Why this matters
The problem is rarely the team. It is that nobody senior is deciding.
A marketing executive cannot tell the trustees that the budget is in the wrong place. Someone has to be able to.
The common shape is this. An institution has a marketing executive or two, an agency, a designer, and a video freelancer. Everyone is busy. Reports arrive monthly. Nobody is answering the questions that actually matter: is this budget in the right channel, is the agency earning its fee, are we measuring the right thing, and what would we stop doing if we had to.
Those are not junior questions and they are not ones an agency will ask, because the honest answer sometimes costs the agency its retainer. That is the specific gap this engagement fills, and it is why it is deliberately separate from the retainer service.
What actually happens each month
A working session with your team on what the numbers say and what changes. A review of agency and vendor output against what was promised. A budget allocation decision with reasons attached. And a one-page summary your management or trustees can read without translation.
The conflict, stated openly
If we are reviewing your agency’s performance, we should not also be your agency. So in this engagement we do not take execution work for the same institution unless you explicitly ask and we both acknowledge the change. Saying that up front is more useful than discovering it later.
to cut its own retainer.
Not sure this is your gap?
The free audit works out which of the eight services you actually need. Most institutions need three.
- 30 minutes, no deck
- Your numbers, not a template
- Written summary afterwards
Scope
What is included.
Shaped to what your team already has. An institution with a strong in-house performance team needs something different from one with a single executive.
Fortnightly working sessions plus availability in between, priced for a few days a month. Usually taken by groups running two or more campuses. If your situation needs more than that, it is a different arrangement and we will say so.
Get an exact quoteHow it runs
From first call to live.
Timelines assume you can get us access and answers. Most delays are access delays.
Diagnostic
Two weeks reading accounts, reports, vendor contracts and talking to your team.
Plan and reset
Strategy, budget allocation and measurement corrections agreed with management.
Operating rhythm
Fortnightly sessions, monthly reporting, quarterly strategy review.
Handover-ready
The aim is a team that needs us less each quarter, not more.
Who this is for
Where this service earns its fee.
Questions
About this service, specifically.
How is this different from hiring you as our agency?
Opposite side of the table. As your agency we would be executing and reporting on our own work. Here we are reviewing whoever executes, including agencies you already use. For the same institution we do one or the other, not both, unless we explicitly agree to change it.
We are a single-campus school. Is this overkill?
Usually, yes, and we will say so. This fits institutions with an in-house team of at least two, multi-campus groups, or edtech companies with a performance team. A single school with one executive is generally better served by a retainer.
How much of your time do we get?
Fortnightly working sessions plus availability in between, which in practice runs to a few days a month. It is priced for that. If your situation needs more, that is a different conversation and probably a different arrangement.
Will you work with our existing agency or replace them?
Work with them first. Plenty of agencies underperform because nobody senior on the client side is setting direction or holding them to a number. If they still underperform after that, you will have the evidence to move on.
What is the minimum commitment?
Three months. Anything shorter is a diagnostic, not a leadership engagement, and you would be paying for the reading-in period without getting the benefit of it.
Is your budget in the right place?
The audit is the short version of this engagement. Bring your current plan and your agency’s last report.
FREE ADMISSIONS AUDIT
Thirty minutes on your numbers.
No deck and no obligation. We look at your current spend, your enquiry numbers and your follow-up process, and you leave with the three things worth fixing first, whether or not you hire us.
Request your free admissions audit
Ten questions, about a minute. We reply within one working day.
Thank you for your response. ✨
Free and no obligation · Reply within one working day · Written summary afterwards