A shared standard for how agencies define and capture their value
Agencies have sold their work by the hour for decades. That model is breaking. AI is eroding the value of the work, procurement keeps pushing fees down, and clients want to pay for outcomes.
Most agency leaders have two or three years to redefine what makes their agency distinctly valuable beyond what AI can produce, and to shift to a commercial model not tied to hours. Agencies have never had to make this change before. They have no shared standard to work from.
The Value Model Institute sets that standard, drawn from guiding hundreds of agencies worldwide that have already made the change.
Association and network leaders, and the agency principals, CEOs, CFOs, and COOs they represent. As a member, your association leads the change toward pricing for value in your market. You share the standard with your agencies, and the Institute does the work behind it. With the Institute beside your leadership, your agencies follow a proven path instead of working it out alone.
Your agencies see what to change. You see the progress.
See how your agencies change their commercial model year over year
Each agency completes the Value Model diagnostic, learns where its model is working against its own business, and receives a roadmap for what to change first. The Institute presents the aggregated results in a live workshop and provides a co-branded State of Agency Value Models report. Data is anonymized and reported only in aggregate.
Give your agencies guidance to change their model and price their value
Each agency follows a track of workshops based on its diagnostic results, with dedicated tracks for specific roles, including finance, business development, and account management, depending on the membership option you choose. Your agencies learn to defend their value with price-driven buyers.
Get started quickly and easily. We do the work.
We field the diagnostic, run the analysis, build the report, and manage the workshop portal. We provide a co-branded launch kit for you to send: a one-pager and announcement email.
Three options to choose from
Every option starts with the diagnostic, the results workshop, and the co-branded report. Each step up adds live benchmarking, more workshops, and deeper support for your agencies.
Supporter
- Value Model diagnostic and a personalized roadmap for each agency
- Live online workshop covering your aggregated results and top three recommendations
- Co-branded State of Agency Value Models report (PDF)
- Workshop video library: Value Model tracks
- Co-branded launch kit, ready for you to send
Advocate
- Everything in Supporter, plus:
- The diagnostic stays open, so agencies complete or refresh it anytime
- Your private Value Model Research Index: a live, co-branded benchmark set against the global data
- A private benchmark for every agency against your aggregate and the global data set
- Report updates yearly, semi-yearly, or quarterly on request
- Specialized workshop tracks for finance, business development, and account roles
- Up to 4 live online workshops per year
- Monthly group office hours with a Value Model expert
Leader
- Everything in Advocate, plus:
- Up to 6 live online workshops per year
- Licensing rights to cite the aggregated diagnostic data and report in your materials and press
The first ten associations shape the standard
Associations that join by December 31, 2026 are named as Founding Members and keep their rate for their chosen scope. They help shape the Institute's standards through 2027, are named participants in the inaugural State of the Agency Value Model global report, and are named as a sponsor of the Institute's podcast in show notes and on every episode page.
See your members' data before you decide
Through December 31, 2026, your association can opt in to field the Value Model diagnostic to all your members, with no commitment to joining. We field the diagnostic, run the analysis, and deliver your co-branded State of Agency Value Models report. You see what your agencies' commercial models look like today, and each agency receives a personalized roadmap.
If the results make the case for membership, founding member status will still be open when you come back.
Reports draw on aggregated, anonymized data and require a minimum level of member participation, which we help you drive.
The workshops your agencies follow as members
Every workshop below is part of your membership. Each agency follows a track of these sessions based on its diagnostic results. Your membership option sets how many run as live sessions each year; the full catalog is available on demand in the workshop video library. You receive detailed session descriptions upon joining.
How well an agency defines its value determines how profitably it can capture it. These four workshops run in sequence, each building on the one before it.
Defining Value
Leaders learn how to define their best-fit clients, surface the highest-value problems those clients hire the firm to solve, and articulate what makes the firm different and uniquely qualified to solve them. This is the foundation of any agency's value model.
Designing Value
Leaders learn how to design repeatable, outcome-focused solutions around the problems they defined in the previous session; they learn what a true solution is and how it is different from simply rebundling existing services. This is how agencies start to separate revenue from headcount.
Delivering Value
Leaders learn what is involved in equipping their teams to speak to, sell, and deliver the value they designed in the previous session, and how to navigate procurement without falling back on hours. This is how agencies establish shared internal language to articulate their impact, respond to pricing pushback, and align roles with outcomes.
Capturing Value
Leaders learn the Solution Monetization System to price their defined solutions on the value they create rather than the effort they take. They'll learn how to design price tiers that increase average deal size, and how to identify opportunities to generate recurring revenue through subscriptions, IP licensing, and results-based engagements. This is how firms design a scalable revenue model.
Orientation workshops open every membership. Specialized and role-specific workshops serve specific parts of your membership, and we keep adding sessions as the industry changes and as your agencies tell us what they need.
Orientation Workshops
- Mapping Your Value Model
- Redesigning the Agency Value Model
Specialized Workshops
- The Role of AI Through the Value Model
- Redesigning Team Structure, Roles, and Performance Metrics
- Building the Holding Company / Network Value Model Playbook
Role-Specific Workshops
- Client Leadership Through the Value Model
- Finance Through the Value Model
- New Business Through the Value Model
- Holding Company Agency Leadership Through the Value Model
Guidance drawn from decades in the work
Brian Kessman
Brian is the author of Redesigning the Agency Value Model, published by VoxComm. He is a contributor to the IPA's Pricing Playbook, an inaugural member of the 4A's Expert Network, and presents regularly for associations including the 4A's, the PR Council, and AMIN Worldwide. He brings more than 25 years in the agency industry.
Tim Williams
Tim has guided hundreds of firms on positioning and pricing, from mid-size independents to multinational networks. His thinking on professional service firms has been quoted by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. He is a Senior Fellow of the VeraSage Institute, the think tank devoted to the business models and pricing strategies of professional service firms.
See whether this fits your association
Contact Brian Kessman to discuss membership options, founding member status, and what the diagnostic would show your agencies.
Contact Brian Kessman