A shared standard for how agencies define and capture their value
Agencies have sold their work by the hour for decades. That model is breaking. AI is eroding the value of the work and procurement keeps pushing fees down. Clients, meanwhile, want to pay for outcomes. Most agency leaders have two or three years to redefine what makes their agency distinctly valuable beyond what AI can produce, and to shift to a commercial model not tied to hours. Agencies have never had to make this change before. They have no shared standard to work from.
The Value Model Institute sets that standard, drawn from guiding hundreds of agencies worldwide that have already made the change.
For associations and network leaders
The Institute is for leaders who want to add value to the agency principals, CEOs, CFOs, and COOs they represent. With the Institute beside your leadership, your association leads the change toward pricing for value in your market. You share the standard with your agencies, and the Institute does the work behind it. Your agencies follow a proven path instead of working it out alone. Everything on this page applies equally to networks; we say association throughout.
The Institute is a partner, not a competitor. Your agencies access the Institute's workshops, benchmarks, and programs only through your association. Every Institute element you provide strengthens the case for an agency to belong to your organization.
What your association receives
See how your agencies change their commercial model year over year, so you can measure progress and offer help
Each agency completes the Agency Model Map diagnostic, learns how its model is impacting its business performance, and receives a roadmap for what to change first.
The Institute provides a co-branded State of the Agency Value Model report, and meets privately with you and your board to review what the trends mean for your own organization's revenue model.
Give your agencies guidance to change their model, price their value, and defend it with price-driven buyers
Each agency follows a designed track of workshops based on its diagnostic results, with dedicated tracks for specific roles, such as finance, business development, and account management, and for types of agencies, such as media, creative, PR, and full-service firms, depending on the program option you choose.
Get started quickly and easily. We do the work.
We field the diagnostic, run the analysis, build the report and online Index, and manage the workshop portal.
You receive a co-branded launch kit to get started: a one-pager about the diagnostic and an announcement email, ready for you to send.
Diagnostic data is anonymized, reported only in aggregate, and used for industry research and to improve the Institute's programming. We never share or sell agency data. The data-use policy appears on the diagnostic page.
No charge to get started
Provide your agencies with an Agency Model Map diagnostic, personalized agency roadmaps, and a custom report for your association.
- A five-minute online Agency Model Map diagnostic. Each agency learns how its current commercial model is impacting its business. We provide you with a link to send to your agencies.
- Personalized agency roadmaps. Each agency receives a roadmap for what to change first.
- State of the Agency Value Model report, an edition specific to your association. A co-branded PDF report (a minimum of 20 completed diagnostics required). Agency data stays confidential and anonymized, reported as aggregated results.
And for your association's leadership
- Strategic Review call. A private readout with you and your board to discuss what the trends in your members' results mean for your own organization's revenue model.
Three options, each an annual program
Leader Lead the change in your market, with the Institute beside your leadership. |
Advocate Move all your agencies forward, and see the progress. |
Supporter Give every agency a clear place to start, and a roadmap to change. |
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1. See how your agencies change their commercial model year over year, so you can measure progress and offer help. | |||
| Build on your Agency Model Map diagnostic report. Sign up for a paid program at any time and you'll also receive the following:
An online workshop that walks you and your agencies through the aggregated diagnostic results and top 3 recommendations based on the data. Agencies will also learn how to get the most value from your chosen Program Plan. One 90-minute session with Q&A.
Keep your association's benchmark updated: new or existing member agencies can complete (or refresh) their diagnostic anytime.
