Why Most Consulting Fails Growing Agencies
There’s an uncomfortable truth in the world of consulting, coaching, and mentoring for digital agencies:
The people who need the most help are the least well served.
At one end of the market, start-ups are flooded with accelerators, coaches, and low-cost advice.
At the other end, large organisations with 300+ staff are catered for by heavyweight consultancies with deep benches, frameworks, and fees to match.
But the middle, agency leaders running teams of 5 to 100 people, is where the system quietly breaks down.
And that’s a problem.
A Market That Solves the Wrong Problems
If you listen carefully to agency leaders in this “missing middle”, a pattern emerges.
They’re not naïve.
They’ve tried things.
They know there’s no silver bullet.
Yet most of what’s available to them feels either:
Too generic
Too guru-led
Too theoretical
Or completely disconnected from the reality of running a growing agency.
Multiple surveys back this up: the consulting and business support industry consistently overestimates the value it delivers to growing businesses.
Consultants think they’re doing a great job.
Clients… are far less convinced.
That gap matters.
The Problem with Guru-Led Consulting
The dominant model still looks like this:
“I’ve done it. I’ve been there. Follow my system.”
Once upon a time, that carried weight.
Today, almost everyone claims to be a guru.
The result?
Personality-led propositions
Over-simplified success stories
Big promises detached from context
And an industry crowded with low-cost, low-quality offerings, especially in tougher economic cycles.
This creates a schizophrenic proposition for agency owners:
The consultant says, “I can get you there”
The agency leader knows, “But I’m here”
That gap is rarely acknowledged honestly.
Hard things are hard.
Growing an agency is complex.
There is no MBA-in-a-day.
And there is no magic formula.
Why the Middle Is Different
What’s interesting is that mid-stage agency leaders already know this.
They’re experienced enough to be sceptical.
Smart enough to spot hype.
And grounded enough to know that transformation takes time.
What they actually want isn’t instruction.
They want:
A conversation
With someone who’s genuinely been there
Across multiple contexts, not just one historic success
Someone honest enough to say “this is hard”
Someone who won’t hide behind guarantees, hype, or borrowed credibility.
In short: someone they can trust.
From Transaction to Partnership
The most effective support in this middle ground doesn’t look like classic consulting at all.
It looks like:
Working with leaders, not talking at them
Shared problem-solving
Long-term thinking over quick fixes
Progress over promises.
There’s a useful Greek concept here: eudaimonia, often translated as flourishing.
Not just more revenue.
Not just more profit.
But a business that works better for everyone inside it.
It’s Not Just About Growth
Here’s another misconception worth challenging:
Mid-market agency leaders don’t just want more.
They want better.
Better quality of life
Better leadership capability
Better decisions
Better alignment between ambition and reality
They don’t just want to own a business. They want to lead one.
That distinction matters.
Business owners may be content to optimise what already exists.
Business leaders actively seek support to evolve.
Not with revolutions.
With measured, pragmatic progress.
Why Agencies Distrust Consultants (And Often Rightly So)
Agency leaders are understandably suspicious of:
High-level strategy with no path to implementation
Shiny thinking divorced from operational reality
Short, sharp “schools of thought” that ignore context
Overconfidence disguised as certainty.
What they want is evolution, not disruption theatre.
And yet, most consultants still talk more about themselves than about the agencies they’re supposed to serve.
That’s the real failure.
So What Needs to Change?
The data tells us something stark:
Around 79% of consultants believe they deliver above-average client experience
Only 16% of clients agree.
That’s not a messaging problem.
That’s a listening problem.
The future of effective consultancy, especially for growing agencies, lies in:
Humility over heroics
Partnership over prescription
Context over clichés
And honest, informed conversation over guru-driven certainty.
The middle doesn’t need saving.
It needs to be served properly.