This Agency Owner Grew Retainers 34%… While Eliminating Work on Evenings and Weekends

Getting Out of the Weeds 

Dale Bertrand is the Founder and Managing Director of Fire&Spark, a digital marketing agency specializing in content and SEO for eCommerce and B2B firms. Like many agency owners, Dale was stretched tight by his agency’s needs, spending too much time and energy on work that didn’t contribute to growth. “I knew I needed to reduce my day-to-day involvement in client billables, so I could work on growing the agency,” Dale shares.

Dale chose Karl Sakas’ help for two main reasons: 

1. Karl’s experience helping owners successfully grow their agencies.
2. His expertise helping agency leaders navigate challenging client situations. 

Dale says: “I could tell that he was also a pro at the tricky client and staffing issues I was facing, too. Karl excels at details, tough conversations, and running an efficient operation.”

Reducing Client Work to 10% was a Game Changer

The first major result Dale noticed after working with Karl was the reduction of his time spent on client work—which decreased from a heavy 80% to light 10%. “This was HUGE,” shares Dale, “because it allowed me to start working on fixing the remaining issues in my agency. I could start growing again, while scaling-back my hours to a 9-5 schedule… with no more evening and weekend work!”

Karl also guided Dale through the process of repositioning from a generalist SEO agency to an Ecommerce SEO agency. These combined efforts allowed Dale to focus on key areas that had been neglected, including hiring, staff training, and partnership nurturing.

“These were areas of my agency that I used to ignore because I didn’t have enough time,” says Dale, “I’ve now been able to spend most of my time on the sales and marketing activities I love most,” and these are areas that directly grow his agency.

Navigation Through Thorny Issues Leads to a Positive Outcome

In addition to the value-add Karl had brought to Dale already, he also became a partner regarding challenging staff issues. Dale no longer felt alone when thorny situations arose. “I made a few emergency calls to Karl when things went sideways with a couple of employees. Karl calmed me down and walked me through an action plan to deal with the situations.”

After completing what is now Executive Advisory, Karl became an informal member of Dale’s advisory board—helping to navigate key decisions.

Monthly Retainer is Up by 34%, Stress Level Is Down and Opportunities Abound

Thanks to working with Karl, Dale’s agency is operating at full capacity and he’s made exceptional new hires. He’s generating inbound sales leads—including partnerships and client referrals—with 1-2 new leads a day and 26 opportunities in his sales pipeline. He shares: “My relationship with Karl has been transformative for me and my agency.”

Karl’s speaker coaching helped Dale keep landing speaking spots at the high-profile INBOUND conference for five consecutive years—including getting selected among more than 1,100 applications. Dale has continued speaking—including Content Marketing World and Traffic & Conversion Summit—including pivoting to virtual.

Fire&Spark’s average monthly retainer is up by 34% and Dale reports: “My stress level has gone from off-the-charts to manageable.” Dale has happily pruned his client list while simultaneously growing his agency and shares: “I can truthfully say that all of my client relationships are friction-free. As a result, we’ve seen a dramatic improvement in client retention.”

This kind of clarity doesn’t happen by accident.

If you’re ready for experienced outside perspective—and want support from someone who’s guided hundreds of agencies through complex, high-leverage decisions—reach out. We open a few new client slots each quarter, and we’ll start with a short conversation to see if it’s the right fit on both sides.