How to Vet a Marketing Agency Before You Hire

The fastest way to vet a marketing agency is to watch how they run the first call. If they spend the opening fifteen minutes on their awards and their client list, and you still haven't said a word about your own business, that tells you something. On this episode I sat down with Behdad Jamshidi, founder of CJAM Marketing. He works as a marketing broker, which means he sits between business owners and agencies and matches them up. He has met with and assessed more than a thousand agencies. That seat gives him an honest view of what separates a service provider worth hiring from one you should pass on.

Behdad started on the agency side building websites, running Google Ads, and handling SEO. He ran out of time to deliver the work he sold, so he went looking for agencies to hand it to. That is when he spotted the pattern. Most agencies don't understand business, and most business owners don't understand marketing. Both sides sit in the same meeting and talk past each other. A strong agency closes that gap by making the call about you. Behdad flips the standard pitch. He gives a two-minute intro, then spends the rest of the time on your goals, your competitors, and what you have tried before. Near the end he names the agencies that fill your gaps. When an agency understands your business first, you can trust the plan that follows.

Signs an agency is worth hiring

Watch for honesty about limits. Full-service agencies tend to show up around the fifteen-person mark, and here is the truth Behdad wants owners to hear: no agency is good at everything. Most are strong at two or three things. The good ones say so. They will tell you their websites are sharp and their SEO is strong, then admit they are average at email or affiliate work and point you to a partner. An agency that claims to nail every channel on a normal budget is selling you a story. That kind of promise usually means a headcount stretched thin and a project that stalls halfway through. Honesty up front tends to mean a longer, calmer relationship later.

The niche question comes up a lot, and Behdad's take surprised me. A niche agency knows your industry, but niche isn't always better. An agency locked into one type of client can stop looking at the bigger picture and miss ideas from other markets. A strong marketer can learn your customer in a couple of months and pull in tactics a narrow shop would never try. This connects to something I care about on the business owner side, which is knowing exactly who you serve. In defining your ideal client and ignoring everyone else I dig into that from your chair, not the agency's.

How the best providers pitch and onboard

The pitch is where a lot of agencies lose the deal. Behdad's format is clean. Open by restating the business goals the client gave you, and ask them to confirm you got it right. If they say no, you learned it now instead of three months in. Then lay out the plan, why you are the partner for it, and the price. Skip the two pages of deliverables. A decision maker does not read twenty bullet points and feel confident. They want to know you understand them and that you can carry them to the finish line. One more habit that costs agencies deals: emailing the proposal and waiting. Present it live. A client who hits a confusing line on their own taps out and never asks the question.

Onboarding tells you whether an agency is built to last. The strong ones have a set process, the same intake for every client, so nothing slips through. That kind of system is the sign of a business that can run without the owner in every meeting. I unpack that idea more in my talk with Joe Rando on the systems behind a steady solo business. And if you are the one buying and running marketing, my conversation on marketing a live learning cohort shows how these same choices play out from the owner's seat.

The last idea stuck with me. Growth is not the only goal. Behdad said some of his best agencies cap themselves at twenty people and twenty clients a year, and stay highly profitable. One owner he mentioned pulls a strong salary, works a light schedule, and carries almost no stress. Bigger is not always the win. Sometimes the smarter move is to stay small, tighten your process, and protect your margin. That goes for the agency you hire and for your own business.