A Bergen County manufacturing client of ours hired a marketing agency in 2023. Eighteen months and $74,000 later, they had two blog posts, a re-skinned homepage, and a monthly “performance report” that was mostly screenshots of Google Analytics with no commentary. Zero new leads attributable to the agency. They came to us in early 2025 needing to start over.
This isn’t rare. The B2B agency world is full of generalists who’ll cash your retainer for 18 months and deliver almost nothing measurable. The good ones exist — but you have to know what to ask. Here’s the 5-question screen I’d run on any agency before signing, whether you work with us or not.
Question 1: “Show Me Three Clients In My Industry, Specifically.”
If they answer “we work with everyone — that’s our strength,” walk away. That’s the biggest red flag in B2B agency land. An agency that’s “industry agnostic” usually means they have no deep playbook for any industry, so every engagement starts at zero.
You want an agency that’s done your kind of work before — same buyer, similar sales cycle, comparable deal sizes. A SaaS agency optimizing for free-trial signups will burn your money trying to apply that playbook to a $40,000-deal-size manufacturing buyer with a 6-month sales cycle. Different machine entirely.
Question 2: “What’s Your Reporting Cadence And What Does One Look Like?”
Ask to see a redacted sample of a real client report. Then look for:
- Outcomes, not activities. A bad report says “we posted 12 social posts and ran 4 campaigns.” A good report says “you got 47 qualified leads at a $94 CAC, here’s where they came from, here’s what we’re changing next month.”
- A “what we got wrong” section. Any agency reporting after 90+ days should have something that didn’t work. If every report is sunshine, they’re hiding something.
- Specific next-month plan with a hypothesis. “We’re going to test X because we think it’ll move Y.” Without a hypothesis, they’re just spending your money on default tactics.
Question 3: “Who Actually Does The Work?”
The senior person who pitched you almost never executes. That’s normal. What’s NOT normal is finding out two months in that the person writing your blog posts is a contractor in another country who’s never seen your industry. Ask, on the sales call:
- Who writes the copy? In-house or contractor? What’s their background?
- Who builds the pages? Same question.
- Who runs the ad accounts? Are they certified? How long?
- Who do I talk to on a Tuesday when something’s broken? Name. Email. Phone.
If they’re squirrely about any of these, the answer is “contractor we found on Upwork last month.” Pass.
Question 4: “What Happens At Month 6 If This Isn’t Working?”
Every contract should have a defined off-ramp. The standard B2B agency move is a 12-month lockup with a $4,000-$8,000/mo retainer and an early-termination penalty equal to 3 months of fees. That’s not partnership — that’s a hostage situation.
What to insist on: month-to-month after an initial 90-day evaluation period, with a defined performance benchmark in writing. Example: “If we don’t deliver X qualified leads by day 90, you can exit with 30 days notice and no penalty.” A confident agency will agree. A scared one will refuse.
Question 5: “Walk Me Through One Of Your Case Studies — But Skip The Headline Numbers.”
Agency case studies are the most polished, most misleading documents in B2B marketing. “We grew their traffic 340%!” — from 50 visits to 220. Useless.
What to actually ask:
- What was the absolute baseline number, not the percentage?
- Over how many months did the change happen?
- What did the client spend with you in that period?
- What was the ROI in actual closed revenue, not pipeline?
- Can I talk to that client directly?
That last one is the kill shot. A real agency with real results has happy clients who’ll take a 15-minute reference call. A pretend agency suddenly has “confidentiality concerns.” You learn everything from which way that answer goes.
How AJD Handles This
We answer all five of those questions on the first call without being asked, because we’d rather lose a bad-fit deal early than burn a retainer for 18 months. Our B2B retainers run $1,800-$4,500/mo depending on scope, month-to-month after a 90-day evaluation with written performance benchmarks. Three reference calls available on request. Whether you work with us or not, run these five questions on every agency you talk to — the answers tell you everything in about 30 minutes.
Want a second opinion on an agency proposal you’re considering? Book a free 20-minute discovery call. Bring the proposal, I’ll read it on the call and flag the red flags — no pitch attached. Book Free Discovery Call →
