SDR Agency RFP: The 20 Questions to Ask Before You Sign (2026)

SDR Agency RFP: The 20 Questions to Ask Before You Sign

Last updated: July 2026 — the full 20-question SDR agency RFP framework, red-flag and green-flag answers, and how to run a proper three-vendor bake-off.

Signing with an SDR agency without a proper RFP process is how B2B tech companies waste $60,000 to $150,000 AUD in the first six months. The wrong agency burns your domain reputation, damages relationships with your ICP, and produces a pipeline that looks fine on a dashboard but never converts. The right one shortcuts you to a working outbound motion in 90 days. Between them sits a formal evaluation process — and the 20 questions in this post.

I run UpliftSales, an outsourced SDR agency working with B2B technology companies across Australia. Half the scoping calls I take start with a founder who has already been burned once. The pattern is depressingly consistent — signed on a sales call, no RFP, no references checked, no contract clauses on meeting quality, no visibility into who was actually doing the work. Six months and 90,000 AUD later, they are shopping again. The RFP process below is what would have caught it.

This is the 20-question framework I would use if I were the buyer, plus the red-flag answers to walk away from, the green-flag answers that mean you have a real operator, and the four-to-six-week process to run it properly. Australian market specifics throughout — AUD pricing, Privacy Act considerations, APAC time zone requirements. If you want the broader buyer's context first, our full guide to choosing an SDR as a service provider is a good starting read.

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Why Even Scrappy Startups Should Run an RFP

The pushback I hear from seed and Series A founders is that a formal RFP feels like enterprise overkill. It is not. Even a lightweight RFP — a shared Google Doc with 20 questions and three vendors responding — pays for itself four times over.

1. It forces the agency to prove they are not making it up. A verbal sales pitch is a one-way channel with no accountability. A written RFP response commits the agency to specifics — team names, tenure, tools, sequence examples, KPIs — that you can hold them to later. Agencies who cannot write clear answers to written questions rarely deliver clear outbound programmes.

2. It reveals category understanding. The way an agency answers a question about domain warming, meeting quality disputes, or Privacy Act compliance tells you whether they operate at your level. Weak agencies dodge the specifics. Real operators go deep because they have solved these problems dozens of times.

3. It creates comparison discipline. When three agencies answer the same 20 questions, patterns emerge. One might have deep methodology but weak reporting. Another might have great tooling but no comparable clients. Without the side-by-side, you make a gut call. With it, you make a scored decision that survives boardroom scrutiny.

4. It de-risks the contract. Everything a vendor commits to in RFP responses can be referenced in the contract. Vague RFP answers produce vague contracts. Specific RFP answers produce specific service-level clauses that give you leverage when things go sideways. And things will go sideways — the Salesforce State of Sales report shows outbound performance varies widely across quarters, so the contract has to hold up when performance dips.

We publish our RFP responses openly. If you are running a bake-off, ask us for our standard RFP pack and use it as a benchmark for the other vendors — we will send it whether or not you shortlist us.

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Category 1: Team and Experience (Q1-Q4)

The single biggest variable in any SDR agency engagement is who is actually doing the work. Not the founder pitching you. Not the sales lead on the demo call. The rep who will send 60 emails, make 40 calls, and manage your LinkedIn outreach every day for the next 12 months. This first category exists to make sure you meet that person, know their name, and have proof they are competent.

Q1: Who will run my account daily — name, role, and CV?

Why it matters: The gap between the person who pitches you and the person who executes is where most agency engagements collapse. Agencies that dodge this question are usually assigning junior offshore reps to accounts sold on the strength of senior Australian founders.

Good answer: Named SDR with LinkedIn profile shared, three to five years of relevant experience, one to two accounts before you, dedicated account manager or SDR lead named separately.

Red flag: "We will assign the best-fit rep at kick-off" or "our team pools resources across accounts". Translation — you get whoever is spare.

Q2: Show me three current or recent clients with similar industry, ACV, and geography

Why it matters: Outbound methodology varies dramatically by segment. Selling CIO plays into ASX 200 companies is a different craft to selling PLG SaaS into SMB tech. An agency that has never worked your segment will spend the first six months learning at your expense.

Good answer: Three named clients (permission granted or under NDA), each with clear ACV band, industry vertical, and geography match. Willing to arrange reference calls with two of them.

