Your Marketing Agency Is Ripping You Off
If they haven't discussed AI with you, fire them today
A friend of mine is a speaker and runs a marketing agency, and he shared that he is “deeply concerned that most marketing agency business models are dying - and that the majority will be forced to shut their doors within the next 5 years.”
Maybe I’m old.
Maybe I’m mean.
Maybe I’m jaded.
Maybe I’ve just been around the block enough to know that the ebb and flow of business and businesses is just a part of life.
Old dudes can get complacent and set in their ways, which is fine. Many have earned the chance to take a breather…but if that’s you, pull over onto the shoulder or into a rest area, or you will be run over, because the train of business evolution does not stop.
Ever.
Adapt, evolve, or die.
It’s been that way for billions of years.
It’s that way today.
It’ll be that way tomorrow.
It’s that simple, which is why I don’t cry about it.
The sun rises in the east, and the professional salespeople, sales managers, business owners, and entrepreneurs who adapt survive, and those who don’t have to find another job or career.
So what’s the adjustment you need to make now?
Figure out how to apply this AI stuff to your daily processes ASAP.
Marketing agencies are not immune to this.
AI is gonna gut the vast majority of marketing agencies, who charge fat premiums to provide slow, mediocre, uncreative services via extended contracts to do in a month, what AI can do in an hour, such as your:
PPC
SEO (that’s changing faster than a politician’s policies the day after they get elected)
Websites and landing pages
Funnels, which are part of your websites and landing pages
Social media
Without knowing how to code, AI can, right now, handle 50-99% of all of the above.
Right now, today—and this has been the case for most of this year—the AI tools I have for The Sales Podcast, which cost maybe $20/mo each, give me more assets in about 20 minutes to share and promote my episodes than I can deploy manually in a week.
(So I’m building more AI tools to do that!)
I used to pay an overseas VA $800/mo to help do these things.
Now, I can replace those functions for $80/mo and have them done 100% accurately and within 24 hours, if not 24 minutes!
These are not theoretical or hypothetical or potential numbers.
I am living these numbers, and I’m not a coder, and I’ve only been dabbling in this space for a minute.
But that has all changed as of this moment.
I’m slow and stubborn and sleepy and cranky and jaded and a mean HOA president and grumpy grandpaw and sore and stiff from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and I need a nap…but once the lightbulb goes off in this dinosaur brain…hold onto your knickers.
As the saying goes,
Beware of an old man in a profession where men die young.
This is happening right now.
While most are online fighting over Epstein’s list and the Big Beautiful Bill and chemtrails and whatever, your competition is giggling their asses to the bank.
So now what?
Stop consuming mindless data for entertainment and start being intentional with your time, your mind, and your effort.
Ask *ChatGPT for some recommended resources to learn about AI for sales and marketing.
Ask *ChatGPT for ideas on how to replace your marketing agency.
*And just in case you’re some well-versed AI goo-roo who wants to get all high and mighty about how ChatGPT is simple or dumb or basic or rudimentary and about how there are a thousand and one better AI platforms out there, stuff it.
I’m talking to beginners here. The search for perfection stops progress in its tracks.
I want my readers to just start down the path of AI because you can’t steer a parked car.
But all is not lost…
Just like the internet did not do away with the need for salespeople—it just changed how and when they engaged—AI will not do away with the need for marketing agencies and consultants.
However, it is no longer business as usual for those folks.
Our prospective customers are still human, which means they are filled with uncertainty and doubt.
They don’t want to make the wrong/bad decision.
They will want/need reassurances that they are making the right decisions.
Back in 1998-1999, I sold mobile homes, and I was paid on commission, and we had strict commission thresholds to hit, or we took a huge hit on our pay.
I sold 52 trailers in 52 months and made exactly $100,000, so I was pretty good at maximizing my commissions, but I also maximized my time.
You see, most people who came to buy a mobile home were buying them to live in, and they had bad credit, low down payments, and just needed something that fit their monthly budget, so they had no room to negotiate.
But about 10% of my customers were shrewd cash buyers.
They were buying something to put on their deer lease or to serve as a “hunting lodge,” etc., so all they cared about was the bottom dollar.
Now, some of my peers would try to play games and haggle and whatever, but not me.
When I had these buyers, I’d throw out the lowest number we could do and say,
“I’ll honor that price if you buy it right now.”
