You run a B2B services firm in Birmingham: a management consultancy, an HR or recruitment practice, a managed IT provider. Your clients are managing directors, HR directors and operations leads, around Colmore Row, in the Jewellery Quarter or at manufacturers and logistics firms across the West Midlands. You know these buyers now research suppliers online, and increasingly through AI assistants, before they invite anyone to pitch. An agency has put a 12-month visibility contract in front of you. Before signing, you want to know exactly what you are buying.
A one-year commitment is not unusual: visibility builds over time. But it has to rest on clear answers. Here are the questions to ask, and the answers that should reassure or worry you.
Why does this matter more for a B2B firm than for a shop or a restaurant? Because each client is worth a great deal and the sales cycle is long. A consultancy that wins one retained client, or an IT provider that signs one multi-year support contract, can change its year. Equally, twelve months paid to the wrong agency is twelve months in which competitors were shortlisted and you were not. The questions below are designed to separate the two before any money changes hands.
Questions about the outcome
1. What exactly do you commit to deliver?
Reassuring: a precise description of what the plan includes, a schedule, and what happens if it is not live on time.
Worrying: "we'll boost your presence" or "we take care of everything". If you cannot summarise the deliverable in one sentence after the meeting, there is no real contract.
2. Can you promise us the top position on Google?
Reassuring: "No. Nobody controls what Google or AI assistants decide. We commit to what we control: publication and measurement."
Worrying: a confident yes, or a numerical result promised by a fixed date. It is either naive or a sales line that will not be honoured.
3. What kind of enquiries will you help us receive?
Reassuring: the provider talks about your real buyers: an HR director looking for help with a senior hire, a manufacturer wanting to outsource payroll, a firm looking for a partner to run its IT.
Worrying: they only talk about followers, traffic or "brand awareness" and never connect their work to client enquiries.
Questions about measurement
4. How will I know what you are doing each week?
Reassuring: a dated report at regular intervals, saying what was delivered and where.
Worrying: a vague monthly summary, or "you'll see the results".
5. Who will own the data and accounts?
Reassuring: "You will. Results are tracked in your own Search Console, and everything we produce belongs to you."
Worrying: accounts set up in the agency's name, logins they keep. If you part ways, you start from scratch.
6. When do we get a first measured review?
Reassuring: a scheduled review, for instance at three months, with figures you can check yourself.
Worrying: "you need to wait a year to judge". A 12-month commitment does not prevent you from measuring the trajectory along the way. Our guide on why a 12-month commitment makes sense explains when the length is justified and which safeguards should come with it.
Questions about competition and the contract
7. How many firms like ours do you work with in Birmingham?
Reassuring: a clear cap, and the option to reserve the sector if it is still empty.
Worrying: "we work with everyone". B2B services in Birmingham are competitive; if your agency is also representing three rival HR consultancies, your interests come second.
8. What happens if you do not keep your commitments?
Reassuring: a written, simple, automatic consequence, such as a free month.
Worrying: no answer, or a termination clause that only works in their favour.
For a fuller list of contract points, read our guide on the questions to ask before signing a visibility contract, and the one on choosing a visibility partner as a B2B services firm.
Traffic Engine's answers to those eight questions
Traffic Engine is Kolonell's service for making your firm show up when a decision-maker searches for a consultancy, an HR partner or an IT provider in Birmingham, on Google and in AI assistant answers. Here are its answers, plainly.
- Deliverable and guarantee: what your plan includes goes live on schedule, or the next month is free.
- Position: Kolonell guarantees publication and measurement, not what Google or an AI assistant decides.
- Measurement: a dated report every week, results in your own Search Console, a measured review at three months.
- Proof: the approach was first applied to Kolonell's own website, whose curves are published on the offer page.
- Competition: 3 standard seats per sector and area; exclusivity is available while the sector is empty.
- Price: Visibility Audit at £590, credited against the £1,300 setup if you start within 30 days, then Presence at £940, Momentum at £1,600 or Flood at £3,000 a month, over 12 months.
See the offer and check whether a B2B services seat is open in Birmingham.
Before the meeting
Print these eight questions and ask them as written, to every provider you meet, Kolonell included. Write the answers down and compare them side by side afterwards, the way you would score responses to your own tender. The one who answers all of them clearly deserves your signature; the one who dodges has already answered. To arrive with an objective benchmark, check your site first with the free website score.