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| A Value Model Index for your association. A private, online benchmark specific to your association, updated quarterly as your agencies complete or refresh their diagnostic, set against a global data set. Anonymized, aggregated, filterable by region and firmographics. Co-branded, password protected. (Q4) | |||
A private online benchmark for each agency to see how they compare to your association's aggregated data and the global data set, and their recommended roadmap. Only accessible to each agency. Password protected. (Q4) | |||
PDF report updates annually, semi-annually, or quarterly on request or when we see a notable shift in the data. You can track how your agencies' commercial models change over time. | Semi-annual | ||
| Publishing license. Publish the aggregated findings under your association's brand, with attribution to the Institute, in press, presentations, and submissions to client and industry bodies. Your evidence base for making the market case. | — | — | |
2. Give your agencies guidance to change their model, price their value, and defend it with price-driven buyers. | |||
| Workshop video library. Recorded sessions on demand, organized as tracks your agencies follow based on their diagnostic results. Specialized tracks for how finance, business development, account management, and other roles change in a new commercial model. Tracks are also tailored by agency type, including media, creative, PR, and full-service firms, because the examples and recommendations we share are different for each. (Q4/Q1) | Value Model Tracks and Specialized Tracks | Value Model Tracks and Specialized Tracks | Value Model Tracks |
| Live online workshops throughout the year, with discussion and Q&A. Choose from the Institute's catalog to build into your programming. We add sessions as the industry changes and as your agencies tell us what they need. Add more online or onsite workshops at an additional price. | Up to 6 | Up to 4 | — |
| Group office-hours. A live monthly one-hour session where your agencies bring their questions to a Value Model expert. We send a registration link each month and collect questions in advance. | — | ||
3. Offer the program as part of your membership | |||
| Member-benefit terms. Offer the program to your agencies as part of your membership, on terms agreed with the Institute. The diagnostic and your association's report remain free to every member agency. | — | ||
4. Shape the curriculum the Institute builds next | |||
| A seat on the Steering Group, which convenes quarterly to review the Institute's planned curriculum and contribute recommendations, informed by the trends emerging in the diagnostic data. | — | — | |
5. Launch your chosen Program Plan quickly and easily | |||
| Co-branded launch kit. A one-pager and announcement email. | |||
| We do the work. We field the diagnostic, run the analysis, and build the report and online Index. We manage the portal to the workshop video library and scheduling of group office-hours. | |||
Fees scale with the size of your association. Inquire for pricing.
Supporter
Give every agency a clear place to start, and a roadmap to change.
- A live online workshop walking you and your agencies through the aggregated diagnostic results and top 3 recommendations, and how to get the most value from your chosen Program Plan. One 90-minute session with Q&A.
- Keep your association's benchmark updated: new or existing member agencies can complete (or refresh) their diagnostic anytime.
- A Value Model Index for your association: a private online benchmark, updated quarterly as agencies complete or refresh the diagnostic, set against a global data set. Anonymized, aggregated, filterable by region and firmographics. Co-branded, password protected. (Q4)
- A private online benchmark for each agency, comparing it to your association's aggregated data and the global data set, with its recommended roadmap. Only accessible to that agency. Password protected. (Q4)
- PDF report updates semi-annually.
- Workshop video library: Value Model Tracks on demand.
- Co-branded launch kit: a one-pager and announcement email. We field the diagnostic, run the analysis, build the report and online Index, and manage the workshop portal.
Advocate
Move all your agencies forward, and see the progress.
Everything in Supporter, plus
- PDF report updates annually, semi-annually, or quarterly on request, or when we see a notable shift in the data.
- Workshop video library expands to Specialized Tracks: sessions tailored by role (finance, business development, account management) and by agency type (media, creative, PR, full-service).
- Up to 4 live online workshops throughout the year, chosen from the Institute's catalog, with discussion and Q&A. Add more online or onsite workshops at an additional price.
- Group office-hours: a live monthly one-hour session where your agencies bring questions to a Value Model expert. We send a registration link each month and collect questions in advance.
- Member-benefit terms. Offer the program to your agencies as part of your membership, on terms agreed with the Institute. The diagnostic and your association's report remain free to every member agency.
Leader
Lead the change in your market, with the Institute beside your leadership.
Everything in Advocate, plus
- Up to 6 live online workshops throughout the year.
- Publishing license. Publish the aggregated findings under your association's brand, with attribution to the Institute, in press, presentations, and submissions to client and industry bodies. Your evidence base for making the market case.
- A seat on the Steering Group, which convenes quarterly to review the Institute's planned curriculum and contribute recommendations, informed by trends in the diagnostic data.
Founding Partner benefits before December 31, 2026
The first ten associations or networks to join a paid plan are named Founding Partners. Founding Partners receive founding pricing, are named participants in the inaugural State of the Agency Value Model: Global Report, and receive sponsor credit on the Institute's podcast in show notes and episode pages.
Who is behind the standard
Brian Kessman
Founder and Executive Director. Brian is the author of Redesigning the Agency Value Model, published by VoxComm. He is a contributor to the IPA's Pricing Playbook, an inaugural member of the 4A's Expert Network, and presents regularly for industry associations around the world. He brings more than 25 years in the agency industry helping firms redesign their value models.
Tim Williams
Advisor. Tim has guided hundreds of firms on positioning and pricing, from mid-size independents to multinational networks. His thinking on professional service firms has been quoted by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. He is a Senior Fellow of the VeraSage Institute, the think tank devoted to the business models and pricing strategies of professional service firms.
