senior decision-makers, and how to build pipeline that converts. A great agency with no fintech experience will outperform a mediocre fintech specialist every time.
Week one: deep discovery on your ICP, competitors, and positioning. Week two: messaging frameworks and channel strategy. Weeks three and four: infrastructure setup, list building, and content development. First outreach should begin in week four or five. If they start calling on day two, they skipped the work that makes outreach effective.
Three signals: meetings that do not convert to pipeline, declining attendance rates, and lack of strategic input beyond activity reports. A good agency tells you what to change, not just what they did. If your monthly call is a spreadsheet review with no recommendations, you have a vendor, not a partner.
Pay-per-lead incentivises volume over quality. The agency gets paid whether the lead converts or not, so they optimise for quantity. Retainer models align the agency with your outcomes because their revenue depends on you staying. The best agencies earn their retainer by delivering pipeline, not just activity.