Senior title, no idea what the margin is. Sound all too familiar?

Across the agency world, we’ve got brilliant client leads and project managers running accounts, some with values into the millions, but ask them how profitable their portfolio is and you’ll often get the blank stare of someone who’s never opened a job report.

It’s not their fault. Our industry has a long tradition of promoting on charm, tenure, and quality of delivery, but very rarely on commercial literacy. But here’s the kicker: these are same people managing client budgets, creating and signing off on scopes and ultimately determining whether your agency makes or loses money.

I call this out as the classic, and largest reason for, agency prosperity leak.

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The irony of the “senior” title

“Senior” should mean you know how the agency makes money, not just how to keep the client happy.

Too often, agencies promote people for surviving the chaos or holding onto key accounts. Meanwhile, these new leaders are actively ok-ing over-servicing, under-quoting, or giving away out-of-scope work because they genuinely don’t understand the numbers behind the delivery.

We wouldn’t hand someone the keys to an F1 race car without mastering the track layout first but we do it every day with our most trusted team members. What is the result? Profitability targets that look great in a spreadsheet but never make it to the bank.

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The internal fix: Build commercial literacy before promotion

This isn’t about turning your team into accountants (although a great point to get Finance involved in a series of lunch & learns). The lesson is planning and intentionally giving your key people enough commercial literacy to make smart decisions for the levels they’re at and the impact they can make on client, job and general profitability, the kind that protect both client relationships and margins.

1. Define commercial KPIs early

If you want commercially capable leaders, start measuring what matters before the promotion.
Set clear, trackable KPIs like:

• Gross profit per client, portfolio or department
• Billable vs non-billable hours
• Utilisation rate (whatever this % is for your agency)
• Recovery rate on quotes

Once you start, share those numbers regularly because consistency and visibility builds accountability.

2. Make commercial training part of career development

If your internal progression path doesn’t include commercial education, you’re setting people up to fail. Bonus points if Finance and Ops are in the room for the education piece. When creative and commercial brains collaborate early and often, everyone wins.

Host short, sharp sessions that unpack:

• How the agency actually makes money (*tip: each department in your agency makes money in different ways)
• What a job profitability report is and why it matters
• How quoting logic links to resource costs
• The financial and agency culture ripple effect of over-servicing

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The external boost: Upskill with specialist training

Sometimes it helps to bring in a fresh perspective from an outsourced specialist.

If your senior team needs to level up fast, consider:

• Commercial Masterclasses tailored for agency roles — plenty of great independent consultants offer one-day intensives.
• Mini-MBA-style programs that blend leadership and profitability training for the creative industries.
• Shadowing opportunities with your Finance or Ops leads, so emerging seniors can see the real cost of scope creep and under-recovery in action.

This is less to do with dulling the teams’ creative shine and has more to do with teaching them how to protect it sustainably.

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The culture shift: make commercial skills a prerequisite, not an afterthought

Promotions should reflect more than loyalty or client praise. They have to demonstrate commercial confidence.

Before awarding a new title, ask:

• Do they understand how pricing affects profit?
• Can they forecast accurately? This includes revenue and resources
• Do they know when and how to push back on scope?
• Can they interpret a P&L or job report and take corrective action?

If the answer is “not yet,” it’s not a no, it’s a not yet.
Give your future leadership the training, mentoring, and tools to get there. That’s how you grow commercially aware leaders who earn their stripes and protect your profit in the process.

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Agency prosperity starts internally

Let’s stop treating finance and ops as back-of-house support and start recognising them as strategic partners in growth.

When your client leads think like owners, your account managers track like FD’s, your project teams manage scope like pros and that’s when the agency prospers. Because the truth is, profitability is everyone’s business.
Build an agency from within, and one that can shine for the long haul.

That’s what Agency Folks exists to champion: a world where behind-the-scenes brilliance meets commercial confidence. Because #agencyprosperity happens by design.