Agency consulting for founders who want a sales process that works without them

An agency consultant finds the one constraint holding the agency back and builds the system that removes it. At $1M to $5M, Tim Kilroy sees the same pattern again and again: a generalist agency competing on price, a founder who still runs every sales call, and revenue that looks healthy while profit stays thin.

The symptoms owners describe sound like this:

• Nothing closes unless the founder is on the call.
• Lead flow swings from feast to famine and nobody can say why.
• Every deal comes down to price because the agency sounds like everyone else.
• Revenue looks fine, but profit stays thin.

None of these is the real problem. Each is a symptom of a missing system. The work is positioning first, then a sales engine built around that specific agency, because no two agencies at this size are alike.

Most agency owners believe they have a sales problem. Usually they have a process problem. Everything they know about selling is trapped in their head, so the team waits for the founder to show up and close.

Tim Kilroy's agency sales process uses five stages, aware, interested, qualified, proposed, and closed, and a prospect only counts in a stage when they did something observable. Then a 90-day leak test shows which stage loses the most people, so you fix that one thing instead of buying more leads.

Read the full agency sales process guide

Agency coaching only works when it fits where the agency is. Tim Kilroy splits his programs into two zones. Under $50K a month, group coaching in Agency Studio gives founders structure and straight answers. Past $1M a year, the work goes custom, because the bottleneck is now the specific agency and no template can touch it.

Compare agency coaching programs in detail

1. 1

   Diagnose

   Look at the numbers, the pipeline, the go-to-market, the positioning, the team, and the leadership before recommending anything.
2. 2

   Name the constraint

   Pick the one problem that is blocking revenue, margin, or focus right now, and the order to fix everything else.
3. 3

   Build the system

   Turn what the founder knows into documented stages, scripts, and rules the team can run.
4. 4

   Install and measure

   Put it to work on live deals and track stage conversion so the next fix is based on data, not a feeling.

Read more about the reasoning in Tim Kilroy's approach and methodology.

Founder testimonials as published on timkilroy.com (opens in a new tab). Results are each founder's own report.

The agency market is big and crowded. Promethean Research counts more than 71,000 digital agencies in North America, and 87% of them employ fewer than 50 people. Meanwhile 93% of marketing services and professional services firms say their growth engine is not strong enough, according to the RSW/US 2025 Agency Survey as reported by Haus Advisors (opens in a new tab).

See all sourced agency statistics

What is agency consulting?

Agency consulting is outside help for the owner of a service agency: diagnosing what is stalling growth and installing systems to fix it. Tim Kilroy focuses on four areas for marketing and other agencies: positioning, demand generation, sales process, and operations. He reports coaching more than 300 agencies and brings over 25 years of agency and marketing experience to that work. In the full FAQ

What is the difference between agency coaching and agency consulting?

Coaching helps the owner think, decide, and stay accountable; consulting designs and installs specific systems. Tim Kilroy offers both. Agency Studio and Studio+ are coaching programs for agencies under $50K a month. SalesOS and DemandOS are custom, done-with-you builds for agencies between $1M and $20M a year, scoped individually because no template fits an agency at that size. In the full FAQ

Which program fits an agency doing $1M to $5M a year?

SalesOS, scoped after an initial conversation. At this stage Tim Kilroy sees the same pattern: the agency is a generalist competing on price, sales still depend on the founder, and revenue looks fine while profit stays thin. The work is positioning first, then a sales engine built around that specific agency rather than a template. In the full FAQ

How much does Agency Studio cost?

Agency Studio costs $399 a month. It is a group coaching room for agency founders under $50K a month in revenue, built around weekly working sessions where founders bring whatever is on fire and leave with a decision or next action. Tim Kilroy recommends it once an agency reaches roughly $20K a month; below that, he says, get reps and a clear offer first. In the full FAQ

Why do agencies keep losing deals on price?

Because the agency sells effort while the buyer pays for an outcome. Tim Kilroy puts it this way: “Nobody buys better results. They buy a different outcome.” His fix runs three ways: move the conversation to the outcome, raise the floor on which clients you take, and walk away from deals that anchor you low. A price objection is often a positioning problem underneath. In the full FAQ

Is $100 an hour good for consulting?

It depends on your market, expertise, and what the client gets, so there is no universal answer. Tim Kilroy’s view is that hourly framing is the trap: when a buyer cannot see the specific outcome you create, the only thing left to compare is the rate. Pricing on the change you deliver, rather than on effort, usually supports higher and steadier fees. In the full FAQ

Read all 49 questions and answers in the agency consulting FAQ

• Sales ProcessThe five-stage agency sales process, the 90-day leak test, and follow-up that keeps deals moving.
• CoachingGroup and one-on-one agency coaching by revenue stage, with prices and fit.
• Lead GenerationB2B lead generation strategy, the lead generation process, and sales prospecting for agencies.
• DiscoveryDiscovery call sales for agencies: definition, qualifying the prospect, and preparation.
• RatesCoaching prices, agency billing structures, and margin benchmarks.
• Pipeline MathA pipeline math worksheet: revenue goal to weekly conversations.
• By the NumbersSourced industry statistics on agencies, coaching, and lead generation.