How Should Enterprise Technology Companies Evaluate a Public Relations Agency?
Jason Ouellette, Partner at Escalate PR, shares his insights on how enterprise technology companies should evaluate a PR agency.
Choosing a public relations agency is a consequential decision for an enterprise technology company. The right partner can clarify a complex market position, uncover stories, strengthen executive credibility, and support growth. The wrong partner can produce months of activity without meaningful business value.
Most pitches look polished. Agencies arrive with recognizable logos, case studies, major coverage, and senior leaders who appear ready to join the marketing team. Those signals do not answer the most important question: What will it be like to work with this agency after the contract is signed?
Enterprise technology companies need to look beyond the pitch and evaluate the people, thinking, operating model, and level of strategic initiative they will receive day to day.
Look past logos and past coverage
A strong client list can show that an agency has worked in relevant markets. Past coverage can demonstrate an understanding of the media landscape. Case studies can reveal how the agency frames challenges and reports results. None of these proves that the same people, approach, or conditions will apply to a new account.
Coverage secured for another company belongs to a specific moment, story, spokesperson, and competitive environment. A recognizable logo may represent work completed by a different team. A case study presents the cleanest version of a program, not the routine collaboration that shaped it.
Treat these materials as the beginning of the evaluation. Ask what role the proposed team played and whether the work involved similar sales cycles, technical complexity, buyers, or market maturity. Confirm that the people discussing it will be involved in your program.
Large, well-known agencies may feel safest. But PR is a people business. The agency name matters less than the quality, judgment, curiosity, and availability of the individuals doing the work.
Find out who will actually run the account
One of the most common problems in agency selection is the gap between the pitch team and the delivery team. Senior executives lead the presentation, demonstrate category fluency, and promise peer-level counsel. Once the work begins, the client discovers that most writing, pitching, research, and program management will be handled by people they barely met.
Not every task requires the most senior person. Effective teams use different experience levels appropriately. The client should still know who owns each part of the program and where senior judgment will show up.
Ask the agency to identify:
- Who will lead the account and serve as the primary adviser
- Who will write contributed articles, executive content, messaging, and media materials
- Who will pitch reporters and maintain media relationships
- Who will identify market trends and develop proactive story ideas
- Who will prepare executives for interviews and difficult questions
- Who will manage deadlines, reporting, approvals, and day-to-day communication
- How often senior leaders will participate after the pitch
- What happens if a key team member leaves or becomes unavailable
Titles are not enough. A senior person on one monthly call may have less impact than an experienced lead engaged every week. Ask about time allocation, responsibilities, and decision-making authority.
Meet the proposed team before making a decision
After initial pitches, narrow the search and request individual conversations with proposed team members. These are not tests of “Which reporters do you know?” Media relationships matter, but a contact list is not a strategy.
Use the conversations to understand how each person thinks and works. Give them a real market challenge and ask how they would begin. Discuss a complicated product, a skeptical buyer, a competitor gaining attention, or an internal expert who struggles in interviews. Listen for thoughtful questions, intellectual curiosity, and a willingness to challenge assumptions.
You are also assessing working chemistry. PR requires communication, judgment, constructive disagreement, and trust. Consider whether the team explains complex ideas clearly, admits what it does not know, and engages confidently with experts. Would you want these people beside you during a difficult announcement or a quiet quarter?
Ask questions that reveal the operating model
The best questions move beyond capabilities and expose how the relationship will function. Enterprise technology companies should ask:
Who will do the work we are reviewing today?
Request names, roles, responsibilities, and expected involvement. Ask which proposed team members contributed to the pitch and who would lead the first 90 days.
How will you learn our technology, customers, and market?
Look for a structured approach that includes access to executives, product leaders, sales teams, customer insights, competitive information, and existing research. An agency cannot develop useful narratives from occasional marketing updates alone.
How do you generate proactive ideas when we do not have news?
The answer should go beyond a generic content calendar. Strong agencies monitor policy, funding, competitor activity, customer priorities, technical developments, and cultural conversations to identify timely angles linked to the company’s goals.
How do you decide when to challenge a client?
A strategic partner should be able to explain how it handles weak announcements, unsupported claims, unrealistic media expectations, or positioning that does not match the market. Constant agreement may feel comfortable during a pitch, but it is not always valuable counsel.
