Why most lead gen agency evaluations go wrong
Most founders and VPs of Sales evaluate lead gen agencies on a deck and a founder call. The deck is polished, the founder call is a closing motion, and the reality of the engagement is built with SDRs you never met.
The 11 questions to ask
- Is the SDR dedicated or shared? If shared, ask how many other clients the SDR is on.
- Where is the SDR physically based? Offshore vs onshore matters for US B2B.
- How many dials per day will the SDR make for my account? A real answer is 60–120. "It depends" is not an answer.
- Can I talk to the SDR before I sign? If no, walk away.
- What stack do you work in? Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo are the baseline.
- What reporting do I get, at what cadence? Weekly with live dashboard is the floor.
- What is the handoff process with my AE team? Bad handoffs kill meeting-to-opp conversion.
- Who writes the sequences and scripts? You, them, or together matters.
- What is the cancellation policy? Quarterly out is fair, 12-month lock is not.
- What happens if my assigned SDR quits? Real answer is named backup and transition plan.
- Can I see two references with similar ACV and ICP? If not, the case studies are marketing.
Red flags
- Refusing to introduce the SDR
- Performance promises tied to opportunities rather than activities or meetings booked
- Inability to name the CRM fields they will update
- "Proprietary AI" replacing a human on the phone