An experienced pair of hands for agency leaders
Strategic and operational support for agencies navigating growth, positioning, operational pressure and commercial change.
Running an agency means juggling growth, clients, people and the numbers, often all at the same time.
I’ve spent more than twenty years inside agencies, including several years leading one through growth, operational change and commercial pressure.
Sometimes it helps to have someone alongside you who’s been there before. Someone who can bring perspective, challenge, support or simply help move things forward when everything becomes harder to hold together.
Where an experienced pair of hands can help
Most agencies reach similar moments as they grow.
Over my twenty years working inside agencies, including several years at board level, I’ve seen many of these situations first-hand.
These are some of the times where an experienced pair of hands can help:
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Sometimes pipeline looks busy but revenue isn’t moving the way it should. Sometimes the agency has simply outgrown the positioning or growth model that got it this far. A fresh perspective can help uncover what’s really going on and what the next move should be.
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The work might be strong, but the story has become blurry. Competitors start sounding similar, and it becomes harder for clients to see the difference. Refining the proposition often brings back confidence in how the agency presents itself.
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You can be winning work and delivering good projects while profitability quietly comes under pressure. Pricing, scope, utilisation and client mix all play a part. Taking a clear look at how and where the agency makes money often highlights where things need to change.
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As agencies grow, leadership teams can start pulling in different directions. Priorities compete, decisions slow down and progress stalls. Sometimes it helps to have someone independent in the room to help work through the issues and get back on track.
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Every agency has opportunities where the stakes feel higher than usual. A major pitch, a strategic client opportunity or a piece of work that could change the trajectory of the business. Having another experienced perspective involved can help sharpen the story and strengthen the pitch.
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Most agencies reach moments where something fundamental is shifting. A repositioning, a leadership transition, expanding capabilities or simply deciding what the next chapter should look like. These are the moments where it helps to step back and think clearly about the path ahead.
I’m not coming at this as a consultant. I’ve spent my career inside agencies dealing with these situations first-hand.
How I typically work
Different agencies need different levels of support.
Sometimes that means helping a leadership team think through a specific challenge. Sometimes it means getting hands-on with the leadership team or even taking the reins for a while.
Most engagements fall into a few broad categories:
Strategic advisory
Typically used when agency leaders want an experienced outside perspective on growth, positioning, operations or commercial challenges.
This often includes:
leadership workshops
commercial planning
proposition development
agency health reviews
strategic sounding-board support
Useful for agencies that need clarity, alignment or challenge, without adding a full-time leadership hire.
Hands-on consultancy
Used when agencies need support turning strategy into action.
This can include:
leadership alignment
operational improvement
client growth planning
pitch support
marketing and positioning help
commercial improvement plans
Usually more embedded and delivery-focused than advisory support.
Embedded leadership
Sometimes agencies need experienced leadership capacity quickly.
Particularly during:
growth periods
restructuring
leadership transitions
parental leave
founder bottlenecks
capability gaps
This might involve stepping into a temporary leadership role or working alongside the existing leadership team to stabilise, guide or accelerate change.
However, I’ve worked inside agencies long enough to know that the problems aren't always easy to see or fix. And often, the problems (and solutions) are interlinked.
Want to talk about how I can help?
Your questions, answered
Agency challenges rarely arrive with a neat label attached. The conversations agency leaders have are more nuanced than that.
The FAQ section covers some of the questions that come up most often around agency growth, positioning, leadership, founder bottlenecks and getting external support.
Allow me to introduce myself
Hi. I’m Eoin Rodgers.
I’ve spent more than twenty years inside agencies.
For much of that time, I worked at board level, including several years leading a B2B agency responsible for growth, profitability, and culture.
Earlier in my career, I built and led Strategy, Performance Marketing and Client Services teams.
Along the way, I’ve dealt with many of the moments agencies go through: repositioning in a crowded market, building new capabilities, improving commercial discipline, navigating acquisitions and mergers and helping leadership teams work through what comes next.
A few examples from my agency leadership experience:
Grew agency revenue from £4m to £5.5m in two years
Built a £1m new business pipeline targeting clearly defined ICPs
Led agency repositioning from generalist to specialist consultancy
Improved employee engagement, increasing eNPS by +35 points
AGENCY ALLY is a way for me to bring that experience to other agency leaders: as a sounding board, an advisor, or an extra pair of hands.
From my PoV
A few recent perspectives on what’s happening in agencies. And what it means for how they grow.
Don’t just take it from me…