Buying

Questions to ask a cold email agency before you sign

By Travis Heurtelou · 7 min read · October 10, 2026

The short version

Ask whose domains the email goes out from. The answer should never be your main domain.
Ask what counts as a lead, in writing. 'Interested' needs a definition you agree with before the first send.
Ask which number they report. Positive replies per contact is honest. Opens are not.
Ask to approve the list and every email before it goes out.

Infrastructure

Which domains will the email come from? Separate domains, never your main one. If they want to send from yourcompany.com, walk away.
Are those domains used for anyone else at the same time? They should be yours for as long as you work together, and they shouldn't move mid-campaign. Switching domains breaks reply threads.
How long have the inboxes been warming? Four weeks is the minimum before full cold volume.
How many cold emails does each inbox send a day? A few dozen at most. An agency that pushes hundreds through one inbox is borrowing against next month's deliverability.
What bounce rate makes you stop a campaign? There should be a number, and it should be low. A rising bounce rate is the first sign a list is bad.

The list

Where does the list come from? A database export is fine as a start. Ask what they do on top of it: checking each company fits, checking the person still works there, verifying the email.
Can I see the first 10 leads before anything sends? You know your market. Ten real names will tell you more about fit than any pitch deck.
How do you keep my current customers and open deals off the list? They should ask you for a do-not-contact list by domain, before the first upload.

The copy

Who writes the emails, and do I approve them? You should read and sign off on every email before it sends.
How many emails does each person get? Two is plenty. Long sequences mostly add sends to people who already decided not to reply.

Results

What counts as a lead? Get the definition in writing: the title, the company size, and what they had to say in the reply. 'Interested' with no definition becomes whatever fills the report.
Which number do you report? Positive replies divided by people contacted. Open rates are unreliable since Apple Mail started preloading images, and raw reply counts include out-of-office and unsubscribe replies.

Answers that should worry you

A guaranteed number of meetings before they've seen your list or your offer.
No bounce rate they'd stop at.
Reporting built around opens.
'We use AI to personalize every email' as the main answer to how they get replies.
They won't show you real leads before launch.

Separate domains, a written lead definition, ten real leads before launch, two emails, and positive replies per contact as the number. An agency that agrees to all five knows the work.

Questions

Should I sign a long contract?

The first month or two is setup and testing, so a short trial tells you little. Month to month after the first campaign has run is fair for both sides.

Who owns the domains if we stop?

Ask before you sign. Many agencies keep them because they're part of a shared pool. That's fine as long as your main domain was never involved.

What if they won't let me approve the copy?

Don't sign. The emails go out in your company's name.

Cold email agency vs hiring another BDR

6 min read

Why we don't do pay-per-close or commission-only lead gen

4 min read