The independent agency model has a structural flaw that most owners don’t spot until it starts costing them. You build a team, develop genuine expertise, and then sell it by the hour to clients who can replace you the moment someone cheaper comes along. That’s not a scalable business. That’s a dependency dressed up as a commercial offer.
This post covers why the service-for-hire model is becoming increasingly fragile, the case for productised services that I made in my book over five years ago and still stand behind completely, what two recent conversations with people connected to large-cap global businesses revealed about enterprise procurement policy, and why the pattern those conversations surfaced matters to your agency – whether you work with businesses at that scale or not.
The Problem With Selling Services by the Hour
Most agencies sell time. They package it as retainers or project fees, but the underlying unit is hours. The client buys access to your team’s capacity, and the relationship is priced accordingly. The problem with this isn’t just that it’s hard to scale – though it is. The deeper issue is that it’s increasingly difficult to sell.
When you pitch services, you’re asking a buyer to trust that your people, your process, and your judgement will deliver something valuable. That’s a high-friction sale. The buyer has to evaluate your team, your track record, your methodology, and your cultural fit before committing. Then they have to actively manage the relationship to make sure the hours translate into actual outcomes. Productised services flip that dynamic. Instead of selling capacity, you sell an outcome. A defined scope, a clear deliverable, a fixed price. The buyer knows exactly what they’re getting before they sign anything. That’s a lower-friction sale – and a materially different commercial model. The other issue with the pure service model is commoditisation. As AI compresses the value of raw execution and junior talent becomes cheaper to access globally, hourly rates come under pressure. The agencies that are exposed are the ones whose value proposition is “we do the work.” The ones that are resilient are the ones whose value proposition is “we solve this specific problem, at this price, and it looks like this when we’re done.” That’s productisation – and it’s not a new idea for me.
“A productised service is easier to buy than a bespoke one – it removes the friction of scoping, the ambiguity of outcomes, and the negotiation over hours.”
Why I've Believed in Productised Services for Over Five Years
I wrote about productised services in Chapter 8 of STANDOUT or Die, published more than five years ago. The argument was straightforward: agencies that package their expertise into defined offers make themselves easier to buy, easier to price, and easier to deliver consistently. The buyer gets clarity. The agency gets efficiency.
I’ve worked with a lot of agencies since then. Nothing I’ve seen has changed my view. If anything, the case has become more compelling. The market is more competitive, AI has accelerated, and clients are more demanding about understanding exactly what they’re buying and why. The agencies I work with that have built productised offers consistently report shorter sales cycles, fewer pricing objections, and a cleaner commercial conversation from the outset. The resistance I still hear from agency owners is usually one of two things. First: “Our work is too bespoke to productise.” This is almost never true. Every agency has work it repeats across clients – the same strategic approach, the same methodology, the same sequence of activities. That’s a product waiting to be defined. Second: “We’ll lose the flexibility to serve clients the way they need.” This misses the point entirely. Productised services don’t replace bespoke engagements. They sit alongside them and anchor the commercial model in something that’s easy to understand and easy to say yes to. The agencies still debating whether to productise are, in my view, already behind the curve.
What Two Enterprise Conversations Just Revealed
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve had two separate conversations – both with people connected to large-cap global businesses with valuations north of $100 billion. I’m not naming them; confidentiality prevents that. But what emerged from both conversations, independently, is significant enough to share.
Both revealed the same thing: their procurement departments have introduced a blanket policy prohibiting internal teams from engaging independent agencies for services. Not a soft preference. An explicit rule. Services – defined as the supply of agency expertise on an hourly or retainer basis – are to be provided by large retained network businesses only. The independent agency, under this model, is locked out. The rationale sits around risk management, compliance frameworks, and preferred supplier arrangements. These businesses want to consolidate supplier relationships and manage their exposure. A small independent agency on an hourly rate doesn’t fit that model. Here’s where it gets interesting. Both conversations independently surfaced the same qualification: what those teams can engage independent agencies for is a product. Not service hours. A product that solves a defined problem. A packaged, scoped, priced deliverable. Whether that’s a formal carve-out in their procurement frameworks or a practical interpretation of the rules in play, I can’t say with certainty. But two separate conversations, from two separate organisations, arriving at the same conclusion independently – that’s a pattern I’m not inclined to dismiss.
What the Product Exemption Means for Your Agency
Let’s be precise about what these procurement teams are describing. They’re not asking for software. They’re not looking for a SaaS platform. What they’re describing is exactly what a productised services model delivers – a defined offer, a clear scope, a fixed outcome, and a price that isn’t pegged to hours. In practical terms: walk in with a service pitch and the door is closed. Walk in with a product pitch – a packaged, priced solution to a specific problem – and you have a route in that the service-based agency simply doesn’t.
I want to be careful here. I’m not suggesting every independent agency should pivot its entire strategy towards chasing global enterprise accounts. Most of the agencies I work with are in conversations with mid-market businesses, not $100bn procurement departments. But enterprise buying behaviour is often a leading indicator of where the wider market is heading. The friction that’s already closing doors to independent agencies in the largest organisations tends to filter down. Commercial buyers at every level are becoming more sophisticated, and they’re increasingly comfortable with – and in some cases actively demanding – the clarity that a productised offer provides. The agencies that build productised services into their commercial model now won’t just have a better answer for the enterprise question. They’ll have a sharper, cleaner offer for every conversation they’re in.
The Bottom Line
The direction of travel is clear. Productised services reduce friction in the sale, improve clarity for the buyer, and – as we’re now seeing – can unlock commercial doors that the service-only model can’t open. This isn’t about abandoning bespoke work. It’s about building a productised spine to your commercial offer that works alongside your more tailored engagements. Standstill agencies are still debating whether their work can be packaged. STANDOUT ones are already selling it.
Need some help?
If you want to talk through how your agency starts building productised services – where to begin, what to package, and how to price it – I’m happy to have that conversation. Head to my Agency Advisory page and drop me a message. It’s a conversation, not a sales pitch.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a productised service for a marketing agency?
A productised service is a defined, fixed-scope offer with a clear deliverable and a set price – rather than an open-ended engagement billed by the hour. It packages your agency’s expertise into something a buyer can evaluate and commit to without a lengthy scoping process. The scope, output, and price are agreed before the engagement begins.
Can a creative or strategic agency really productise its services?
Yes – and more easily than most owners think. Every agency has work it repeats across clients: a discovery methodology, a specific strategic output, an audit process. That’s a product waiting to be defined and priced. Productisation doesn’t mean you stop doing bespoke work; it means you create a standardised entry point that’s easy to buy and easy to deliver consistently.
Why are enterprise procurement teams moving away from engaging independent agencies on a service basis?
The core reason is risk and compliance management. Large organisations managing complex supplier relationships prefer clarity – a defined deliverable at a fixed price is easier to approve, manage, and audit than an open-ended service arrangement billed by the hour. Productised offers fit procurement frameworks in a way that hourly rate engagements typically don’t.
Do I need to stop offering bespoke work to build productised services?
No. Productised services work best when they sit alongside your bespoke offer, not in place of it. They serve as a lower-friction entry point for new clients, a scalable offer you can sell without a lengthy pitch process, and a commercial anchor that supports your broader positioning. Most agencies that productise well do so as an addition to their model – not a wholesale replacement.