Red flag: "We work across many industries" or "our methodology transfers between segments". Every agency says this. The good ones then hand you three specific names.

Q3: What is the average tenure of your SDRs and campaign managers?

Why it matters: SDR tenure is a direct proxy for programme quality. The Bridge Group SDR benchmark research has tracked average SDR tenure at 14 months for years. Agencies with sub-12-month rep tenure churn your account through fresh ramp cycles quarterly. Agencies with 18-month-plus tenure retain institutional knowledge on your ICP.

Good answer: 15 to 24 months SDR tenure, 3 to 5 years campaign manager tenure, clear career progression path within the agency.

Red flag: Unable to answer, or answers below 10 months. Watch for evasive language like "we prefer not to disclose staff data" — this is not a competitive secret, it is a leading indicator.

Q4: Are your SDRs in-country and native-language for my target market?

Why it matters: For Australian B2B tech selling into Australian buyers, in-country reps in APAC time zone speaking with local idiom close 2 to 4x better than offshore. Australian buyers can spot an offshore rep in the first phone call. For high-touch enterprise plays, offshore is disqualifying. For high-volume SMB, it can work with the right accent training and time zone alignment.

Good answer: Yes, in-country reps in Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane, working AEST hours, with proof of accent and cultural fluency in call recordings you can listen to.

Red flag: Reps in Manila, Bangalore, or Cape Town for an Australian ICP without clear justification and evidence of results in your segment.

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Category 2: Methodology and Channels (Q5-Q9)

This category is where most agencies bluff and most buyers get distracted by jargon. The goal is not to test whether the agency knows the words. It is to see the actual work — real sequences, real cadences, real reasoning behind the choices.

Q5: Walk me through your standard sequence structure for a persona like ours

Why it matters: A generic 5-touch email cadence is not a sequence — it is a stub. Real 2026 outbound sequences run 14 to 25 touchpoints across email, phone, LinkedIn, and sometimes voice notes and video. The LinkedIn Sales Solutions research shows the average B2B tech deal now requires 6 to 8 touches to book a meeting.

Good answer: Documented cadence with specific touchpoint counts by channel, spacing rationale, personalisation triggers, opt-out logic, and a clear ramp from soft to direct across the sequence.

Red flag: Vague "we tailor to each client" without a base template, or a 5-touch email-only cadence pitched as sufficient for enterprise ICPs.

Q6: What is your phone/email/LinkedIn ratio and why?

Why it matters: Channel mix reveals methodology. Email-only agencies are cheaper to run and predictably underperform. Phone-heavy agencies match Australian buyer preferences. LinkedIn-forward agencies fit for account-based plays. There is no single right answer — but there should be a clear one with reasoning tied to your ICP.

Good answer: Something like "50% email, 30% phone, 20% LinkedIn for standard mid-market SaaS ICP, shifting to 30% email, 20% phone, 50% LinkedIn for CISO plays where inbox saturation is a problem". Numbers, reasons, adjustments.

Red flag: "We adapt everything to each client" with no baseline, or heavy email-only mixes for high-value ICPs.

Q7: Show me an anonymised real sequence you shipped for a comparable client

Why it matters: This is the single most revealing question in the RFP. Agencies that have not produced quality sequences cannot fake this on the spot. What you are looking for is copy quality, personalisation depth, and a clear commercial arc across the touchpoints.

Good answer: Anonymised PDF or Docs export of a real sequence, with the client's ICP and offer redacted but the copy intact, plus context on the outcomes it produced (reply rate, meeting rate).

Red flag: "We cannot share client work for confidentiality" — every reputable agency has anonymised examples ready. Or an anodyne template that reads like it came from a public swipe file. For a reference point on what commercial-grade cadences look like, our cold email templates guide shows the shape of copy that actually books meetings in 2026.

Q8: How do you handle personalisation at scale?

Why it matters: Fully manual personalisation caps at 15 to 20 well-crafted emails per rep per day. Fully automated "AI personalisation" produces bland output that gets flagged as spam. The good agencies operate a hybrid — token-based personalisation for volume, deep research for top-tier accounts, and a clear rule for when each applies.

