11 agency anti-patterns we refuse to participate in

Why agency relationships break (it's not the work)

Most agency relationships don't break because the work is bad. They break because the operating model has structural conflicts that show up in month 3 or 4 — when the senior pitcher has rotated off, when the work product is stuck in revision cycles, when the metric dashboard says 'success' but the CFO can't see the revenue.

The 11 anti-patterns below are the most common structural traps. Some are deliberate; some are emergent. Either way, the cost is borne by the client, not the agency. Read them before you sign anywhere — including with us. If we're doing any of these, call us out.

The 11 anti-patterns

1. 1The bait-and-switch. The pitch is led by a senior strategist or partner. The work is delivered by a junior or an offshore team. By month three you're escalating to the senior to fix work the junior shipped wrong. The contract should specify named individuals on the account — and a 'no swap without 30 days' notice' clause.
2. 2The discovery call that's a sales pitch. A 'free strategy session' that turns out to be 45 minutes of agency talking about themselves and 5 minutes of them asking 'what's your budget?' Real discovery is quiet. The agency listens, asks specific questions about your stack/data/team, and doesn't pitch on the first call.
3. 3The hourly invoice without time tracking. 'Project consumed 80 hours this month.' Doing what? Hourly billing requires hour-level transparency. Tools like Toggl, Harvest, or even a Google Sheet should be visible to the client weekly. If the agency won't share, you're paying for opacity.
4. 4The 'we can't share who we work with'. Confidentiality is real, but blanket secrecy usually means weak case studies. Ask for at least one anonymized case study with real numbers. Ask for a reference call with a current or recent client. If they refuse all forms of validation, walk.
5. 5The 6-month exclusivity for SEO. SEO does not require exclusivity in markets large enough to have meaningful competition. An agency demanding category exclusivity is either trying to upsell, or limiting their pipeline to look more impressive. The market is bigger than five clients.
6. 6The retainer that auto-renews. Retainers should require active renewal. Auto-renewal is the agency assuming the work is going well; the client should explicitly affirm that. We use 6-month terms with explicit renewal at month 5.
7. 7The 'we don't do refunds' clause. Combined with auto-renewal, this is a trap. Real agencies stand behind their work. We offer a 60-day money-back on retainers, prorated. Refund policies should be in writing in the MSA.
8. 8The locked source code. The agency builds your platform, but won't give you the code, the deployment pipeline credentials, or the documentation. You're held hostage. Your contract should specify code ownership transfer with payment in full and a hand-off process.
9. 9The mysterious 'PM hours'. The invoice has 40 hours of 'project management' and 60 hours of actual work. PM hours should be capped at 10–15% of execution hours and itemized — meeting attendance, status reports, etc. — not bundled.
10. 10The vanity dashboard. Beautifully designed, full of impressive numbers, none of which tie to revenue. Real reports tie work to dollars: pipeline created, conversions, revenue attributed. If the dashboard doesn't connect to your CRM or finance system, it's theatre.
11. 11The non-disclosure that goes one direction. The MSA forbids you from criticizing the agency publicly, but the agency can market with your case study. Mutual NDAs only. We mention clients only with explicit, current consent.

Contract clauses that protect you

• Named individuals on account: list specific people. Replacement requires 30 days' notice.
• Source code escrow / immediate transfer on payment. Code is yours when invoice is paid.
• Time-tracking transparency: weekly itemized hours.
• Refund policy: pro-rata refund if you cancel mid-period for cause.
• Mutual NDAs: both parties protected, neither uses the other's name without consent.
• Audit rights: client can audit hours billed, on reasonable notice.
• Renewal clause: explicit renewal in writing, not auto-rollover.
• Performance clauses: agency commits to specific outputs (e.g., '4 pages live per month'), with reduction in fees if missed.
• Exit terms: 30-day off-boarding with documented hand-off.

Questions to ask before signing (any agency, including us)

If the agency answers all 10 questions confidently and in writing, they're probably worth signing with. If they get evasive on any of them — especially #2, #3, and #9 — those are the warning signs.

We answer all 10 in our discovery call by default. The client doesn't have to ask. We've found that agencies that lead with transparency build relationships that don't break in month 3.

1. 1Who specifically will be on my account, by name? What's their tenure with the agency? Can I LinkedIn-stalk them?
2. 2Can I see your time-tracking system, the hours billed last month for a client similar to me?
3. 3What's your refund policy in writing?
4. 4Who owns the source code / content / data? When does ownership transfer?
5. 5Can you arrange a reference call with a current client?
6. 6What does termination look like? 30 days? 60? Pro-rata?
7. 7What's your typical PM-hours-to-execution-hours ratio?
8. 8How do you tie reporting to revenue? Show me a sample.
9. 9Have you ever issued a refund? Why?
10. 10What clients have you turned away in the past year? What's your no-fit profile?