What should you ask in an executive PR agency pitch?

Ask every agency the same core questions about the objective, executive participation, proposed work, opportunity selection, delivery team, governance, risk, measurement, price, and exit. Require named owners, stated assumptions, examples, and written commercial answers. Score the agency on its reasoning and operating evidence after the meeting.

Ask for decisions, assumptions, and reasons to stop

Which stakeholder decision are you trying to affect, and why should this executive lead?
What would you need to learn before confirming the strategy?
Which subjects can the executive credibly own, and what evidence supports them?
Which requested channels would you exclude or defer?
Which assumptions could materially change the scope, price, or timeline?
What would make you recommend no program, a project, or an internal hire?

Require the agency to connect planned activity and outputs to a defined audience response, outcome, or organizational impact. AMEC's Integrated Evaluation Framework defines those as separate stages. An agency should also identify uncertainty and work that should wait for better evidence or readiness.

Require the proposed delivery team to explain the workflow

Who will advise the executive, conduct interviews, write, pitch, publish, monitor, and report?
How much of each named person's time is included?
What executive and company time do you require each month?
How do routine and urgent approvals work?
What happens during staff absence, turnover, or a crisis?
Which subcontractors, tools, and AI systems may handle our information?
Where do source files, recordings, drafts, credentials, and approvals live?

Include the executive, payer, and program manager in a working session with the proposed team. Ask the agency to state who performs the daily work, who covers an absence, how many accounts those people carry, and when a senior adviser becomes involved.

Separate editorial selection, paid access, and controlled publishing

Which opportunities are independently selected, paid, sponsored, membership-based, or client-controlled?
What fees, travel, memberships, production costs, or media spend sit outside the proposal?
What does your existing relationship with a publication or organizer actually change?
Which deliverables can you commit to, and which results depend on third parties?
How will you disclose material connections and correct errors?

Use earned, paid, sponsored, or controlled to normalize the answers. Reject guarantees of favorable independent coverage or undisclosed placement.

Make decision rights and risk ownership explicit

Who owns the objective, budget, company claims, personal opinions, and final approval?
Who owns and administers accounts, archives, source material, recordings, and audience data?
Which subjects require legal, compliance, employment, privacy, or security review?
Who can pause scheduled content or revoke provider access?
How do you handle competing clients and new conflicts?
How do you protect and later return or delete confidential material and contact data?
Describe a correction, disagreement, or relationship ending you handled well.

The executive owns attributed judgment, personal boundaries, and participation decisions. The company owns official facts, required reviews, and company-controlled assets. The payer approves scope and budget. The program manager coordinates the work and escalation without acquiring authority over an executive's identity or personal accounts.

The PRSA Code of Ethics calls for accuracy, sponsor and conflict disclosure, and protection of confidential and private information. Apply those tests whether or not the agency belongs to PRSA.

Compare measurement and commercial terms in writing

Ask for:

fees, included capacity, minimum term, expenses, and change rates;
executive and program-manager hours assumed by the plan;
baselines, targets, data sources, attribution limits, and a sample report;
cancellation, refund, credit, pause, and renewal terms;
ownership, licenses, portfolio rights, data export, deletion, and transition help; and
the scope change if budget or executive time falls materially.

Have the payer score commercial fit, the executive score working fit and personal exposure, and the program manager score operating feasibility. Reconcile those assessments with the same provider scorecard and document any condition that must be resolved before contracting.