Good answer: Tiered approach — bulk personalisation using verified tokens (name, company, role, trigger event), account research briefs for top 10 to 20% of the list, and a documented process for prioritising which accounts get the deep treatment.

Red flag: "Every email is personally written" (economically impossible at scale) or "our AI handles all personalisation" (produces spam).

Q9: What is your process for iterating on messaging that is not working?

Why it matters: No first-draft sequence works. Real programmes hit a reply rate benchmark, identify what is underperforming, and iterate weekly for the first 90 days. Agencies without a formal iteration process ship the first sequence and hope.

Good answer: Weekly review of reply rates by touchpoint, monthly A/B testing on subject lines and opening lines, clear ownership of the change-log so you can trace which changes drove which lift.

Red flag: No documented iteration cadence, or over-reliance on "let us know if you want anything changed" that puts the strategic work back on you.

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Category 3: Infrastructure and Tooling (Q10-Q13)

Modern outbound runs on a stack. What that stack is, how it integrates with your CRM, and how the agency manages deliverability determines whether the programme scales or burns your sender reputation in 90 days.

Q10: Which tools do you use — sales engagement, data, dialer, deliverability?

Why it matters: The stack tells you the ceiling. An agency running on free tools and manual spreadsheets cannot scale past 30 accounts per rep. An agency running on Outreach or Salesloft plus Cognism or ZoomInfo plus Aircall plus MailReach is operating at the industry standard for 2026.

Good answer: Named tools across each category — sales engagement (Outreach, Salesloft, Reply, Instantly, Smartlead), contact data (Cognism, ZoomInfo, Apollo), dialer (Aircall, Kixie, Orum), deliverability monitoring (MailReach, Warmup Inbox), call recording (Gong, Chorus).

Red flag: "We use proprietary tools" (usually means bootstrapped scripts and Google Sheets) or refusal to name specific platforms.

Q11: How does your stack integrate with our CRM?

Why it matters: Data has to flow. Meetings booked must appear in your CRM as leads or opportunities with full engagement history. If the agency operates in a walled garden, you get a monthly PDF report and no forensic ability to diagnose what worked. When the engagement ends, you keep nothing.

Good answer: Native integration or documented API sync to Salesforce, HubSpot, or Pipedrive. All lead records, engagement history, meeting notes, and outcomes flow into your CRM in near-real-time.

Red flag: "We report separately and hand over data at engagement end". This means you cannot verify claims in real-time and you inherit a data migration project at contract end.

Q12: How do you handle domain and mailbox warming?

Why it matters: Cold email deliverability is the invisible make-or-break variable. Poor warm-up puts your emails in spam within 30 days. Real warm-up runs 4 to 6 weeks on dedicated sending domains, staggered volume ramps, and continuous monitoring of blacklist status. The HubSpot email deliverability research shows sender reputation degrades within days of aggressive send patterns without proper infrastructure.

Good answer: Dedicated sending domains (never your primary), SPF/DKIM/DMARC configured, 4 to 6 week warm-up before live sending, ongoing warm-up throughout campaign to maintain reputation, deliverability monitoring dashboard.

Red flag: Sending from your primary domain (destroys your reputation permanently), no dedicated warm-up period, or vague answers on DMARC configuration.

Q13: What data providers do you use, and how do you verify accuracy?

Why it matters: B2B contact data decays at 25 to 35% per year. Bad data means bounces, spam complaints, and burnt reputation. The best agencies use verified providers plus a secondary verification step before sends. The worst use scraped lists from LinkedIn or 5-year-old databases.

Good answer: Tier-one providers (Cognism, ZoomInfo, Apollo, Lusha) plus email verification (NeverBounce, ZeroBounce, Bouncer) before sends. Bounce rate maintained under 2%.

Red flag: Vague "we source from multiple providers" without naming them, or bounce rates above 5% treated as acceptable.

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Category 4: Reporting and Transparency (Q14-Q17)

Reporting is where good agencies distinguish themselves. The dashboards, the cadence, and the honesty of the narrative around the numbers separate operators from vendors selling activity theatre.

Q14: Show me a real weekly report from a current client

Why it matters: A live report tells you what the agency actually measures, how they present it, and whether the numbers make sense together. Templates and mockups are useless — insist on real output.

