I’m trying to think more carefully about how searchers should evaluate outsourced lead generation providers. There are more firms now offering cold email, LinkedIn outreach, cold calling, list building, and full outbound support. Some are run by former searchers, some by vendors in the ecosystem, and some by offshore or international teams. For people who have used these services, what actually separates a good provider from a weak one? A few things I’m wondering: 1. How much should prior search experience matter if the provider never actually closed a deal? 2. What should searchers ask for before committing: call recordings, email examples, meeting quality, CRM examples, industry focus, seller objection handling, references, or conversion benchmarks? 3. For cold email specifically, how do you evaluate whether the messaging is actually thoughtful versus generic spray-and-pray outreach? 4. Is low-cost outreach actually cheaper if it burns lists, damages domains, books poor meetings, or creates awkward seller interactions? Would be curious what others have seen work or not work. What would you diligence before hiring a lead gen provider?