Redesigning How Your Agency Sells Value
From Effort-Based Services To Solution-Based Growth
Most agencies fall into one of four economic patterns—and three of them cap margin, pricing power, and growth regardless of how hard the team works.
The root cause isn't pricing. It's what's being sold. Agencies that have moved to fixed fees or retainers but haven't changed their underlying offerings still operate on effort-based economics. Revenue scales with headcount, margins compress under utilization pressure, and AI-driven efficiency only accelerates fee erosion.
Agencies breaking this pattern are redesigning their value model—codifying expertise into repeatable, outcome-focused solutions that shift client conversations from cost to impact.
This session shows you how.
What You’ll Learn
The four agency value model archetypes—and which one is capping your growth.
Why changing pricing without changing what you sell creates a ceiling (a pattern we call "Scaling with Strain").
The three characteristics that separate true solutions from rebundled services.
How to turn what your best people already do into repeatable offerings your team can deliver—and redesign operations to support them.
Where AI amplifies solutions vs. where it just compresses cost and invites procurement pressure.
What agencies that made this shift discovered—about pricing power, margins, and how clients actually responded.
Who Should Attend
Agency CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and senior leaders responsible for growth, pricing, or client strategy—especially those who've moved beyond hourly billing but haven't yet seen the margin improvement they expected.
ABOUT BRIAN KESSMAN
Brian Kessman is the Founder and Principal Consultant at Lodestar Agency Consulting. He specializes in diagnosing why agencies get stuck in low-margin business models despite appearing busy and growing revenue—and helping their leaders redesign the commercial model required to break the pattern.
His work focuses on positioning strategy, solution design and productization, value-aligned pricing, and AI-aligned operating model design. He guides agency CEOs, CFOs, and their leadership teams from effort-based economics to solution-based growth: sharper positioning, productized expertise, and pricing aligned with impact rather than hours.
Brian is an inaugural member of the 4A's Expert Network, brings more than 25 years of agency industry experience, and speaks regularly for Mirren, AMIN Worldwide, Worldcom, TAAN, and other leading industry associations.