What pricing structure do you use when charging clients for agency work?
We usually start with an upfront deposit, then collect the delivery payment, and finally move the client onto a retainer. It’s essentially an intro‑offer plus a recurring service model. The intro offer is a low‑ticket, highly deliverable product that proves value quickly—often priced around $2 K (or even $998 to make it more palatable). After you deliver and show ROI, you pitch a monthly retainer, typically $5 K per month for a four‑month commitment, which becomes the bulk of the revenue. The flow looks like: upfront deposit → delivery payment → retainer. This structure makes it easier to sell recurring services, which are hard to sell cold, by first establishing trust with a concrete, repeatable deliverable.
Sure thing, Otis. The nuanced answer is you should do both: charge an introductory (setup/implementation) fee and a recurring retainer/service fee. The introductory offer is a one‑time, fast‑win product with high conversion; it lets prospects quickly see value and justifies the ROI. Once they’ve experienced that win, you pitch the retainer—a slower, monthly recurring service with lower conversion if sold alone. By leading with the intro offer you maximize front‑end conversion, deliver a quick win, then upsell the retainer with a much higher close rate. Think of your funnel: lead generators → sales event → intro offer → recurring service. For example, with a 25% lead‑to‑intro offer conversion and a 30% intro‑offer‑to‑retainer conversion, you end up converting about 7.5% of leads into retainer clients, while still capturing the upfront fee. Using sample numbers—a $2k intro offer that yields a $6k–$88k return, and a $5k/mo retainer over six months ($30k LTV)—you can make far more money than selling either piece alone. In short, the intro offer gets the foot in the door; the retainer maximizes lifetime value.
The best way is to start with an intro offer—a low‑cost, quick‑win product that you can deliver fast, often using templates, and promote through organic, paid, or outreach channels. For example, a $1,500 proposal system can serve as an intro offer. Intro offers have high conversion because they’re easy to sell, but they’re not recurring. After you get a client in with an intro offer, you move them to a recurring service—like a monthly automation retainer, fractional COO, or ongoing maintenance package. This upsell increases lifetime value and provides stable MRR. Structure your funnel: use several intro offers (proposal system, cold‑email system, etc.), convert those clients to higher‑ticket recurring services, and include components such as weekly strategy calls, unlimited maintenance, Slack availability, and team training to justify the monthly fee.
I primarily charge fixed monthly retainers now because I have a small recurring client base and want to stay focused on coaching and consulting. When I was scaling to $72K/month I used one‑time setup fees for an intro offer, then upsold to a recurring, fractional COO‑style retainer. I also experiment with revenue‑share deals, but for beginners I recommend a flat‑rate retainer rather than revenue share, as it’s easier to validate the model and doesn’t require giving away large percentages of revenue.
You run an ops agency that helps agency owners increase capacity without hurting their team or client experience. You mentioned a PF model for three‑ or four‑month programs, which sounds like a public‑investment‑fund structure, but you actually run standard retainers. My take on why you opted for retainers: they give predictable cash flow and align incentives because you take payment upfront—100 % paid in full before the retainer period starts—so both you and the client are on the same page. For example, if you charge $120 an hour and a client like Fluxate pays you for 20 hours a month, that’s $2,400 per month.