Ask whether the agency uses a relevant executive community, personal relationships, targeted outreach or rented lists. Each can produce different results. Require a guest specification covering target accounts, roles, seniority, competitors and exclusions.
Include agency fees, venue spend, internal coordination and follow-up. Divide the recruitment spend by suitable guests who actually attend, not registrations. Then inspect whether those conversations support new opportunities, active deals or another clearly stated objective.
An agency's operational expertise can be valuable even where your own team has warm connections. A hybrid can use internal introductions for some guests and agency recruitment for gaps.
Request examples of comparable audiences and formats, how attendance is confirmed and what happens when guests cancel. Read replacement and refund terms; a seat guarantee is not a pipeline guarantee.
Orbb's Events Agent is an alternative for relationship-led invitation execution. Compare its scope and required participation with the agency's proposal. Choose based on who can reach the right guests and reliably complete the work, rather than assuming one delivery model is always superior.