Yes or no.
No haggling.
No back and forth.
I looked them in the eye and delivered that number without emotion.
With total confidence, and they knew I was not bullshitting.
It was either low enough, and I’d draw up the paperwork, or they could hit the pavement.
I’m not a quote monkey.
I’m not a dancing chicken.
I’m not giving free advice and free consultations and free proposals they can shop around and use against me.
With those buyers, we were either doing a deal right here, right now, or we’re getting on with our lives.
I strive to get paid a lot, quickly, for little effort, but for delivering maximum value.
(It’s a bonus when your dentist pulls your tooth and stops the excruciating pain in five minutes instead of five hours or five days, right?)
But if I’m not going to get paid a lot, I’m gonna get paid quickly.
And it always worked.
Buyers then are the same as buyers now.
“But Wes, this ain’t 1998…and I’m not in retail…and I’m not selling trailers…and what does this have to do with AI and the price of tea in China?”
Just as the internet changed the role of salespeople and consultants, so will AI, but I think it’ll hit consultants and agencies harder, faster, and more completely.
So you have to “pivot,” whether you’re in sales or an agency.
Salespeople—with a little curiosity, tenacity, and zero coding skills—can start making their own AI agents and sell them to steal business from fat, lazy, bloated agencies stuck in yesterday’s way of doing business.
(Yes, I know. I probably need therapy, but I’ve just seen so many agencies rip off and abuse entrepreneurs and SMBs…I’m just done playing happy slappy clappy nice guy.)
But it’s not all doom and gloom for agencies.
They (you?) can pivot just like anyone else.
Forever and a day, I’ve said,
“Give away your best stuff for free, up front.”
Agencies need to come clean about how they’re using AI to streamline things and give their clients some options:
100% human, 0% AI (I don’t think this is possible any longer. AI is everywhere and growing.)
50% human, 50% AI
1% human, 99% AI
Be proactive in giving your clients these options.
Let them know the cost of production has dropped dramatically and offer to pass along those savings.
Trust me, you’re better off cutting costs by 90% with AI and preemptively offering a 50% discount to your clients and keeping them, than keeping them in the dark, letting an aggressive, creative entrepreneur or firm educate them on what you’re really doing, then getting unceremoniously fired and dragged through the mud for being a greedy pig.
WordPress didn’t kill off web design. It let you make money off of themes and plugins and consulting and DFY and DWY work.
Ditto for AI, but more so.
You need to apply this same line of thinking and use this AI tsunami to figure out how to continue offering:
Quizzes/surveys/calculators
Plot-your-own-journey online guides and tutorials
Coaching/consulting/training
Live events, which I think are gonna pop off more than ever thanks to the plandemic bullshit and deep fakes. People want to be in the same room to know that what they are seeing and hearing is real.
AIO—I’m kinda making that up, but it’s AI Optimization vs. SEO or LLM SEO. This is a little misleading because the LLMs driving the AI results need to scan and skim and digest actual websites to summarize and present their answers, so SEO is probably still gonna be needed for years to come, but you must be aware of how your sites and those of your clients are appearing in search and how to get organic traffic back to you.
The need for great sales training ain’t ever gonna go away because people are still people and it’s people who are buying from you, so don’t go getting all of this other stuff right, only to have a nitwit salesperson fumble the ball on the 1-yard line ‘cuz dey got no rizz!
Social media is also here to stay
Video/YouTube is also here to stay
Better creatives, i.e., talking gorillas and dancing Big Foots (or is it Big Feets?)
Yeah, yeah. I know, I know. I get it. This kinda sucks.
You’ve been living the good life.
Contracts were solid. Profits were strong and predictable. Clients were trained. Life’s been good.
Like they say, “The trend is your friend…until it ain’t.”
Well, I’m your friend because I’m not blowing smoke up your ass.
Get with the program, or find a good, cheap therapist. (HEY! That’ll teach you how to use ChatGPT and Claude, etc. They actually make great therapists. But I digress.)
Look, Ray Kroc was 52 when he started McDonald’s.
Colonel Sanders was 62 when he opened his first KFC franchise in Salt Lake City.
Pivot or die.
Damn…that’s harsh…but true.
Market like you mean it.
Now go sell something.
Great article, and timely.