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Karl Sakas of Sakas and Company fills in for Gini Dietrich as Chip Griffin’s co-host on this episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast.

Chip and Karl discuss how agencies can raise prices and increase revenue from clients by moving them along a continuum toward higher-priced (and higher-value) services.

Quotes

• Karl: “If you lead with strategy, if you lead with the think activities, you’re positioning yourself as more of an expert, and you can charge more, get paid more, you and your team will be happier, ultimately getting paid more, with fewer hours.”
• Chip: “Start thinking about it, what are the kinds of activities that I can start to shift and empower my clients to participate in, as opposed to having to do for them, it really allows you to think much more broadly about the value that you can deliver to that client, which at the end of the day is how you continue to get and retain clients by showing that you’re delivering that value.”
• Karl: “If you’re using teach services to make your clients less dependent on your agency for the really low level stuff that your team hates doing, that sounds like a win.”
• Chip: “it takes time to be able to move up these tiers, and do it well, because nothing’s going to expose you faster than if you pretend to be an expert in something that you’re not. So really make sure that you have that close alignment between what you’re targeting on these tiers and what you can actually deliver on.”

Resources

• Agency Services Framework: Charge More via “Think, Teach, Do”
• Strategy Tiers: Charge More for Strategy Work
• Boost client retention with Warmth & Competence
• Get paid more later with “strategically free”
• Listen (and delegate!) better via Values, Goals, and Resources (VGR)
• How to pick a vertical specialization for your agency
• Newsletter: Business tips for agency leaders (and eBook on handling difficult clients)
• @KarlSakas on Twitter
• The Human Brand by Chris Malone and Susan T. Fiske
• Jay Baer

[read the transcript]

About Chip Griffin

Chip Griffin is the Founder & CEO of the Small Agency Growth Alliance (SAGA) and a longtime agency owner and executive. He helps PR and marketing communications agencies build better businesses. Full bio