What to require from a LinkedIn lead gen agency before you sign

Most bad outreach engagements do not fail because the agency was lazy. They fail because nobody agreed, in writing, on what was being bought. Volume was implied, quality was assumed, and "qualified lead" meant one thing to the buyer and another to the vendor. Here is what to nail down first.

1. Whose LinkedIn accounts are used?

This is the question that carries real risk, and it is often answered vaguely on purpose. There are only a few possibilities:

• Your own account, operated by someone else — you are handing over credentials, and you inherit the consequences of anything done with them.
• Rented, shared, or purchased accounts — LinkedIn's User Agreement prohibits sharing account access, and every account involved is exposed to restriction.
• Fabricated profiles — cheap to make, easy for LinkedIn to detect, and your brand is attached to them.
• Real, identifiable people using their own accounts — the only version where nobody is breaking the platform's terms.

Ask directly: are these real people, can they be identified, and are their accounts verified? If the answer arrives as reassurance rather than a fact, treat it as a no.

2. Who writes and approves the messaging?

Outreach sent in your name is your brand talking to your market. An agency writing the first draft is fine and often useful. An agency sending anything you have not read and approved is not.

Get it in writing that nothing is sent without your approval, and that changes to a live sequence come back to you before they go out. Ask to see the actual connect note, the first message, and every follow-up as they will be sent — not a strategy summary.

3. What counts as a qualified meeting?

This is where invoices and expectations part company. "Qualified" has to be a list of conditions you would recognise on a call, not a sentiment. Define it as criteria:

1. 1Who the person is: title, seniority, decision authority.
2. 2Which company: size, industry, geography.
3. 3What must be true: a budget, timing, or current-situation question they answered acceptably.
4. 4What they agreed to: a specific meeting, at a specific time, in your calendar.

Then ask what happens to a meeting that does not meet the definition, or that never shows up. A provider who has thought about this already has an answer.

4. What happens when an account is restricted?

LinkedIn restricts accounts. It happens to careful operators too, and any provider claiming otherwise has not run enough volume. What matters is what follows: is the profile recovered, is it replaced, and inside what window? Get a stated commitment rather than a promise to "handle it".

For reference, ProspectScout's optional Dedicated Senders come with a managed account and recovery support built in. Whatever the number a provider gives you, insist it is a number.

5. How do you scale down, and how do you leave?

Capacity you cannot reverse is a hiring decision wearing a marketing budget. Ask three things: is there a minimum commitment, what notice is required to reduce accounts or cancel, and what happens to the conversations in progress when you go.

Ask who owns the data as well — the target lists, the conversation history, the contact details of people who replied. If the answer is not obviously "you", find out why.

What the price should already include

Quoted-per-month figures often exclude the things that make the work possible. Before you compare two prices, check whether each includes:

For comparison, ProspectScout starts at $79 per account per month with the outreach platform included — targeting, messaging, AI-managed replies, qualification, appointment coordination and reporting — with Scale at $1,499/month for up to 50 accounts. Optional fully-managed Dedicated Senders are $120/month each, including the account. Each sender requires a software seat. No setup fees, no service fees. Sales Navigator and Recruiter Search are included with paid software plans—no extra search fees.

Three answers that should end the conversation

• A guaranteed number of leads, appointments, or revenue. Nobody controls whether strangers reply. A guarantee is either priced into the fee or quietly redefined later.
• Vagueness about whose accounts do the sending. The most expensive risk in this category, and it is entirely avoidable.
• Refusal to show you the messaging that will go out in your name.

What you still have to bring

No agency can supply these, and the good ones will tell you so before you sign:

• The target audience, precise enough to filter a list.
• The offer — the reason a stranger gives you 30 minutes.
• The messaging you are willing to have sent in your name.
• The qualification questions that gate your calendar link.
• A working calendar with real availability.

Outreach capacity multiplies whatever those five things are already worth. That is the whole proposition, and it is worth being honest about in both directions: we do not guarantee connections, replies, leads, appointments, or revenue.