Why Your Agency’s Bespoke Approach Is Killing Your Margins

Andrew Radley, former WPP executive, on productisation, commercial models, and why creativity doesn’t mean chaos.

Across creative agencies and tech consultancies, the mantra is familiar: “Every client is unique.” Andrew Radley, CEO of consultancy A Few Good People, argues this belief is killing profitability—bespoke approaches commoditise services and reduce expert advisors to order-takers.

After nearly 30 years in product management across sectors from telecoms to martech—including building the integrated commerce and technology units at WPP’s Wunderman Thompson Technology (now VML), Radley has witnessed the same pattern. Agencies resist productisation, but the path to better margins lies in three critical shifts: selling value not effort, using methodology as a sales tool, and aligning everything behind value delivery.

Sell Value, Not Effort

The pressure is real. Rates are dropping. Clients treat agencies as interchangeable. Proposals take weeks because everything’s bespoke. But the root problem runs deeper.

“Selling time is fine so long as your cost base is predominantly time,” Radley says. “That’…