You have a marketing problem and three plausible proposals: hire someone, appoint a consultant, or bring in an agency. Before comparing the proposals, write down the work that has to change.
A team that needs someone to configure a CRM workflow is making a different purchase from a business that needs daily marketing leadership. Both might call the brief “growth support”. The label leaves the important decisions open.
I work as an independent B2B marketing consultant and offer some of the support discussed here. Use these questions to assess my fit as well as other providers.
Define the work before choosing the model
Start with one concrete question. Are campaigns reaching unsuitable companies? Is an enquiry losing context before sales receives it? Does the team know what to prioritise next?
Then separate three responsibilities: deciding what to do, delivering the agreed work, and checking what happened. The same person can cover more than one. The proposal should say which responsibilities they are taking on and what they need from your team.
If the underlying problem is still unclear, a focused lead-generation review can help define it. A review should leave enough clarity to decide the next commitment.
Compare the options against the actual workload
| Option | Worth considering when | Establish before choosing |
|---|---|---|
| Independent consultant or specialist | You need experienced help with a defined decision, project or area of delivery. | Who implements the recommendations, available capacity, relevant experience and the handover. |
| Agency | The work needs several disciplines or a delivery team that your business cannot currently provide. | The people doing the work, their allocation, specialist coverage and how decisions reach them. |
| Internal marketing hire | The business needs sustained ownership and close day-to-day work with customers, product and sales. | The remit, authority, manager, budget and specialist support the person will have. |
These are starting conditions for a discussion. A consultant may implement; an agency may help set direction; an internal lead may still need external specialists. Read the proposed responsibilities rather than assuming the business model settles them.
Make a combined setup workable
A business can keep an internal marketing lead and use an agency or independent specialist for particular work. That arrangement still needs someone to resolve competing requests and approve changes.
I would agree who can change the offer, campaign, landing page, tracking and CRM workflow. Record which decisions can be delegated, which need company approval and how sales feedback will reach the people delivering the work.
Also agree access and handover: where accounts and source files live, who can use them, what gets documented and what the company receives when the engagement ends. A monthly report does not answer those questions.
Work through the situation you actually have
Your marketer has campaigns running, but the CRM handoff is unreliable
A defined workflow project may be enough. Follow a test enquiry, agree the receiving owner and check the exceptions. The handoff checklist and editable test record show the decisions to make. Replacing the whole marketing arrangement would need a wider reason.
You need regular decisions and coordination across the team
Write down the leadership work: priorities, budget decisions, collaboration with sales and responsibility for delivery. Then compare an internal hire with external leadership against the time, authority and availability the role needs. The title “fractional” does not establish any of those.
You need several campaigns and assets produced at the same time
Ask for a delivery plan with named capacity across the required disciplines. An agency may fit; a coordinated group of specialists may also fit. An individual’s proposal needs to be explicit about what they will deliver personally and where other people are required.
Give every proposal the same first decision
Imagine a B2B software company has six weeks to decide whether to renew its campaign budget. It has an internal marketer, limited developer time and no reliable record of which enquiries sales accepts. Ask each provider what decision they can help you make by the review date. Give them the same constraints and ask which work they would leave for later.
| Proposal | First piece of work to agree | What could change your choice |
|---|---|---|
| Independent consultant | Trace a sample of enquiries and agree one change to test with the internal marketer. | If the change needs development, establish who can deliver it before the review date. |
| Agency | Have named campaign and landing-page specialists inspect the same sample and deliver the agreed change. | Ask who can access sales feedback and whether the proposed team can start in time. |
| Internal hire | Define the ongoing responsibility for campaign decisions and sales feedback. | If the hire will start after the renewal decision, name the interim owner and agree what they can verify. |
These are illustrative proposals. At the review, ask for the observed issue, the change made or still blocked, and what the available evidence justifies. If few enquiries have had time to progress, review the confirmed fixes and agree when to judge the sales outcomes. You can then compare each proposal against the decision you actually need to make.
Ask for evidence you can evaluate
- A relevant example: what did this person or team actually own, for which business, and over what period?
- A usable output: can you inspect a decision record, workflow, campaign review or handover example? Establish whether it is client work or illustrative.
- A result with context: if a number is claimed, ask for the definition, starting point, window and contribution. Pipeline, enquiries and revenue are different measures.
- The working relationship: who will speak to your team, make the changes and handle an unresolved problem?
- The complete commitment: separate the fee from media spend, software, production and the work your own team must provide.
You can use the campaign review record to ask how a provider would turn an observation into an owned change and a later decision. An example helps you inspect their reasoning; it does not guarantee the result of your project.
Give each provider the same brief
Describe the decision, current setup, available evidence, internal owner, delivery expected and review point. Include access, dependencies and what is outside the initial scope. Comparable briefs make it easier to see whether proposals solve the same problem.
Download the blank marketing support brief (Markdown). It is an editable working document with no signup required. It contains no suggested prices, scores or completed client results.
Where my experience fits
My work has covered different parts of this choice. At KPI6, I led three marketers across acquisition, HubSpot and reporting. At Filo, acquisition and the CRM processes supporting sales sat within my remit. My independent HubSpot and Zoho projects show more defined implementation and training work.
I can discuss a focused review, an agreed delivery project or ongoing support alongside your team. If your requirement needs a larger production team or a permanent internal owner, make that part of the decision.
Explore the support I offer, or send the situation you need to resolve. If you are hiring internally, include the role’s priorities and the support available to the person joining.