How to choose a B2B content partner in five steps

Sell in Public → B2B LinkedIn content agency → B2B ghostwriting → the right writer for each format

1. Decide what the writing has to do

"More content" isn't a brief. Write down the one or two jobs that matter most over the next six months, such as:

• Getting the founder known to a defined group of buyers before sales reaches out.
• Giving the sales team material that answers the objections they hear every week.
• Showing up in search for the questions buyers ask before they talk to anyone.
• Staying close to customers and prospects between buying cycles.
• Earning credibility in a trade publication your buyers trust.

Each job points to a format. The first two usually mean LinkedIn posts from your people, search means articles, staying close between cycles means a newsletter, and trade credibility means bylines. A partner that's excellent at one of these can be ordinary at another, so the job narrows your list before you've spoken to anyone.

2. Map the voices and the time they can give

List everyone who will publish or be quoted, and be honest about their calendars. A founder who can give a short weekly conversation suits a partner that interviews often and drafts quickly from fresh material. One who can only give an hour a month needs a partner comfortable with fewer, deeper sessions and plenty of work from recordings and notes. Note what material already exists: recorded sales calls, customer interviews, internal memos, webinar recordings, conference talks.

Bring the list to every first call and ask each partner how they'd work within it.

3. Test finalists on your own raw material

A portfolio shows what a writer did with another client's ideas, often after heavy editing you can't see. A sharper test is to give each finalist the same input, perhaps a 20-minute excerpt from a sales call or a customer story with names removed, and ask what they'd make from it and in which format.

Listen for:

• Whether they spot the idea a buyer would care about, rather than the one that flatters your product.
• The questions they'd want to ask your expert before drafting.
• How they'd spread one input across formats, say a post this week and an article next month.
• Whether they admit what they don't understand yet.

If you want to see a draft as well, pay for it. A short paid piece is fairer to the writer and tells you more than unpaid spec work.

4. Check who does the work and how approvals run

Ask exactly who will interview your people, who writes, who edits and who you call when something goes wrong. With an agency, ask whether the writers you meet during the sales process are the ones who'll work on your account.

Then agree the mechanics. Who approves each piece, how quickly, and what happens when legal or a co-founder wants changes? Several voices need a clear owner on your side or drafts stall in review. Ask how the partner treats sensitive material such as fundraising plans, hiring and unreleased product.

5. Agree how you'll judge it, and how you'd leave

Settle on success measures before the first piece goes out. Useful ones for B2B content:

• Whether the right people (buyers, partners, candidates) are engaging, more than how many.
• Whether sales sends the pieces to prospects and brings them up on calls.
• What new buyers say when you ask how they heard of you.
• Clicks on tracked links back to your site or demo page.

Be wary of anyone who promises a number of leads or followers. Nobody controls those, and chasing them tends to produce bland, bait-style writing. Finally, read the exit terms: the notice period, who keeps drafts and interview notes, and whether you can stop after the first term without a penalty.