When a client decides to leave their agency, the reason shared is rarely the full story. It’s rarely about cost. Instead, it’s about unmet expectations, unclear communication, or a lack of leadership. And that’s exactly where accountability pricing comes in.
I've shared my ideas around how we need to start engaging clients, and today I want to show how changing the nature of our agreements with more accountability for both parties can resolve a lot of relationship ending issues before they take root.
Oh Won't You Stay Just a Little Bit Longer
The most common reasons clients leave have little to do with line items on an invoice. Instead, they point back to gaps in accountability. It’s rarely about the budget itself, it’s about the feeling that what they’re paying for isn’t producing what was promised, or that their agency isn’t truly invested in their success. Here are some of the top reasons clients leave agencies according to this recent research report from Forbes. And how I think we can address them and improve our companies at the same time.
1. Work Without Strategy
“They did what we asked, but it turns out it wasn’t what we needed.” Agencies default to tasks instead of outcomes when goals aren’t nailed down.
2. Too Slow, Too Reactive
Clients don’t want to chase updates. They want momentum.
3. Silence and Confusion
When communication dies, trust dies.
4. Cookie-Cutter Campaigns
Clients are tired of generic work.
5. Overpromising and Underdelivering
Too many agencies promise the moon and deliver a telescope.
6. Constant Team Turnover
Clients buy into people as much as deliverables.
7. Lack of True Partnership
Clients want more than execution, they want guidance.
Mutual Accountability Is the Key
When you take a close look at why clients leave: work without strategy, slow or reactive progress, silence and confusion, cookie‑cutter campaigns, overpromising with underdelivering, constant team turnover, and the lack of a true partnership, it all comes back to one thing.
Accountability. When we hold our clients and ourselves publicly accountable, it keeps us moving forward in lock step, instead of constantly slowing each other down with concerns, clarifications, and checking the damn scope. That’s why a huge part of how I see us evolving involves the new accountability pricing model. It’s still in progress, but the goal is clear: create a structure where agencies and clients are aligned on outcomes, communication is built in, and both sides feel more comfortable and ultimately more profitable. I'll be going deep on how accountability pricing works soon in the new Built to Change newsletter.
Every client that knocks on your door has already been burned by someone else. And you have been burned so many times it almost feels normal. Accountability is how we break the cycle. It puts their business goals at the center of the work, and it puts you and your client on the same side of the table. And that my friends is the foundation of a partnership that lasts.