Most cold email agencies look identical on a sales call. The differences only show up after 30 days, when the meetings either show up, or don't. These are the 12 questions we'd ask before signing with anyone, including us.
1. Do you send from my domain or yours?
Right answer: a secondary domain you own (get-yourbrand.com), not theirs. Anyone offering to send from their own domain is risking your brand and complicating future handoff.
2. How do you handle deliverability?
They should mention SPF, DKIM, DMARC, secondary domains, warmup, and active reputation monitoring. If "deliverability" doesn't come up unprompted, walk away.
3. Who writes the emails, humans or AI?
Pure-AI copy reads like AI, gets ignored, and accelerates the race to the spam folder. The right answer is humans (often with AI assistance for research, never for the final copy).
4. Can I review every sequence before it goes out?
Required answer: yes. If they want to send copy without your sign-off, that's a control problem waiting to happen.
5. How do you build the list?
Listen for: ICP workshop, multi-source enrichment, verification, manual review. Be wary of "we have a database of millions", that's not an asset, that's noise.
6. What's your guarantee?
Strong agencies stake something real: a meeting count in a defined window, money back if missed. "We can't guarantee meetings" is honest in some industries, but if they can't guarantee anything, you're carrying all the risk.
7. What's the contract length?
6 or 12-month lock-ins are red flags in 2026. Month-to-month with one-week pause notice is industry standard now. Long contracts mean they don't trust their results.
8. What's in the monthly report?
Want to see: emails sent/delivered, opens, replies, qualified rate, meetings booked, revenue attributed, template winners, next month's plan. If they only report opens and sends, they're hiding outcomes.
9. Who handles replies?
A human, within hours, with sales experience. If replies go to a bot or sit for days, the best leads cool off. Ask to see a redacted reply thread from a real client.
10. Can I see real client examples in my industry?
Look for specifics: company stage, ICP, sequence used, outcome. Vague case studies ("we generated millions") usually mean they can't share real ones.
11. What happens if I want to bring this in-house later?
You should own your domain, your list, your sequences and your CRM data, not them. If anything is locked inside their systems, that's a future hostage situation.
12. What kind of company is a bad fit for you?
The most important question. Anyone who answers "we work with everyone" is selling, not consulting. A real agency turns away companies where outbound won't work.
Red flags that override everything
- Pay-per-meeting pricing (incentivizes bad meetings)
- Sending from shared infrastructure across many clients
- Promising "guaranteed inbox placement" (no one can guarantee that)
- No deliverability mention on the sales call
- Pressure tactics ("this slot only available this week")
We answer all 12 of these unprompted on every fit call. Book 30 minutes and put us through them, even if you end up choosing someone else.