How to choose a B2B lead generation agency in Belgium
What to ask, which types of partner exist and what drives the price. An honest buyer's guide for Belgian B2B companies, including when we are not the right choice ourselves.
If you are looking for a lead generation agency, you will quickly see ten websites that all promise more leads. The difference between those promises is small. The difference in what you are left with after six months is large.
This guide helps you choose, even if you end up not choosing us.
Short answer: Choose a lead generation agency on four points. Does it start from your real bottleneck? Do you own your data and tracking? Is success measured all the way to pipeline? Are price, scope and handover clear? Then look at which type of partner fits your situation: an inbound agency, a performance agency, a growth partner or an in-house hire.
Which types of partner exist?
There is no single right type of agency. What fits depends on where your growth gets stuck. The table below is a general classification, and in practice the lines blur.
| Type of partner | Usually strong in | Fits when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inbound or content agency | Content, SEO and email nurturing over the long term | You want to build a steady stream of organic traffic | Results come slowly and alignment with sales is often limited |
| Performance or advertising agency | Paid channels such as LinkedIn, Google and Meta, and fast tests | Your proposition and funnel already work and you want to scale | Optimises channels, not your funnel or CRM |
| Growth partner | Diagnosis, experiments and the whole path from lead to deal, with marketing and sales together | You do not know where the bottleneck is, or marketing and sales do not line up | Needs your involvement and access to your data, and is less suited to pure execution work |
| In-house marketer or team | Knowledge of your business and daily availability | You have continuous work and can hire | One profile rarely covers strategy, data and execution at once |
| Freelancers and marketplaces | Fast, well-defined tasks | You have a clear, small assignment | The overview of the whole and the coordination stay with you |
Four criteria for comparing agencies
1. Does it start from your bottleneck or from a channel?
An agency that immediately proposes a channel plan optimises what it sells. A good agency starts by asking where your growth gets stuck: too little demand, too little conversion or too little scale. Ask how they work that out before you talk about budget.
At Stretch, every engagement starts with the Commercial Maturity Journey, a five-stage diagnostic that points to the one bottleneck holding your growth back. Each stage maps to one of our four Growth Trajectories.
2. Who owns your data and tracking?
Your CRM, your advertising accounts and your tracking should be in your name, not the agency’s. Ask up front who has access, who manages the dashboards and what happens to the data if the collaboration ends.
3. How far does the measurement reach?
The number of leads is an easy figure, and it can look good while sales does nothing with them. Agree with sales beforehand what a good lead is, and have the agency report through meetings, opportunities and pipeline, not just to the form.
4. Are price, scope and handover clear?
You want to know what is in the price, what is not, what happens when the scope grows and what stays with you after the engagement: playbooks, tests, knowledge. An agency that keeps this vague makes you dependent over time.
What does a lead generation agency cost?
An honest answer starts with: it depends, and an agency that names a number without asking questions does not know your situation yet. What you can compare is the pricing models and what drives the price.
| Pricing model | How it works | Fits | Pitfall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly rate | You pay per hour worked | Small, well-defined assignments | The agency has no incentive to be fast |
| Monthly retainer | Fixed amount per month for an agreed amount of work | Ongoing work | It often becomes a subscription without a clear result |
| Fixed price per project | A known amount for a defined outcome | A diagnosis, a build or a start | The scope has to be sharp |
| Results-based | Part of the fee depends on an outcome | Situations with measurable, attributable outcomes | The agency picks what is measurable, and you must be able to trust the measurement |
What drives the price: the scope, the number of channels, how much the agency does itself versus together with your team, the duration and how much support is needed on CRM and tracking.
What is often outside the price: the media budget for ads, tools and licences, and extra creative work such as video or photography. Always ask about it.
At Stretch, the Growth Audit is a fixed price that you know up front. We do not publish amounts on our website, because scope, channels and the degree to which we work with your team differ per company. In an intro call we discuss what fits your situation and what that means for the price.
Seven questions you can ask any agency
- How do you determine where my growth gets stuck, before you propose a plan?
- Who owns the accounts, the data and the tracking, during and after the engagement?
- How do you measure success, and how far down the funnel?
- How do you work with our salespeople?
- What is in the price, and what is not?
- What happens when something does not work? How do you handle it?
- Can I talk to a client who was in a similar situation?
When we are not the right choice
This belongs in an honest guide.
- You are looking for execution of one channel and your funnel, CRM and proposition already work. A specialised performance agency is then usually faster and cheaper.
- You want a fixed number of leads at a fixed price per lead, without giving access to your CRM and sales data. Then we cannot measure what works.
- You do not have a sales process yet, or nobody to follow up on leads. More leads will not solve your problem. Process first, then volume.
Where to compare agencies
Besides the agencies’ own websites, you can use comparison platforms such as Sortlist, and above all conversations with existing clients. Look for real cases with figures at every agency. Ours are on our cases page.
Where to start
Write down in one sentence where your growth gets stuck right now. If that is hard, the bottleneck quiz helps you name the bottleneck. If you want to know where it really stalls before you spend money on execution, look at the Growth Audit.