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The central argument here is blunt and correct: people only buy four things—time, money, status, or peace of mind—and if your offer doesn't map to one of them, no amount of sequencing tools or ICP workshops is going to save you. What we’re really calling out is the gap between the performance of selling and actually being useful, and how most agency founders have gotten so deep into the machinery of sales that they've forgotten that the whole thing runs on relationships and trust built before the budget conversation ever happens.
The leak-fix vs. renovation framing is the most practical approach here: buyers move fast when something is actively broken and slow (or not at all) when you're pitching transformation. If you're leading with strategy decks and proprietary frameworks on discovery calls, you're selling a renovation to someone whose ceiling is dripping. Find the leak first. The renovation work comes later, after you've earned it.
This Week in The Playbook
Our latest published content.
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Field Notes
Notes and observations from around the industry:
💀 Forrester Predicts 15% of Agency Jobs Will Disappear in 2026 (The Drum) After an 8% headcount cut across agencies in 2025, Forrester now forecasts a 15% reduction in 2026 — not as gradual attrition, but as a full-scale transformation. Forrester analyst Jay Pattisall describes the shift as a "workforce inversion": AI has eliminated the need for the junior layer that made the old pyramid model profitable, flipping the economics in favor of small, senior-led teams working alongside AI tools.
🏦 'I'm Not Selling You Hours': PMG's Push Beyond Agencies (Digiday) PMG founder George Popstefanov built his firm by pricing output, not labor — sitting down with CMOs, understanding what their bonus is tied to, and putting a portion of PMG's own fee at risk against hitting those targets. When COVID hit and clients threatened to walk, he told them they didn't have to. It's a live case study in what an outcome-priced, senior-led agency actually looks like in practice.
🔀 Agency M&A in 2026: The Exit Window Is Wide Open (FE International) Global M&A deal value hit $4.93 trillion in 2025, and within that surge, adtech and marketing services M&A rose 13% over 2024 — with private equity, strategic acquirers, and holding companies actively pursuing agencies with recurring revenue, AI-enabled workflows, and defensible market positions. The uncomfortable reality: a $2M agency built on retainers with 18-month average client lifespans is worth more to a buyer than a $4M agency running on project-based work that must be resold every quarter.
🤖 AI Is Putting Agency Pricing Power Under Pressure — Even When Revenue Is Up (Mean CEO) Research shows 65% of agencies saw a positive revenue effect from AI — but 27% already faced client demands for lower prices, because buyers assume faster delivery should cost less. The fix isn't better AI output quality. It's reframing the sale entirely: away from visible labor hours and toward decision quality, business context, and measurable commercial effect.
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This Week’s ‘Awesome Thing’
Hacky Sack’ is Back
It looks like the 1990s are kicking their way back into the mainstream. A sudden and unexpected Hacky Sack revival is sweeping through high schools across the country, as Gen Z traded screen time for circle time. What once began as a counterculture staple in the '70s and '90s is experiencing a massive national renaissance, catching parents, teachers, and retailers completely off guard. Retailers are reporting empty shelves and dozens of daily inquiries for the crocheted and suede bean bags, signaling a rapid shift in youth recreational trends that blends offline camaraderie with online momentum.
What makes this modern "epidemic" unique is how seamlessly the younger generation has integrated it into digital culture. While the game itself is inherently communal and cooperative—focusing on shared rallies rather than individual competition—students are using platforms like TikTok and Instagram to turn it into an elaborate inside joke. High schoolers are creating fictional varsity rosters, publishing interscholastic rankings, and announcing mock college commits to Division I "sack" programs. This playful framing has transformed a vintage hobby into a viral lifestyle, proving that sometimes the best way to move forward is to look back at what worked decades ago.