Burn the Menu: How Strategy Gives Agencies Pricing Power Again
Interview: How to Raise Prices (and Stop Competing Like a Commodity) by Selling Strategy
Behind the Agency Podcast with Max Traylor, Strategic Consulting & Productization Advisor (helps agencies productize consulting + monetize IP)
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Prefer the highlights? Key takeaways and summary below.
TL;DR – Key Takeaways
Strategy isn’t “extra.” It’s the only place agencies can defend pricing as implementation gets commoditized (and automated).
A big reason agencies ignore strategy: they were trained by martech companies to chase tactics and “new shiny objects.”
If a client shows up wanting a tactic, they’re also price-shopping you against everyone else. That’s the trap.
Outsourced execution is replaceable; decision-making is the premium product (advisory, consulting, fractional, coaching—call it whatever).
The “gateway drug” to strategy is simple: charge for the plan you already give away during proposals.
Don’t try to “turn your whole agency into strategy” overnight. Consider a separate consulting entity to avoid conflict + culture mismatch.
Practical move for founders: ask clients what’s most valuable + least valuable… then start deleting services.
Meet the Guest
Max Traylor helps agencies and consultants turn their hard-won knowledge into strategy-led consulting offers they can deliver consistently (and charge real money for).
He ran a marketing agency young, hated the treadmill (more services, more hires, more chaos), and discovered that strategy flipped the model: better margins, better relationships, and more respect in the room.
Later, he licensed a strategic process to other agencies around the world—cementing his obsession with monetizing IP, not just selling labor.
Episode Summary
1. A weird childhood question that turned into a career thesis
Max said he was five years old when he walked into his dad’s office and asked:
“Where do you make the money?”
That curiosity never really left. It just grew up and turned into a blunt point of view:
Most agencies are working too hard for too little… because they’re selling the wrong thing.
2. The main tension: agencies are trapped in “tactic land”
Max’s take is pretty spicy here:
Agencies don’t ignore strategy because they’re dumb.
They ignore it because the loudest voices in the market trained them to.
Martech companies needed partners to sell and service tools. So they pumped the market full of training around tactics and execution.
Tactics are “sexy.” Strategy isn’t.
And when you sell what everyone else sells… you get priced like everyone else.
“If people show up asking to buy tactics, they’re also shopping you against other people.”
3. Strategy is about getting taken seriously
The core benefit isn’t just margins (though that’s real).
It’s the position you earn:
Trusted advisor. Indispensable partner. The person who helps decision-makers make decisions.
Max framed it like this: you’re either a decision-maker or an order-taker.
And most agencies accidentally build organizations full of order-takers because their whole system is designed around delivering what the client asked for.
4. The mental model: supply goes up, demand goes down (for tactics)
Max’s argument: as AI + gig economy labor increases supply, tactical services get cheaper and easier to replace.
Meanwhile, demand rises for the real problem:
“Tell me what to do with all this stuff I bought.”
That’s consulting. That’s strategy.
5. How to transition without blowing up your team overnight
Max’s recommendation (and I thought this was smart): consider building a separate consulting entity.
Why?
You avoid the conflict of interest (“of course we recommend you spend more on what we sell”).
You avoid internal politics with a team whose livelihoods depend on implementation.
You don’t have to force a strategy culture onto an execution culture.
He also pointed to a hard truth: agencies struggle to transition because they hired tactical talent—good people!—but not strategic thinkers.
6. The “gateway drug” to strategy: charge for your proposal brain
This is the most actionable part:
Most agencies already do strategy… they just donate it during sales.
Discovery. Diagnosis. Prioritization. Recommendations. Budget guidance. Resourcing.
Max’s move: package that into a paid planning engagement.
Then compare profitability:
dollars/hour for strategy work
dollars/hour for implementation work
And “follow the money.”
7. Productizing strategy doesn’t mean turning it into a “product”
Max clarified something that a lot of folks mess up:
Productizing = systematizing.
Same steps. Same outputs. Predictable delivery. Known costs.
He pushed back on the “strategy is magic” myth:
“It’s not a mysterious blessing you get when you have gray hair.”
There’s a process. It can be documented. It can be taught. It can be scaled.
Notable Quotes
“Burn your implementation business to the ground and start figuring out what is most strategically valuable and difficult to replace.”
“You’re either a decision-maker or an order-taker.”
“You’re already doing strategy. You’re just not getting paid for it.”
“Ask your clients what’s most valuable… then start removing things.”
Learn More / Get in Touch
(Guest links weren’t explicitly shared in the transcript.)
Max recommended resources:
David Baker – The Business of Expertise
Max’s books: Agency Survival Guide and Consultant Survival Guide (most recent: “Yellow”)
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