How to choose a LinkedIn outreach agency: 9 questions to ask

1. Who picks the people, and can I see why?

Most LinkedIn outreach goes wrong before anyone writes a word, because the list came from a job-title filter and nothing else. So ask who, by name, decides that a particular person gets an invitation from your profile, and ask to see that decision written down.

A good answer sounds like: “Sam picks every person. Each one has a one-line reason, and every Friday you get the full list, including the people Sam skipped and why.” (Example answer, invented name.)

A red flag sounds like: “Our AI finds your ideal buyers,” with nobody accountable for the result. Or “we’ll pull 5,000 profiles that match your titles.” If pulling means scraping, the User Agreement forbids software that scrapes “profiles and other data from the Services” (section 8.2).

Here’s the format our reason log uses, so you know what “written down” can look like.

Example row, invented: Head of Sales, 40-person payroll software company, Austin. Why: the company posted its first two account executive jobs this week, and the founder still runs every demo.

First line: “Saw you’re hiring your first two AEs. Will they inherit a pipeline, or build one from zero?” Status: accepted.

2. Who writes the messages, and do I approve them?

Ask who writes the note on each invitation, who writes the follow-ups, and what you see before anything goes out. Then ask something most agencies haven’t thought about: what do they say when a prospect asks, “Did you write this yourself?”

A good answer sounds like: “One named writer: you approve the tone and the first few messages, and after that every line shows up in a weekly log. If a prospect asks, we say someone on your team drafted it and that you take every meeting yourself.” (Example answer.)

A red flag sounds like: “We personalize at scale,” where nobody reads what the software produced. Templates with gaps for the company name. Or “your prospects will never know it isn’t you,” which is a promise to mislead the people you want as customers.

A quick test of craft: ask how long an invitation note can be. LinkedIn’s help page says each note can be up to 200 characters (a563153). If they quote a bigger number with confidence, ask where it came from.

3. Who answers replies, and how fast?

Replies are where meetings come from, and they’re the part that cheaper plans quietly hand back to you. Ask who reads the replies, how soon they answer, whose voice they answer in, and who puts the meeting on your calendar.

A good answer sounds like: “The person who wrote the note answers within one business day, in the style you approved, and books straight into your calendar with a short brief on who you’re meeting.” (Example answer.)

A red flag sounds like: “We forward you every positive reply.” That makes you the closer of a cold conversation someone else started, and your week just got longer. “Our AI replies instantly” is the other one to push on.

Ask to see two or three real reply threads, anonymized. An agency that has been answering replies for a while will have them ready. One that hasn’t will change the subject.

4. What exactly runs on my LinkedIn account?

Most done-for-you LinkedIn agencies use software to send; a few send by hand and will tell you so. Either way, ask them to name the tool and list every action it takes on your profile: invitations, messages, profile views, likes, comments, anything else.

Then read what LinkedIn says. The User Agreement tells members not to “use bots or other unauthorized automated methods to access the Services, add or download contacts, send or redirect messages, create, comment on, like, share, or re-share posts, or otherwise drive inauthentic engagement” (section 8.2). LinkedIn’s page on prohibited software adds that members who use such tools “risk having their accounts restricted or shut down” (a1341387).

A good answer sounds like: “We use a named cloud tool: it sends invitations and messages we wrote, pulls your replies into one inbox, and never likes, comments or posts. LinkedIn’s terms don’t allow tools like it, the risk sits with your account, and here’s how we handle that.” (Example answer.)

A red flag sounds like: “Nothing automated touches your account,” when something plainly does. Or any version of “LinkedIn can’t tell.”

5. Do you ever need my password?

The answer should be no. LinkedIn’s User Agreement asks members to “protect against wrongful access to your account (e.g., use a strong password and keep it confidential)” (section 2.2), and its list of don’ts includes using “another’s account (such as sharing log-in credentials or copying cookies)” (section 8.2).

A good answer sounds like: “No. You connect through the tool’s own login screen, you keep two-factor sign-in switched on, and you can disconnect from your side at any time. To be straight with you, connecting does give the tool a working session on your account, because that’s how it sends.” (Example answer.)

A red flag sounds like: “Just send us your login.” Or a request for your two-factor code over chat or email.

Be clear about what this question settles and what it doesn’t. No way of connecting makes an automation tool allowed under LinkedIn’s terms. What the answer shows you is whether the agency treats your login as yours.

6. What happens if LinkedIn restricts my account?

Accounts that use outreach tools get restricted sometimes, and LinkedIn says so in writing. Ask for the agency’s plan in steps, and ask whether those steps are in the contract.

Two facts help you judge whatever they say. LinkedIn’s help page on invitation limits says a restriction on sending invitations “typically lasts one week” and that “LinkedIn cannot remove or shorten the wait period” (a550555). For restrictions over automated activity, LinkedIn asks members to “review and disable the software or extension that automates activities” (a1340567).

A good answer sounds like: “We pause all sending within 24 hours and tell you the same day. We help you through LinkedIn’s verification steps, we don’t restart until you say so, and you don’t pay for the paused days.” (Example answer.)

A red flag sounds like: “That’s never happened to a client of ours,” which you can’t check. “We’ll get it lifted fast,” which LinkedIn says nobody can do. Or “we’ll carry on from one of our own profiles,” which moves your outreach onto an account that isn’t you.

7. How many invitations a week, and who chose that number?

LinkedIn doesn’t publish a weekly invitation number. Its help page says only that “All LinkedIn members (Basic and Premium) are subject to invitation limits and restrictions” (a551012). So any figure an agency gives you is their own choice, and the useful question is why they chose it.

A good answer sounds like: “At most 100 a week, fewer in the first week for an account that hasn’t been sending, and it’s written into the contract. We picked it because the volume is capped whatever we do, so the choice of who gets each invitation is what does the work.” (Example answer.)

A red flag sounds like: “LinkedIn allows 200 a week, so we send 200,” said as if LinkedIn had published it. Or anything about getting around the limit with extra profiles or clever settings. The User Agreement forbids members to get around “any access controls or use limits of the Services” (section 8.2).

8. What do I keep if I leave?

Ask for a written list of what you walk away with. It should include the target list, every reason and message, your saved searches and a copy of the conversations. Then ask who owns the Sales Navigator seat.

That last question matters more than it sounds. LinkedIn’s help page on canceling Sales Navigator says: “Currently you don’t have the option to save critical information and data associated with the account, such as messages, saved leads, and saved accounts. This data is removed as soon as you cancel” (a102026).

If the seat belongs to the agency, or someone cancels it the day you leave, your saved work can go with it.

A good answer sounds like: “Everything. You get an export within 14 days, we delete your prospects’ data within 30 days and confirm it in writing, and we sign a data processing agreement if you sell to UK or EU buyers.” (Example answer.)

A red flag sounds like: “The lists are our intellectual property.”

9. What’s the minimum term, and how do I exit?

Outreach takes weeks to show what works, so a minimum term isn’t a bad sign on its own. On the public pricing pages we read in September 2026, month to month and 3-month minimums were both common. The exit clause tells you more than the length of the term does.

A good answer sounds like: “Three months, then monthly with 30 days’ notice. If we miss a target the contract defines, you can stop early.” (Example answer, invented terms.)

A red flag sounds like: a 6- or 12-month lock-in that renews unless you catch it in time. Or “guaranteed meetings” with no written definition of a meeting and no remedy when they don’t arrive. Ask for the contract before the call ends, and read the termination clause first.