Good answer: Anonymised weekly report from a current client, showing activity (sends, calls, LinkedIn), engagement (opens, replies, positive replies), outcomes (meetings booked, meetings held, opportunities), and a narrative section on what worked and what did not.

Red flag: Only shown after signing, or a beautiful dashboard mockup that does not exist for any real client. If the agency cannot produce a real report, they do not produce real reports.

Q15: What KPIs will we track, and what are the numeric floors?

Why it matters: Vague KPIs are where agencies hide underperformance. Every contract should include numeric floors — activity per SDR per day, reply rate, meeting bookings per month, meeting show rate, opportunity conversion. Below-floor performance triggers a documented remediation process. Here are the benchmark ranges you should hold the agency to.

Good answer: Five to seven KPIs with numeric floors specified in the contract, weekly reporting cadence, monthly remediation review if any KPI falls below floor for two consecutive weeks.

Red flag: KPIs described qualitatively ("we drive strong pipeline"), no numeric floors, no remediation process.

Q16: Do we own all data at the end of the engagement?

Why it matters: When you leave, you should leave with everything — contact lists, sequence content, reply history, meeting notes, and CRM records. Agencies that hedge on data ownership are protecting a business model that assumes you cannot leave. This is a leverage question — get the answer in writing.

Good answer: Yes, full CSV or CRM-native export within seven days of termination, no additional fee, all engagement history included.

Red flag: Additional fees for data export, retention clauses on your own contact lists, or vague language about "proprietary methodology" that would preclude handover. For deeper commercial due diligence, our SDR agency contracts and guarantees breakdown walks through the specific clauses.

Q17: How do you handle call and email compliance under the Privacy Act and Spam Act?

Why it matters: Australia has stricter outbound rules than the US. The Privacy Act 1988 governs contact data. The Spam Act 2003 governs email consent and opt-out. Do-Not-Call Register rules apply to phone outreach. Agencies unfamiliar with the Australian regulatory context can expose you to fines and reputation damage.

Good answer: Documented compliance process — DNCR checks for phone outreach, one-click unsubscribe on all emails, suppression list management, GDPR-equivalent handling for EU contacts, and evidence of legal review.

Red flag: Blank stare on Privacy Act, no DNCR process, or off-shore providers unfamiliar with Australian regulation. The OAIC Privacy Act guidance is the reference — a competent Australian agency knows it.

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Category 5: Commercials and Risk (Q18-Q20)

The commercials section is where founders often stop asking hard questions because they want to move fast. Do not. This is where six-month engagements go wrong, and where a two-hour negotiation saves 60,000 AUD in wasted spend.

Q18: What is the minimum term and what are the exit terms?

Why it matters: SDR programmes need time to ramp — 3 to 4 months minimum before you can judge fairly. But a 12-month lock-in with no performance exit is a trap. The right structure is a 3 to 6 month minimum with a documented exit ramp after that.

Good answer: 3 to 6 month initial term to allow proper ramp, then month-to-month or 30-day notice thereafter. Documented exit process including handover and data export.

Red flag: 12-month or 24-month lock-in with no exit ramp, or "performance guarantees" that only kick in after the minimum term expires. If you want the full contract analysis, this is one of the questions we cover in depth in our detailed guide to how outsourced SDR pricing is structured in Australia.

Q19: What is included in the fee, and what is surcharged?

Why it matters: The headline monthly fee can be misleading. Some agencies quote 8,000 AUD monthly but surcharge 2,000 AUD for tools, 1,500 AUD for data seats, and 500 AUD per rep replacement. Real total cost lands at 12,000 AUD once the invoices arrive.

Good answer: Fully itemised inclusions — SDR time, campaign manager, tools, data seats, dialer minutes, deliverability infrastructure, domain warm-up, reporting, monthly strategy review. Surcharges only for genuinely optional add-ons (extra research briefs, event integrations).

Red flag: Low headline number with lots of "additional services available" or one-line quotes that do not specify inclusions. Force the itemisation in the RFP.

Q20: What is your meeting quality guarantee and dispute process?

Why it matters: Per-meeting pricing lives or dies on the definition of "qualified meeting". Retainer pricing still needs quality guardrails. The agency and buyer need a signed qualification framework — BANT, MEDDIC, or your own criteria — and a documented process for disputing meetings that do not meet it.

