Conviction

January 23, 2026

Hiring an agency: the questions that make the difference over time

Creative work, recommendations, seniority, rate cards: the classic criteria are legitimate, but they say nothing about the relationship that will settle in. The least asked question is also the most decisive: will this agency make your teams more autonomous, or more dependent?

Romain Brignier, President

Hiring an agency commits budget, time, internal credibility and, often, part of the marketing team’s future trajectory. Most companies approach the choice seriously, but through criteria that are highly visible, easily compared, and not always the most structural.

The standard checklist

In most pitches, the same criteria come back every time.
  • Relevance of the strategy
  • Quality of the creative routes
  • Human fit
  • Seniority of the people
  • Production budget
  • Rate card
  • Labels and certifications

These questions are legitimate: they allow comparison, they reassure, they frame a decision. But they are heavily overweighted relative to their real impact on lasting performance. Good creative work says nothing about the structural relationship that is about to settle in.

The blind spot

Will this relationship make your teams more autonomous, or more dependent?

CMOs expect agencies to accelerate and professionalize their marketing organization. Very few ask explicitly what the relationship will have produced two years from now.

01 · Autonomy

A useful agency does not stop at producing or executing: it passes on, makes explicit, equips. It leaves behind methods, reflexes, and the ability to decide without it.

Conversely, some agencies, sometimes very effective in the short term, install a gradual dependence: know-how that is barely documented, decisions systematically taken outside, complexity that is hard to take back in house.

02 · Transfer

Skills transfer is often mentioned, rarely specified. Four simple questions are enough to see clearly.

  • On which topics?
  • In what form?
  • At what pace?
  • For which people in house?

An agency that owns that logic shows a far more mature partnership stance.

03 · Tech and AI

An agency’s value no longer sits only in production, but in the ability to build lasting systems: tools, process, and sound uses of AI.

So the question is not “do you use AI?” but “can you help us integrate it without making us dependent on you?”

04 · Training

The words training and coaching appear in many proposals, rarely in a committing way. Ask how many sessions are planned, for which teams, on which topics, with what expected outcomes. The level of precision tells you a lot about the real intent.

05 · Honesty

This is probably the most uncomfortable question to ask. An agency that is genuinely a partner can tell you what can be brought in house right now, what could be in the medium term, and what objectively has no reason to stay outsourced.

That answer does not maximize immediate revenue. But it builds a healthier, and often longer, relationship.

The best criterion

Perhaps the right comparison table does not pit slides, creative routes and rate cards against each other, but answers one simple question: is this agency here to make us better, even at the cost of becoming less indispensable tomorrow?

In short

A good agency is not the one that takes up all the room, but the one that knows how to give it back.
  • The classic criteria are necessary but not sufficient
  • The decisive questions are the least visible
  • Autonomy, transfer and honesty are markers of maturity