The agency field guide / Before you sign
Eight questions.
Clearer answers.
A proposal should explain who does the work, what you get, and what happens if you leave. Ask these questions before you choose an agency. Write down the answers and compare them.
In your corner
Bring this to the call.
- Your business goal and current bottleneck.
- The proposal, scope, and recurring costs.
- A place to record answers and missing details.
Your business. Your decisions.
A clearer way forward.
The conversation
Get specific
before you sign.
Ask for examples and documents. A clear answer is more useful than a confident promise.
01
Who will do the work?
Ask who handles strategy, design, development, ads, and communication. Specialists and subcontractors can be part of a good team. You should know who is accountable.
Ask to see: the primary contact, backup contact, and who approves the work.
02
What will I own?
Ask about the domain, site files, content, ad accounts, analytics, and customer data. Separate work you own from software or media you use under a license.
Ask to see: ownership and access terms, including what transfers when you leave.
03
What happens first?
Ask what the first phase includes, what the agency needs from you, and what could delay it. A schedule should name the work and its dependencies.
Ask to see: milestones, review dates, and the first deliverable.
04
How will we know it is working?
Agree what counts as a qualified inquiry and how it connects to booked work. Traffic and clicks can help explain performance; they do not tell the whole story.
Ask to see: a sample report, the data source, and any gaps in tracking.
05
What does the price cover?
Separate setup, ongoing work, ad spend, and third-party costs. Ask how revisions, extra pages, and unexpected fixes are handled.
Ask to see: included deliverables, exclusions, and how extra work gets approved.
06
How do we get help?
Agree on contact channels, normal response times, business hours, and what counts as urgent. A named backup matters when your usual contact is unavailable.
Ask to see: the support process for a broken form, an outage, or an ad account issue.
07
Can you show relevant work?
Ask for a project with a comparable problem, budget, or customer journey. Find out what the agency actually contributed and what the result can be traced to.
Ask to see: the starting problem, delivered work, evidence, and a reference where available.
08
How does the relationship end?
Ask about notice, final invoices, account transfers, exports, and transition support. Get the process clear while everyone is on good terms.
Ask to see: written exit steps and any costs or licensing limits.
Put it to work
Keep a proposal scorecard.
Use the same questions for every agency. A blank answer is a follow-up item, not an automatic verdict.
- Record the answer in plain language, with a link to the supporting document.
- Mark each item clear, needs clarification, or does not meet our needs.
- Send the unanswered questions back before making a decision.
- Compare the actual scope and responsibilities, not just the monthly price.
Talk it through
You can ask us
the same questions.
Will and Ali should be able to explain the work just as clearly as anyone else. Start with a free 15-minute Fit Call and tell us what you have in mind.