Guides / Agency vs marketing hire
Lead-gen agency, marketing hire, or a growth system: which one?
By Jean-Michel Moreau, founder, Rapid Product Growth
Updated Nov 2026 · 7 min read
Short answer
Most $2M to $20M software firms don’t need a brand, so a marketing leader is rarely the answer. The deciding question is whether your team can close cold buyers without the founder. If not, you need a growth system. If yes, lead flow is the only gap, and a growth system or a lead-gen agency can fill it. With RPG, first held sales calls come in 14 to 30 days.
Agency vs marketing hire vs growth system
The three options differ less on tactics than on what you pay for, who fixes what, and who carries the risk.
All three can run ads. The difference shows up after the lead comes in: who fixes an offer cold buyers ignore, who fixes a call that doesn’t close, and who owns the machine a year from now.
| Criteria | Option ALead-gen agency | Option BHiring a marketing leader | Option CGrowth system (RPG) |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | Running a campaign, or a price per meeting | A salary, plus tools, budget and your time* | A revenue outcome |
| Fixes the offer | No. Runs the offer you have. | Only if they’re senior enough to push back. | Yes. Rebuilt in a workshop with you. |
| Fixes sales calls | No. The job ends at the meeting. | No. Not their job. | Yes. Ongoing sales training, plus an expert sales trainer reviewing every recorded call. |
| Follows up new leads | Sometimes. Often hands you a list. | Your team does, when it has time. | SDRs call every new lead within 5 minutes. |
| Who owns the system | The agency | The hire, until they leave | You. Built in your accounts, with your data. |
| Time to first calls | Depends on the list | After you hire, then after they ramp | First held calls in 14 to 30 days |
| Who carries the risk | You. They get paid per meeting, whether it closes or not. | You. The salary is paid either way. | Shared. Written guarantee, and part of the fee can move onto new deals. |
| Best when | Your team already closes cold buyers without the founder. Lead flow is the only gap. | You truly need a brand buyers recognize, and can fund it. | Cold buyers don’t close without the founder yet. It also covers lead flow. |
*Only 52% of senior marketing leaders can prove marketing’s value (Gartner, 2024).
When a lead-gen agency is the right choice
A lead-gen agency works when lead flow is the only gap: your team already closes cold buyers without the founder.
If buyers who have never heard of you say yes to your sellers, more meetings is the whole problem. A good agency on one channel can give you that. So can a growth system, because lead flow is part of what it does. Needing only leads is not a reason to pick one over the other.
The trouble starts when meetings are the easy part. An agency runs the offer you give it and stops at the calendar invite. If cold buyers don’t get what you sell, or the call goes nowhere without the founder, nobody there is paid to fix it.
- “We’ve worked with like with ones who ran like an ad campaign for us for three months and got nowhere.”
- “they connect us with 8 to 10 people. Out of them, only one of them is actually qualified for this.”
Founder, custom software firm. Partner, AI product studio.
When hiring a marketing leader is right
Hiring a marketing leader to build a brand is right only for the rare firm that truly needs one and can fund it.
Building a brand buyers recognize takes on the order of $50M in spend, by our estimate. A $2M to $20M software firm doesn’t need that to grow, and can’t fund it. Your buyers sign because a sales call shows them you can solve their problem, not because they know your logo. If you are the rare exception, hire a senior marketing leader and give them the budget.
For everyone else, founders underestimate the wait. You recruit, they ramp, then they hire and buy tools, and you pay the salary through all of it. And when they leave, much of what they built leaves with them.
What founders expect
- A senior hire fixes the pipeline in a quarter.
- They’ll rewrite the offer.
- Leads they bring in turn into sales calls.
What we see
- Months of hiring and ramp before the first campaign.
- The offer stays as it is unless they’re senior enough to push back.
- Leads that “rarely end up in booked appointments.”
“I have no confidence in our internal marketing, and I want to take their salaries and turn them over to somebody that I think has a strategy to actually change something”
When a growth system is right
A growth system is the right choice when your team can’t yet close cold buyers without the founder, which is where most $2M to $20M firms are.
Most firms at $2M to $20M grew on referrals. Referral deals close because buyers already trust the founder. Cold buyers have never heard of you, so that trust isn’t there. Getting them to sign takes four things, in this order:
- An offer rebuilt for buyers who have never heard of you.
- Meta or LinkedIn ads, with an application that filters on role, revenue and deal size.
- SDRs who call every new lead within 5 minutes.
- Ongoing sales training, and an expert sales trainer who reviews every recorded sales call and gives feedback before the next one.
We build all of it in your accounts, so you own the system and the data. You take the sales calls. The target is $1M to $3M in net new revenue in 12 months, for firms selling deals of $35k or more. See how it works, call by call.
How to choose: agency, hire or growth system
Two questions tell you whether to hire a marketing leader, a lead-gen agency or put in a growth system.
- Do you need a brand buyers recognize, and can you fund the order of $50M it takes to build one? Yes is rare. Then hire a marketing leader with a brand budget. Most $2M to $20M firms answer no, so go to question 2.
- Can your team close cold traffic without the founder? If no, you need a growth system: offer, lead flow, SDRs and ongoing sales training. If yes, lead flow is the only gap. A growth system covers it, and a lead-gen agency can too.
Fig. 1 shows the same questions as a decision tree.
14 to 30 days
To first held sales call
With RPG. The first booked call comes in about a week.
$620
Median ad spend per booked sales call
Typically $500 to $910, in the dev-shop and software funnels we run (including our own).
2 in 3
Booked calls that happen
Show rate 64% at the median.
52%
Of senior marketing leaders can prove marketing’s value
Gartner, 2024.
Common questions
What is the best lead gen agency for software companies?
It depends on whether your team closes cold buyers without the founder. If it does, lead flow is the only gap: an agency with proof on your channel can fill it, and so can a growth system. If it doesn’t, any lead-gen agency will hand you meetings that go nowhere. Then you need a growth system that fixes the offer and the sales calls too.
Should I hire a CMO at $2M to $20M in revenue?
Rarely. A CMO is the right hire if you truly need a brand buyers recognize and can fund it, which takes on the order of $50M in spend, by our estimate. A $2M to $20M firm doesn’t need that to grow. The real gap is usually closing cold buyers without the founder. Fix that first.
Isn’t a growth system just another agency?
We’re an agency too, and lead flow is part of what we do. The difference is scope. A lead-gen agency stops at the meeting. We also rebuild the offer, call every new lead within 5 minutes, and provide ongoing sales training with reviews of every recorded call. It’s all built in your accounts, so you keep it. And the risk is shared: a written guarantee, and part of the fee can move onto new deals.
How fast does each option get me sales calls?
An agency can start in weeks if it already has a list or a channel that works for you. A marketing hire takes the longest, because you recruit first and they ramp second. With RPG, first held sales calls come in 14 to 30 days. In the dev-shop and software funnels we run (including our own), the first booked call comes in about a week (all within two weeks).
Sources and method
- RPG funnel data: dev shops and custom software firms we run funnels for, plus our own funnel. Dec 2025 to Oct 2026. Medians and middle 50%. One value per funnel, then the median and middle 50% across funnels.
- Gartner, “Only 52% of senior marketing leaders can prove marketing’s value,” press release, Sept 2024.
- Quotes: RPG discovery calls, Oct to Nov 2026. Anonymized, labeled by role and firm type.