Re-Monetize Your Agency: From Services to Solutions

Day 1: Wednesday, March 13, 11–12:30 p.m. ET
Day 2: Thursday, March 14, 11–12:30 p.m. ET

Why do agencies sell individual services or billable hours instead of complete solutions? AI will increasingly reveal how flawed this model is. But when we price the building instead of the bricks, our clients are more likely to fully appreciate the value being delivered. In this new two-part workshop series, industry consultants Tim Williams and Caroline Johnson show how the agency business can break through its broken belief system and start down the road to a completely new revenue model. Their roadmap includes:

• Package as Solution Sets: Shift from offering generic services to solution sets, presenting agency competencies as programs and products.
• Price the Program, Not the Person: Focus on pricing deliverables (outputs) rather than defending hourly rates (inputs), leading to uncommon pricing for uncommon offerings.
• Create Program Roadmaps: Develop roadmaps for each program, helping project managers with resource allocation and workflow management.
• Advantages of Product-Based Model: Learn the multitude of benefits ranging from increasing revenue without enlarging staff to differentiating the firm’s offerings from competitors.
• Client Benefits: Programs reduce time and expense in integrating services and dealing with multiple providers.

Part 1 (Tim Williams): Breaks down current beliefs about agency compensation, includes examples from renowned agencies and highlights the urgency for agencies to move away from time-based billing in the AI era.

Part 2 (Caroline Johnson): Demonstrates how a productized model aids client understanding and engagement, offering unique “doorways” to solutions instead of standard communication services.

Register now → 

About the Speakers

Tim WilliamsFounding Partner, Ignition Consulting Group

Tim Williams is one of the leading voices for transformative pricing and business strategies for agencies and other professional service firms. Tim’s workshops have been seen by business audiences on every continent, and his books and articles have helped inform the strategies and business models of hundreds of firms across the globe. Based on his expertise in this area, Tim has written for numerous advertising and marketing publications, including Advertising Age, AdWeek, Campaign, AdMap and Communication Arts, and has been interviewed by organizations like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Guardian, Axios and National Public Radio.  As a career marketing professional, Tim serves as one of LinkedIn’s global influencers, writes the blog Propulsion, and has authored two popular books on business and pricing strategy for professional service firms.

Caroline JohnsonCo-Founder, The Business Model Company

Caroline Johnson brings more than 25 years’ management consulting experience to the marketing services sector. Her career originally started in advertising at Grey before taking partner roles in leading management consulting firms. In 2000, Caroline joined Results International, a leading global corporate advisory firm, as a partner to head up its strategic consulting practice. Caroline founded The Clear Partnership in 2010 to specialize in business model transformation for the global marketing services industry. Today, as a co-founder of The Business Model Company, Caroline leads teams that continue to develop world-leading IP and proven program methodology, advising network agencies and leading independents within the UK and US, creating compelling case studies for future-fit and commercially transformed agency models. In 2022/23, Caroline led a transformation program for the IPG-owned network agency, Huge. Working in partnership with the global CEO, Mat Baxter, to transform the business model from services to programs and products. The full case study has been written up in Michael Farmer’s recent book, Madison Avenue Makeover.