How the Institute was created
Brian and Tim brought their two bodies of work together to form the Institute: the Agency Value Model, and more than two decades of pricing, positioning, and productization frameworks for professional service firms. They continue to develop the standard under the Institute. Their consulting firms, Lodestar and Ignition, use the Institute's frameworks for their work in the field.
Associations and networks will help shape the Institute's programs
Podcast
Stories and learnings from agency leaders around the world who have implemented a value-led commercial model, plus perspectives from buy-side voices.
State of the Agency Value Model global report
The first global benchmark of agency commercial models and Global Value Model Index.
Book
A practical guide to redesigning the agency value model.
Practitioner's Guide and Certification
A certification program for people inside an association's member agencies, so your agencies begin to build this capability in their own firms.
A practical, sequenced way to redesign the value model
Associations book sessions for their members based on their Program Plan. The core curriculum can run in order or as standalone sessions. You'll receive detailed session descriptions for each upon joining the Institute. Every session can be tailored to media, creative, PR, or full-service agencies.
1Mapping Your Value Model
The diagnostic and benchmark for your agencies that is the start of every Program Plan, presented live with the top three recommendations based on agency data.
2Redesigning the Agency Value Model
Why agency profitability suffers less from billing by the hour than from a model that can't grow without adding staff, and why AI is making that harder to ignore. Leaders leave with the case for change and a sense of where to begin.
How well an agency defines its value determines how profitably it can capture it. Each session builds on the one before it.
3Defining Value
Leaders learn how to define their best-fit clients, surface the highest-value problems those clients hire the firm to solve, and articulate what makes the firm different and uniquely qualified to solve them. This is the foundation of any agency's value model.
4Designing Value
Leaders learn how to design repeatable, outcome-focused solutions around the problems they defined in the previous session; they learn what a true solution is and how it is different from simply rebundling existing services. This is how agencies start to separate revenue from headcount.
5Delivering Value
Leaders learn what is involved in equipping their teams to speak to, sell, and deliver the value they designed in the previous session, and how to navigate procurement without falling back on hours. This is how agencies establish shared internal language to articulate their impact, respond to pricing pushback, and align roles with outcomes.
6Capturing Value
Leaders learn the Solution-Based Monetization System to price their defined solutions on the value they create rather than the effort they take. They'll learn how to design price tiers that increase average deal size, and how to identify opportunities to generate recurring revenue through subscriptions, IP licensing, and results-based engagements. This is how firms design a scalable revenue model.
Designed to help agencies keep ahead of how the industry is changing. The Institute continues to add sessions as the landscape evolves and as your agencies tell us what they need.
7The Role of AI Through the Value Model
Leaders learn to build AI into their differentiation and proof of value, rather than hand the efficiency savings straight to the client. They map where AI belongs in each of the four stages and how to monetize it in a scalable revenue model.
8Redesigning Team Structure, Roles, and Performance Metrics Through the Value Model
Operational and finance leaders learn to organize teams around the client problems they solve, define roles around outcomes instead of outputs, and build AI into how their teams make the work. They learn to drop time-based metrics and measure the value their teams create instead.
9Building the Holding Company / Network Value Model Playbook
For holding companies standing up internal teams to help their agencies move off billable hours. Leaders drive commercial and organizational change with the Institute's guidance, case studies, and a pragmatic approach that creates buy-in across the network.
Each session shows leaders how a specific function in the agency changes once the firm redesigns its value model. An association can book any session to serve a specific part of its membership.
10Client Leadership Through the Value Model
Account leaders either become the ones who defend the firm's value or the ones who give it away. They work the model through the touchpoints they own: scope creep, and the moment a client pushes back on price. They learn to hold the line on value even when they'd rather protect the relationship.
11Finance Through the Value Model
Finance leaders learn the margin mechanics behind productized firms and the benchmarks of a healthy model, including revenue-per-FTE and gross margin. They learn what a firm has to change to decouple revenue from headcount.
12New Business Through the Value Model
Growth and marketing leaders use the Institute's solution-based messaging hierarchy to reframe the pitch around how they are different and better than other firms. They use the Value Narrative Matrix to map client problems to distinct solutions instead of a list of capabilities. They learn to scope value before scope of work and how to manage budget pressure with downgrades instead of discounts.
13Holding Company Agency Leadership Through the Value Model
Network agency leaders learn to redesign the commercial levers they can control, without global sign-off, to build commercial credibility with clients before they reach the price conversation, and how to build the internal confidence across the firm to navigate price-driven discussions. They'll also learn how to lead value discussions to spark change within their own holding company leadership and finance teams.