I have always believed that an agency should function as a “teaching” organization just as much as a “thinking, doing, and making” organization. The agency should be viewed as a partner that prioritizes educating, comforting, and guiding clients through unfamiliar territory.
Clients don’t just hire agencies to execute tasks; they hire us to help them find brand and marketing clarity, insight, and understanding of their customers. They look for a partner who can translate complexity into simplicity, empower them through knowledge, and instill confidence through transparent guidance. Mostly, they hire us to do things they can’t do themselves, or don’t have the time or resources to execute.
Becoming a teaching agency means proactively offering explanations, providing context, and clearly communicating approaches and strategies. Agencies need to anticipate clients’ questions, clarify processes, and guide them through every step of an engagement. This educational mindset ensures that clients receive quality outcomes and feel confident, informed, and genuinely supported along the way. The more educated they are on the craft of marketing and advertising, the more likely they are to understand what we are trying to pitch them on.
Ultimately, embracing our role as educators builds deeper trust, strengthens relationships, and transforms what some view as simple transactions into meaningful partnerships and dialog. Clients who feel understood, empowered, and educated become loyal advocates who genuinely value the strategic counsel and guidance agencies and consultants are expected to provide.
I've been thinking a lot about how agencies present themselves to clients early in engagements. One of the things that has stood out to me recently is how we label and name our efforts.
When we label client engagements using internal language, like "retainer work" or "one-time projects," we unintentionally shift the narrative toward our internal operational language and financial structures rather than emphasizing the agency or consultant’s experience and value. Terms such as "retainer" highlight financial commitments and transactional details, subtly positioning the work as a cost rather than an investment in strategic thinking and relationships. Similarly, calling an engagement a "one-time project" diminishes our strategic contributions' long-term value, impact, and potential impact these efforts will have on future work.
Many agencies and consultancies frequently default to internal jargon, unintentionally creating client confusion or barriers. Terms like "billable hours," "scoped projects," or "deliverables" make sense internally but often feel abstract or impersonal to clients, potentially undermining trust or diluting the perceived value of the relationship. Over time, these internally focused terms can unintentionally reinforce a transactional formula rather than nurturing genuine partnership and collaboration we all hope to build.
Defining the “Retainer” in Client-Agency Relationships
Clients aren't purchasing hours or retainers; they typically seek a resource or partner that can provide clarity, growth, partnership, and tangible outcomes. They hire agencies to help them think through challenges, but mostly they need folks to make stuff and execute the ideas. At least that’s how most client-agency relationships start. Yes, there is a financial aspect of the relationship, but it’s the duty of the agency or consultant to make sure that it doesn’t feel like a financial transaction.
By shifting language to reflect the client perspective, we can align our messaging with what clients genuinely value. The proper naming of activities and agency deliverables help underscore a partnership's meaningful, results-driven nature, rather than reinforcing internal structures that hold little relevance for them. This approach strengthens relationships and positions an agency as a strategic partner invested in our clients' long-term success.
Your Operating System is not the Client’s Operating System.
Companies that adopt operational frameworks like the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) tend to place significant emphasis on tasks, metrics, goals, and measurable outcomes. While this structure is valuable internally, there’s a risk that its language, filled with terms like Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), scorecards, and quarterly rocks, can start to encroach into everyday conversations, including client interactions and service delivery.
Even if these conversations never make it to the client, the focus of these items internally will naturally create a division between the agency team members and the client. Your operating system should be focused on delivering results for the client and not just your internal goals.
I've observed many conversations around agency performance increasingly center on metrics such as MRR or ARR rather than the core mission of making our clients more successful, profitable, and impactful. When we fixate on internal metrics, we inadvertently distance ourselves from the real, human reasons clients seek our services. Instead of speaking about revenue in abstract, agency-focused terms, our conversations should emphasize concrete client outcomes—“How can we grow our client’s business?” or “How do we increase their profitability?”
Our primary focus should always be firmly on client success and value creation. Metrics and frameworks are useful tools behind the scenes, but externally, our language should always reflect empathy, alignment with client goals, and a genuine commitment to helping clients thrive.
Agency Revenue and Profit Doesn’t Matter to Clients
Most agency team members view a "retainer" primarily as a bucket of billable hours allocated to a specific client. This perspective frames the relationship around spending hours rather than creating meaningful value. In reality, a retainer isn't about hours at all, it’s about the client's desire to forge a deeper partnership with the agency, ensuring dedicated focus, consistent attention, and ongoing collaboration from our team.
Confusing retainers with billable hours can unintentionally erode the quality of the client-agency relationship. It can lead team members to think more about how they can maximize time spent rather than how they can maximize value delivered. Agency leaders, therefore, should avoid internal phrases like "expanding retainers," and instead speak directly about "finding more ways to help the client." Although subtle, this difference is significant.
Language shapes culture, and culture shapes behavior. When leaders consistently position engagements in terms of how we can provide greater value and solve bigger problems, that mindset trickles down to every team member. It encourages everyone in the agency to think more mindfully, creatively, and proactively about supporting client success, rather than simply looking for new ways to spend hours. Ultimately, this subtle shift in language builds stronger, longer-lasting client relationships
It's also important to remain cautious about the frequent use of acronyms and abbreviations in our client-facing communication. Internally, shorthand terms like ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead), ABM (Account-Based Marketing), CTA (Call to Action), and similar acronyms streamline conversation. However, when presented externally, these terms can quickly become barriers rather than bridges. Clients may feel alienated or uncertain, forced to pause and interpret unfamiliar jargon rather than smoothly engaging with the content.
Our goal is always clarity and ease of understanding. When we rely heavily on acronyms, we risk creating confusion, frustration, or even insecurity for clients—who may hesitate to ask for clarification. Instead, spelling out critical terms fully and clearly, at least upon first use, helps reinforce shared understanding and makes our communications accessible, professional, and client-centered. By consciously reducing reliance on acronyms and prioritizing plain language, we underscore our role as clear communicators, trusted guides, and strategic partners invested deeply in our clients' comfort and success.
Most B2B clients approach agencies with limited experience in marketing—they aren’t familiar with our processes, terminology, or what each stage of an engagement involves. The reality is, marketing jargon and methods that we consider routine can be entirely new, and often intimidating, to clients. Terms, phrases, acronyms, and processes we use internally every day can feel confusing, complex, or even overwhelming from their perspective.
It's our role as trusted guides and strategic partners to bridge that gap and help clients comfortably navigate these new territories. By clearly communicating what to expect at each stage of our work together, we build confidence, trust, and comfort. Offering transparency, education, and clarity in how we describe our services and processes reassures clients and sets expectations that align with their level of understanding.
This approach positions us as true partners—patient educators and allies committed to making complex marketing engagements simple, accessible, and empowering. By demystifying marketing terms and stages, we help clients feel informed, involved, and confident throughout their journey with the agency.
To further enhance our role as educators and trusted guides, agencies should consider developing a client onboarding guide and accompanying glossary of terms. A clearly defined onboarding resource will help set expectations, describe our processes, and communicate the "why" behind what we do, ensuring clients are never left feeling uncertain or unclear about our work together.