Good answer: Written qualification framework agreed before the engagement starts, weekly review of booked meetings against criteria, dispute process with a defined resolution path (replacement meeting or credit), no more than 15% of booked meetings disputed as a healthy programme benchmark.

Red flag: Meeting quality decisions made at agency's sole discretion, no dispute process, or blanket "all meetings are qualified" language. For a deeper walkthrough of qualification methodology, this qualification framework walkthrough covers what defensible qualification actually looks like in a modern B2B tech context.

Every UpliftSales engagement includes a signed qualification framework before the first campaign goes live. If you want to see the template, get in touch — we will send it over whether or not we end up working together.

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Red Flag Answers: Six Patterns That Mean Walk Away

Across the 20 questions, certain answer patterns predict engagement failure with high reliability. If you see two or more of these across the RFP, walk. Do not negotiate — walk.

1. Refusal to name any current or recent clients. Every legitimate agency has clients willing to be named under NDA or via reference calls. "We cannot share client information" is a business model built on secrecy for a reason.

2. Vague sequence descriptions with no real examples. If they cannot show anonymised real work, they do not have any. Templates and mockups do not count.

3. Tools and data providers withheld as "proprietary". Every agency uses combinations of Outreach, Salesloft, Cognism, ZoomInfo, Apollo, and standard dialers. Hiding the stack usually hides an inadequate one.

4. Weekly reports built after signing, not before. Real reports exist for real clients. If the agency's report template is pitched as "we will build one bespoke for you", they have never operated at scale.

5. Minimum terms over six months with no performance exit ramp. This is a contract structure designed to survive underperformance. Legitimate agencies win renewals on quality, not on lock-in.

6. Meeting quality disputes decided at agency's sole discretion. This puts every commercial disagreement in the vendor's favour. A defensible dispute process protects both sides.

Two examples I have personally seen recently. An Australian SaaS founder signed a 12-month deal with a UK-based agency after a single sales call, no RFP, on the strength of a slick deck. The agency assigned a 22-year-old rep from a Philippines subcontractor, sent from a domain with zero warm-up, and burned through the founder's ICP list in three weeks. Total cost of the failed engagement — 78,000 AUD plus 4 months of ICP damage that took another 6 months to recover from.

Second example — a Sydney fintech signed with an agency that refused to show real reports before signing. Three months in, the "weekly reports" were single-page PDFs with vanity metrics and no pipeline attribution. Meeting quality was self-graded by the agency at "80% qualified", but internal review found 12 of 40 meetings met the actual criteria. The contract had no dispute process. They stayed locked in for the remaining 9 months of a 12-month term because the exit fee exceeded the remaining spend.

Both engagements would have been caught by the 20 questions above. Neither buyer ran an RFP.

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Green Flag Answers: The Responses That Mean You Have a Real Operator

Now the reverse. When an agency answers the 20 questions the right way, certain patterns emerge that predict a successful engagement.

1. Specific names and CVs on Q1. They tell you the exact rep's name, share the LinkedIn profile, and offer a 30-minute intro call with that person before signing.

2. Three named comparable clients on Q2 with reference calls offered. Names, industries, ACVs. Willing to arrange reference calls with two of them within a week.

3. Sequence walkthrough with real numbers on Q5. They show you a live sequence they are running for a comparable client, with reply rates, meeting rates, and reasoning behind each touchpoint's position and copy.

4. Fully itemised tool stack on Q10. Named vendors, integration approach, monthly cost per client transparently disclosed.

5. Live weekly report from a current client on Q14. Real client (anonymised), real numbers, real narrative. If they can show you five weekly reports over five consecutive weeks, even better — you see the trend line.

6. Numeric KPI floors written into the draft contract on Q15. They come to the commercial conversation with a draft contract that already includes performance floors and remediation clauses.

7. Straightforward answer on Q16 — you own all data. No hedging, no additional fees, seven-day export commitment written in.

8. Signed qualification framework offered before contract on Q20. They send the qualification template ahead of contract negotiation and want your input.

When an agency answers 6 out of 8 green flags cleanly, you have a serious operator. When it is 3 or fewer, keep shopping. Our own best SDR agencies breakdown covers the operators in the Australian market who consistently deliver against this bar.

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How to Actually Run the SDR Agency RFP Process

A well-run RFP is not a document — it is a four-to-six-week process with clear milestones. Here is the timeline we would use if we were the buyer.

