Lead Gen Agency Checklist — 30 Green Flags

Part 01

Infrastructure & deliverability.

If the machine is wrong, nothing downstream matters. Two minutes here exposes most pretenders.

Sends from separate domains set up for you.Cold volume never touches your primary domain — its reputation carries your real business. SPF, DKIM and DMARC configured — and they can show you.Unauthenticated cold email is dead on arrival with every major mailbox provider. Inboxes are warmed for 2–3 weeks before launch.Blasting from day one looks exactly like spam, because it is exactly what spam looks like. Daily volume per inbox is capped (≤50) and scaled by adding inboxes.Healthy systems scale sideways. Anyone promising huge volume per inbox is burning domains. Every list is verified before sending, with a stated bounce target.Bounces above ~3% torch sender reputation. No target means no discipline. They monitor placement weekly and rotate burned domains at their cost.Deliverability is maintained, not achieved. Ask who watches it and who pays for damage.

Part 02

Targeting & list quality.

A brilliant campaign to the wrong list produces nothing. Lists are where corners get cut first.

Your buyer profile is built with you before any list exists.Titles, company profile, territories, triggers — written down, not assumed. Lists are built fresh for you, never recycled across clients.Recycled databases arrive pre-burned by everyone who rented them before you. They can explain where every contact came from."Proprietary data" with no source is a scrape with a marketing name. Target titles and territories are agreed in writing before launch.If it is not in writing, the definition will drift toward whatever is easiest to deliver. Exclusion lists are honored — customers, competitors, do-not-contact.One email to your biggest client from a vendor is a very expensive way to learn this. You review a sample of the list before the first send.Ten minutes of spot-checking catches what months of reporting will hide.

Part 03

Copy & process.

Replies are where amateur operations quietly die. Ask what happens after someone says yes.

Copy is written for your offer and you approve every sequence.Template blasts with your logo swapped in are not a service. There is a real lead magnet — a reason to reply beyond "quick question".Strangers need to be paid in value. The delete key is a rational response to nothing. Replies are handled by trained setters with scripts you can read."We forward them to you" means you just hired yourself as the setter. Response time to a positive reply is measured in minutes, not days.Speed to lead decides outcomes. Ask for the actual number they hold themselves to. Meetings land in your calendar and CRM, not a spreadsheet.A lead you have to re-enter by hand is a lead that leaks. "Interested, not now" replies enter a defined nurture path.Month-one maybes are month-three bookings — if anyone is holding them.

Part 04

Commercials & risk.

Where the risk sits tells you everything about how confident they really are.

A defined deliverable — a number and a date — is in the contract.Ours is public: 100+ qualified leads within 14 days of launch. Ask them what theirs is. A real guarantee with a refund mechanism, not "we keep trying".A guarantee without a consequence is a slogan. "Qualified lead" is defined in writing and matches your definition.The most abused word in B2B. Pin it down before money moves. You own everything built — domains, inboxes, lists, copy, data.A channel in their accounts is a subscription. In yours, it is an asset. Pricing is plain, with no surprise per-lead upsells later.If the pricing page needs a decoder, the invoices will too. No long lock-in before results, and exit terms you can read.Confidence does not need a 12-month cage.

Part 05

Transparency & reporting.

The black box is where bad numbers hide. Insist on glass.

Weekly reporting: sends, replies, positive replies, meetings booked.Four numbers, every week. Anything less is storytelling. You have access to the sending tools and accounts.If you cannot log in, you cannot verify — and they know it. Case studies carry numbers you can pressure-test.Vague logos prove marketing. Numbers with context prove delivery. One named owner runs your account, not a rotating queue.Accountability has a first name. Queues have excuses. They tell you what will NOT work for your case.An agency with no bad news for you is selling, not advising. They will walk this checklist with you without flinching.The reaction to this page is itself a data point.

0 / 30

Walk away

Fewer than half the flags means the fundamentals are missing. Whatever the deck says, the machine is not there.

0–14Walk away. Fewer than half the flags means the fundamentals are missing.

15–22Press harder on every unchecked line — the gaps are exactly where it will go wrong.

23–27Solid operator. Get the guarantee and the definitions in writing, then proceed.

28–30Shortlist material. Agencies at this standard are rare — hold onto them.

Run this list on us.

Bring the checklist to a call and go line by line — we clear all 30, and we will show you how, not just say so. 100+ qualified leads within 14 days of launch, or your money back.

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