CEO Resource · Agency Relationships
What to put in writing before you sign with any agency. Including CESSON.
When a CEO and an agency fall out, it is rarely about talent. It is about what was never agreed: who answers for the work, what gets done in the first 90 days, how the fee is earned, and how either side can leave. Here is what to ask for, and what CESSON puts on paper.
Five things worth having in writing
- ✓Who answers for the work, by nameAsk who sets the strategy, who you will speak to every week, and who answers when something isn’t working. Get the names, not the titles.
- ✓The work for the first 90 daysA written plan with the work in order: what gets done first, what waits, and what each piece should produce. It is the only thing a review can be held against.
- ✓How the fee is earnedA flat monthly fee is fair when you can see what it buys. If the fee is a percentage of your ad spend, the advice and the invoice point the same way, and you should know that going in.
- ✓What the report will showLeads and revenue from systems you own, in plain words. Agree on the definition of a lead before the first report, so everyone means the same number.
- ✓Who owns what, and how you leaveYour website, ad accounts, analytics, CRM and content should be in your name from day one. The notice period and the way out belong on page one of the agreement.
A flat fee, and media at cost
CESSON charges one flat monthly fee for the engagement. Media is bought at cost in ad accounts you own, and we take no percentage of it.
If we tell you to spend more on advertising, our fee doesn’t move. If we tell you to spend less, it doesn’t move either. That keeps the advice clean.
The buck stops with Philippe
Philippe Cesson sets the strategy, reviews and directs all the work, and answers for the result.
A named member of the CESSON team runs your account day to day, and the people you meet are the people doing the work. Meet the team
The work agreed up front
A written plan in month one, approved by you before anything is spent.
Reports tied to revenue
Leads, cost per lead and what turned into business. Not activity for its own sake.
An honest review, and a way out
A date on which both sides check the work against the plan, with a clear exit if it wasn’t done.
The commitment, both ways.
Six months to start, because onboarding is a real investment and we charge no setup fee for it. At 90 days we sit down with the plan from month one. If we haven’t done the work we said we would, you can leave on 30 days’ notice.
After the first six months the engagement runs month to month, on 30 days’ written notice. There is no annual contract and no exit fee. CESSON clients stay seven years on average. The full terms What an engagement looks like
Before you sign with an agency
- Five things, in writing: who answers for the work by name, the work planned for the first 90 days, how the fee is earned, what the monthly report will show, and who owns the accounts and how either side can leave.
- A flat fee keeps the agency’s advice separate from its invoice: recommending more spend does not raise the fee. With a percentage, the two move together. CESSON charges a flat fee and buys media at cost.
- Say so plainly and change course, even when that means a smaller engagement. The monthly review exists for that conversation.
- Six months to start, because onboarding is a real investment and we charge no setup fee for it. At 90 days we sit down with the plan from month one. If we haven’t done the work we said we would, you can leave on 30 days’ notice.
- The plan for the first 90 days, the flat monthly fee, media bought at cost, your ownership of every account, a monthly report in plain words, the 90-day checkpoint, and 30 days’ notice after the first six months. Philippe Cesson answers for all of it.
Start with something you can check.
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