Pricing on value doesn’t fix a broken model — it makes it worse. Like treating joint pain without diagnosing the underlying imbalance, changing how you price may relieve surface pressure while leaving the real structural constraint untouched. When agencies attempt to shift to value-based pricing, the outcome reveals whether they’re facing a contained pricing problem or a deeper value model misalignment. Learn how to diagnose the real issue and why defining value operationally must come before adjusting the price attached to it.

AI is collapsing the value of time-based pricing, exposing the gap between how agencies create value and how they charge for it. As production timelines shrink, procurement teams gain leverage, commoditizing deliverables and pushing margins down even further. Agencies can no longer rely on hours or deliverables as their pricing anchor—they need a solution-based commercial model rooted in outcomes, expertise, and differentiation. This post breaks down why pricing change must follow positioning and productization, not precede them.

Most agencies struggle because their service models keep them stuck in transactional, low-margin work. The Solution/Market-Fit Matrix changes that by helping firms identify the highest-value problems they are uniquely qualified to solve—and package their expertise into scalable, differentiated solutions clients will pay a premium for. This shift transforms sales conversations, strengthens pricing power, and turns fragmented services into repeatable, high-margin growth engines. If your agency is ready to move beyond deliverables and start selling outcomes, this framework provides the roadmap.