“White-Glove” Doesn’t Scale… Until You Do It Like This
Interview: How Oyova Built Durability Through Transparency, Weekly Touchpoints, and Smart Partnerships
Behind the Agency Podcast with Jon Tsourakis, President / CRO / Co-Founder of Oyova
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Prefer the highlights? Key takeaways and summary below.
TL;DR – Key Takeaways
Starting an agency in 2009 was basically “do anything that pays” — including stuff you never sold.
Oyova kept one core thing constant: white-glove service with more human involvement (not less).
Weekly client touchpoints can cost more, but it’s how you keep clients for 15 years.
Their vertical “focus” wasn’t a fancy strategy. It came from where they already had wins + stories.
Jon avoids the word “packages.” They sell a tailored plan, built from real discovery.
They show pricing as line items + time + rate so clients understand what they’re buying.
The “plan” is separate from execution, and they’ll only do it if the client intends to move forward.
Partnerships work when you’re honest about expectations, and you play upline + downline strategically.
Smaller, niche events often outperform big conferences because of less competition + more intimacy.
On AI and consolidation: it’s cyclical. Good agencies adapt and keep doing great work.
Meet the Guest
Jon Tsourakis is President, CRO, and Co-Founder of Oyova, a firm that spans custom software, marketing, and IT consulting. He’s been in the trenches since 2009, and this episode is loaded with the kind of “battle-scar” lessons that only show up after a decade-plus of running a real agency.
Episode Summary
1. Starting in 2009: “Whatever it took”
Jon didn’t start Oyova with a master plan. He started it because he quit a corporate mess and needed to survive.
And recession-era survival mode meant saying “yes” to almost anything:
“You’re somebody who’s like, ‘Hey, we do email marketing.’ They hear email, so you’re under their desk trying to figure out why their email server isn’t connecting…”
That’s a super honest snapshot of early agency life: your positioning is “please hire me.”
2. The thing that never changed: white-glove service (with more humans, not more automation)
As Oyova evolved (including a merger in 2019 that formed the company as it is today), Jon said one thing stayed consistent:
They leaned into white-glove service.
And here’s the contrarian part: a lot of agencies automate reporting and reduce touchpoints. Oyova did the opposite.
Instead of meeting monthly, meet weekly.
Add human input instead of hiding behind dashboards.
It costs more, but the tradeoff is collaboration + trust + retention.
Jon said they’ve kept clients for 15 years because of that.
3. Vertical focus: not a formula, a pattern
Oyova works across verticals like logistics, home services, legal, and e-commerce.
And Jon basically said: we didn’t “pick” them in a workshop.
They looked back and noticed:
they had strong results there
they had real stories to tell
the team actually liked the work (legal included, somehow)
So the focus emerged from evidence, not vibes.
This is one of those things people mess up: they try to “choose a niche” like they’re picking a Spotify genre. Jon’s version is more like: follow the proof.
4. Offers: “Don’t call it a package. Call it a plan.”
Jon is allergic to the word “package” because their approach is tailored.
Their sales motion looks like:
lead comes in
someone qualifies it
experts get on the call to understand what’s really going on
they propose a strategy plan as a separate paid step
the plan reveals execution work and expected return
What’s different is how transparent he is:
They line item the plan:
buckets of work
time estimate
hourly rate
And then they build a plan that explains the “how,” the cost, and the expected return.
5. Paying for planning: the architect analogy (and a hard boundary)
You asked about pushback on paying for planning. Jon’s answer was basically:
If you’re transparent and genuine, smart clients get it.
He used the architect analogy:
You pay an architect for drawings. They’re not doing it for fun.
Also: the less the client knows, the more expensive it gets — because you’re doing real diagnosis:
goals
budget
lifecycle of the business
constraints
what’s realistic in their market
Big boundary: the plan is separate and they only do it if the client intends to move forward.
“If you do not have intentions of moving forward, we don’t wanna create this plan for you.”
Also interesting: they claim the plan is break-even, and sometimes they lose money on it if they believe the downstream relationship will be worth it.
6. Brutal honesty as a growth strategy
One of the best moments in the episode: Jon said they’ve told clients straight up that marketing won’t work for them given their budget or competitive reality.
And instead of clients getting mad, it often builds trust because it proves you’re not just trying to cash a check.
That’s a simple rule more agencies should follow:
If the work won’t work, say so early—before it becomes a six-month misery contract.
7. Partnerships: upline + downline (and why most partner programs are fake)
Jon laid out a super practical partnership model:
Downline: send work to smaller specialists when it’s not your fit.
Upline: have a bigger partner for work that’s too big for you.
Make it reciprocal over time.
They pay 10% referral fees to people who send them deals, and he said some partners do very well from that.
He also called out a common partnership lie:
People tell you “we’ll send business” while they’re saying that to 200 other vendors.
His advice:
be honest if you’re unlikely to send business back
be selective
nurture a few high-quality relationships, not 50 flimsy ones
He shared a story of sending one partner a client early on… and then receiving consistent referrals for 10+ years after.
8. Conferences: smaller is often better
Jon backed up something you’ve seen too:
Big conferences come with big sponsors (often your biggest competitor) and big risk.
Smaller events win because:
less competition
more intimacy
better odds of real conversations
easier to get in front of the right people
He described it as better “dollar for dollar.”
9. Where Oyova is headed: keep adjusting the sails
On the future, Jon’s take was calm:
AI and consolidation are cycles. Agencies that do great work and adapt will keep growing.
“Pay attention to what’s coming… fix your sails the right way.”
That’s the whole vibe: stay sharp, don’t get lazy, keep serving well.
Notable Quotes
“Whatever it took.”
“A lot of people get away from reporting… We go the other way and put more human input into it.”
“We don’t create a program, we don’t create a package. We create a plan.”
“I don’t know a damn thing about your business… we have to figure this out.”
“You’re gonna pay an architect to draw up the plans for your home.”
“You don’t have to have a million partners… nurture a few high-quality ones.”
Learn More / Get in Touch
Connect with Jon:
Email: jon@oyova.com
LinkedIn: Jon Tsourakis
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