The harsh reality is, most B2B agencies’ interests are not aligned with yours – their client’s interests.
That’s because most agencies’ revenue model makes it necessary for them to sell more and more work and projects to you, and deliver them in a standardized way.
This goal will sometimes align with your revenue operations’ or marketing’s actual needs, but the more mature your marketing grows, the less adequate it will be because it will end up costing more – among other things.
As your company starts to see results from your agency’s work, the agency may drift into this slightly schizophrenic state where they want to help you, but at the same time, they want you to be dependent on them. They want to keep selling you fish, but not teach you how to fish.
Sound familiar? You’re not alone.
A much healthier scenario for an agency/consultancy relationship:
1. the agency does strategy and execution for you
2. as you scale they help you create processes in your department
3. they then help you hire the right people and train them
4. if needed, they stick around and consult with you on strategy.
Possibly, rinse and repeat in other areas of marketing/biz dev.
This should be the norm.