How will you measure progress?
Coverage volume is only one signal. Discuss message pull-through, target-audience relevance, quality of opportunities, executive visibility, share of conversation, content use, sales enablement, stakeholder response, and progress toward agreed business objectives. The measures should reflect what the program is designed to achieve.
What do you need from us to succeed?
A credible agency will ask for access, information, responsive approvals, executive participation, customer evidence, and honest feedback. Be cautious if a prospective partner promises major results without identifying any client-side requirements.
Distinguish strategic partnership from tactical execution
Many agencies can execute a press release, pitch an announcement, produce a contributed article, or create a monthly report. Those capabilities matter, but they do not automatically make an agency a strategic partner.
A tactical agency waits for news or an assignment, completes the task, and reports the output. A strategic agency understands the business goals, asks for the information it needs, and brings forward ideas the client has not requested.
That might mean identifying a market shift, sharpening a position against a competitor, turning customer objections into executive content, or helping a prospect understand the cost of inaction. It may also mean delaying an announcement or changing a message that will not withstand scrutiny.
The difference is initiative. A true partner does not simply ask, “What do you want us to promote?” The team asks, “What is the business trying to achieve, what is preventing that outcome, and how can communications help?”
Look for evidence of that behavior during the selection process. Does the agency bring fresh observations about the market, or repeat information from the brief? Does it connect communications recommendations to revenue, reputation, recruitment, customer trust, category position, or investor confidence? Does it ask for access to the people and information required to improve its thinking?
Watch for warning signs
No pitch process can eliminate risk, but several signals deserve closer examination:
- The agency cannot confirm the day-to-day team before contracting
- Senior pitch leaders describe their involvement vaguely
- Recommendations could apply to almost any technology company
- The proposed program depends almost entirely on press releases and product news
- The agency guarantees coverage or focuses heavily on personal media contacts
- Measurement centers on activity without connecting it to audiences or goals
- The team asks few questions about customers, competitors, sales, or business priorities
- Pricing is clear, but staffing levels and time allocation are not
One warning sign does not automatically disqualify an agency. It should prompt a direct conversation. The quality and transparency of the response can itself reveal what the future relationship may be like.
Use a consistent evaluation framework
Personal chemistry matters, but it should not become the only deciding factor. Before final presentations, agree on a short scorecard and have the relevant stakeholders assess every finalist against the same criteria.
Useful categories include team quality and continuity, enterprise technology experience, strategic thinking, writing and media capabilities, understanding of the buyer and market, measurement approach, operating fit, senior involvement, and commercial value. Weight the criteria according to the program’s actual needs.
Include the people who will work with the agency most often, not only the budget holder. Procurement may focus on terms, marketing on strategy, and product teams on technical fluency. Combining those perspectives leads to a more durable decision.
Choose the team, not just the pitch
An enterprise technology PR agency should bring more than polished credentials and reliable execution. It should provide people you trust, thinking that advances the business, and ideas that create momentum even when the company does not have an obvious announcement.
Escalate PR helps enterprise technology companies turn complex products, market insight, and business priorities into communications programs that earn attention and support growth. If you are looking for a senior, proactive partner that connects PR strategy to the wider business, contact our team to discuss what the right agency relationship should look like.
FAQs
Should we choose an agency with experience in our exact category?
Category knowledge can shorten the learning curve, but should not outweigh team quality, strategic ability, and curiosity. Consider comparable buyers, sales cycles, technical products, media experience, and competitor conflicts.
Is a larger agency always a safer choice?
No. A larger agency may offer broader resources, geographic reach, or specialist services. A smaller agency may provide greater senior involvement and continuity. Evaluate the team and delivery model you will actually receive rather than choosing on agency size alone.
How much senior involvement should we expect?
There is no universal percentage. Senior advisers should participate at the moments where experience changes the outcome, including positioning, major announcements, executive counsel, sensitive issues, and program reviews. Ask the agency to define that involvement before contracting.
Should we ask agencies which journalists they know?
You can discuss media experience, but do not make a contact list the central test. Relevant ideas, credible evidence, strong writing, and an understanding of a reporter’s audience matter more than claiming a relationship.
What should a successful first 90 days include?
The opening period should establish access, objectives, audiences, messages, ways of working, measurement, and a program roadmap. It should create early opportunities without sacrificing long-term research.