Week 1: Define ICP, offer, and evaluation rubric

Before you send anything, you need clarity on your ICP (persona, company profile, geography, buying trigger), your offer (what you sell, ACV range, sales cycle), and the evaluation rubric (how you will score responses). If your ICP is unclear, no agency can help — this persona clarifier tool is useful for sharpening it before you brief anyone.

Assemble the evaluation team. Ideally three people — the sales leader, the founder or CEO, and one operational stakeholder (RevOps, Head of Marketing). Agree on scoring weights across the five categories. My default is Team 25%, Methodology 25%, Infrastructure 15%, Reporting 20%, Commercials 15%.

Week 2: Shortlist five and send the RFP

Research 10 to 15 candidate agencies. Filter on geography (Australian-based or Australian-presence), industry fit (B2B tech), and reference credibility. Shortlist to five for the deep RFP. Send the 20-question document as a shared Google Doc or PDF with a two-week response window.

Include in the RFP brief: your ICP one-pager, your offer summary, your budget range, your desired start date, and the evaluation rubric. Do not hide the budget range — agencies who cannot meet it will self-eliminate and save everyone time.

Weeks 3-4: Written responses and demo calls

Score written responses independently, then debrief as a team. Shortlist to three finalists. Book 60-minute demo calls with each finalist, structured as:

• 10 minutes: agency walkthrough of their standard programme
• 20 minutes: live walkthrough of a real weekly report and real sequence
• 20 minutes: your questions on unclear RFP responses
• 10 minutes: commercials and next steps

Have the same three evaluators on every call. Score independently after each. This is where you also confirm — face to face — the name of the rep who will run your account.

Week 5: Reference calls and contract negotiation

Take two reference calls per finalist. Ask the reference three questions — what they hired the agency to do, what worked and what did not, and whether they would sign again. Pay attention to hesitations more than words.

Optional but valuable — find one reference the agency did not offer, via LinkedIn Sales Navigator searches on "worked with [agency name]". Unfiltered references reveal more than curated ones.

Negotiate contract terms in parallel. Focus on Q18, Q19, Q20 answers — minimum term, inclusions, meeting quality dispute process — and force these into contract clauses.

Week 6: Sign and start onboarding

Sign with your top choice. Kick off onboarding week the following Monday. A properly onboarded programme reaches steady-state performance by end of month three. If you want a benchmark of what the first 90 days should look like, the outsourced SDR first 90 days guide covers what to expect week by week.

Skipping any of these six weeks is where engagements fail. The founders I speak to who have had bad experiences with SDR agencies almost always compressed the process to a single week and a single call. Do not.

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Related: Contract Terms, Guarantees, and Commercial Structure

The 20 questions above sit alongside the specific contract clauses you should negotiate. If you want the companion piece on commercial structure — retainer versus per-meeting, meeting quality guarantees, minimum terms, and dispute resolution — our full outsourced SDR services guide covers the contract-level detail. Together, the RFP framework and the contract framework are what separate a professional buyer from an amateur one.

For the broader question of whether to hire an agency at all versus building in-house, the in-house SDR versus outsourced comparison walks through the full trade-offs — cost, control, speed, and long-term optionality. And if you want to plug your own numbers into a cost model, this cost model does the maths for you.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What questions should I ask an SDR agency before signing?

Ask 20 questions across five categories — team and experience (who runs your account, comparable clients, tenure, in-country reps), methodology and channels (sequence structure, phone/email/LinkedIn ratio, real anonymised examples), infrastructure and tooling (tools, CRM integration, warm-up, data providers), reporting and transparency (weekly cadence, KPIs, data ownership), and commercials and risk (minimum term, exit terms, inclusions, meeting quality process). Get every answer in writing before signing so you can reference commitments if the engagement disputes later.

How do I evaluate an SDR agency properly?

Run a formal three-vendor bake-off over four to six weeks. Send the same 20-question RFP to each provider, score answers against a weighted rubric with three evaluators, take two reference calls per finalist, and require a live walk-through of a real weekly report and a real sequence. Do not sign on the first sales call, do not skip references, and never accept case studies without permission to verify with the customer named.

What red flags should I watch for in an SDR agency RFP?

Six red flags mean walk away. Refusal to name comparable clients or offer references, vague sequence descriptions without real examples you can inspect, tools and data providers withheld as "proprietary", weekly reports built after signing rather than shown from real current clients, minimum terms over six months with no performance exit ramp, and meeting quality disputes handled at the agency's sole discretion. Any two of these together predict engagement failure.

How long should the SDR agency RFP process take?

Four to six weeks is the right window for a proper SDR agency RFP. Week one to define ICP and evaluation rubric, week two to shortlist five and send the RFP, weeks three to four for written responses and finalist demo calls, week five for reference calls and contract negotiation, week six to sign and start onboarding. Rushing the process is the single biggest predictor of an engagement that fails in the first 90 days.

How many SDR agencies should I invite to my RFP?

Invite three to five agencies to your formal RFP. Fewer than three means you have no comparison baseline. More than five stretches your evaluation team thin and dilutes scoring quality. Shortlist from a longer list of ten to fifteen you have researched briefly, then run the deep RFP process only with the three to five who look strongest on positioning, industry fit, and reference credibility.

What KPIs should be written into the SDR agency contract?

Every SDR agency contract should specify five KPIs with numeric floors — activity per SDR per day, reply rate percentage, meeting bookings per month, meeting show rate percentage, and opportunity conversion percentage from booked meeting. Include a signed definition of qualified meeting agreed in writing before the contract starts. Vague activity language is where disputes begin and where weaker agencies hide underperformance.

Who owns the data at the end of the engagement?

You should own all data at engagement end — contact lists, sequence content, reply history, meeting outcomes, and CRM records. Insist on a written clause guaranteeing full export in CSV or CRM-native format within seven days of termination, with no additional fee, and all engagement history included. Agencies that hedge on data ownership are protecting a business model that assumes clients cannot leave.

Should I ask for references from the SDR agency?

Yes, take at least two reference calls per finalist. Ask the reference three questions — what they hired the agency to do, what worked and what did not, and whether they would sign again knowing what they know now. Reference calls where the agency chose the customer are useful. Reference calls where you find the customer yourself via LinkedIn Sales Navigator are more useful. Do both if you can.

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Summary and Downloadable Checklist

The 20 SDR agency RFP questions in this post are the difference between a working outbound programme and 60,000 to 150,000 AUD wasted. A four-to-six-week formal RFP, three finalists, real reference calls, and contract clauses tied to specific RFP answers is what separates buyers who get value from agencies from buyers who get burned.

Copy this checklist into your evaluation doc, send it to three finalists, and score their responses independently across a team of three.

Category 1: Team and experience

1. Who will run my account daily — name, role, CV?
2. Show me three current clients with similar industry, ACV, geography.
3. What is the average tenure of your SDRs and campaign managers?
4. Are your SDRs in-country and native-language for my market?

Category 2: Methodology and channels

5. Walk me through your standard sequence structure for our persona.
6. What is your phone/email/LinkedIn ratio and why?
7. Show me an anonymised real sequence you shipped for a comparable client.
8. How do you handle personalisation at scale?
9. What is your process for iterating on messaging that is not working?

Category 3: Infrastructure and tooling

10. Which tools do you use — sales engagement, data, dialer, deliverability?
11. How does your stack integrate with our CRM?
12. How do you handle domain and mailbox warming?
13. What data providers do you use and how do you verify accuracy?

Category 4: Reporting and transparency

14. Show me a real weekly report from a current client.
15. What KPIs will we track and what are the numeric floors?
16. Do we own all data at the end of the engagement?
17. How do you handle compliance under the Privacy Act and Spam Act?

Category 5: Commercials and risk

18. What is the minimum term and what are the exit terms?
19. What is included in the fee and what is surcharged?
20. What is your meeting quality guarantee and dispute process?

If you want us to walk you through our own answers to these 20 questions as one of your three finalists, talk to the UpliftSales team and we will send our full RFP pack — including sample anonymised sequences, a live client weekly report template, and the qualification framework we sign into every engagement.

The Gartner sales technology research is clear that vendor evaluation discipline is the single largest driver of positive outcomes in outsourced revenue programmes. The 20 questions above are the specific application of that principle to the SDR agency category. Use them, and the odds of a successful engagement shift dramatically in your favour.