Your agency signs a new client engagement. A project, a retainer, an audit, a major campaign.

Revenue is what you get paid. Engagement Yield is everything else you gain from the engagement: the proof, leverage, relationships, and referrals, the things that make future growth easier.

I’ve been thinking about this concept because it explains a pattern I’ve seen over nearly two decades in the agency business: why some agencies seem to compound their advantages while others stay stuck on a treadmill, working just as hard for each new client as they did five years ago.

Think of each client engagement as an investment. Revenue is the immediate return. But the right engagements also provide upside—case studies, testimonials, referrals, SOPs, deepened relationships. These “dividends” compound over time if you’re positioned to receive them. Most agencies aren’t.

The Four Components of Engagement Yield

Proof

Proof is evidence that you can do what you say you can do. It takes the form of case studies, testimonials, portfolio pieces, documented results, client logos, and publishable metrics. Proof is what lets a prospect trust you before they’ve worked with you. Without it, you’re asking people to take your word for it, and that’s a harder sell every time.

Fresh, relevant proof is one of the few things that actually makes sales easier over time. It shortens cycles, reduces objections, and justifies premium pricing. But proof has a shelf life. A case study from three years ago in a different industry doesn’t carry the same weight as one from six months ago with a similar client. Agencies that aren’t generating new proof are slowly watching their credibility decay.

Leverage

Leverage is what allows you to do better work in less time because you’ve done it before. It shows up as SOPs, documented workflows, reusable code and templates, strategy frameworks, presentation decks you can adapt, and codified POVs on tools, vendors, and approaches.

This is where specialization pays compounding dividends. An agency that does the same type of work for similar clients builds a library of assets that make each subsequent engagement faster and more profitable. A generalist agency starts closer to zero every time.
Leverage also includes the learning and continuous improvement that comes from pattern recognition. What’s working? What’s not? What questions do clients always ask? What problems keep recurring? When this knowledge is captured and made accessible—not stuck in someone’s head—the whole team gets better. New hires ramp faster. Delivery becomes more consistent. Margins improve.
The agencies that build real leverage aren’t just doing more work. They’re getting better at the work, and that compounds.

Relationships

Relationships are the trust and goodwill you build with clients over the course of an engagement. A strong relationship means the client thinks of you first when a new need arises, takes your call when you reach out, and gives you the benefit of the doubt when something goes sideways.

Relationships also extend beyond the primary contact. Did you build rapport with other stakeholders? Do you understand who else is in the client’s orbit—their vendors, partners, peers? A deepened relationship is an asset that can generate value for years. A transactional one ends when the invoice is paid.

Referrals

Referrals are introductions to new prospects that come from people who already trust you. They’re the highest-converting, lowest-cost leads you’ll ever get. A referred prospect shows up warmer, with fewer objections, and is more likely to pay what you’re worth.

But referrals don’t happen automatically. Satisfied clients don’t always think to refer you because they’re busy with their own work. Referrals come when you ask, when you stay top of mind, and when you make it easy. The agencies that get consistent referrals have made it a habit to ask and have positioned themselves clearly enough that clients know exactly who to send their way.

What Determines Yield Potential

Not all engagements generate yield equally. Some are structurally higher-yield before any work begins:

• Specialization fit: If you’re a generalist, the case study from your healthcare client doesn’t help you win the next e-commerce project. A specialized agency compounds proof with every engagement because each case study is relevant to the next prospect.
• Client selection: Can you talk about this client publicly? Do they have a peer network of similar companies? Will the work produce visible, measurable results you can point to?
• Engagement design / service offering: Engagements with clear outcomes and milestones generate better proof than open-ended ones. Work that demonstrates your methodology is higher-yield than one that feels commoditized and generic.

This argues for thinking about yield potential alongside revenue when qualifying opportunities. Some projects pay well but generate little beyond the dollars. Others pay the same but yield value for years.

Positioning Yourself to Receive Yield

Yield doesn’t arrive automatically. You need systems and rituals that put you in position to receive what the engagement generates:

• Engagement debriefs (internal): What patterns emerged? What would we do differently? This is how learning becomes institutional rather than individual.
• Client surveys: A natural moment to gauge satisfaction and open the door for testimonials and referrals.
• Case study development: 30-60 days post-engagement, when results are visible, circle back to document the story.
• SOP creation: When you solve a novel problem, capture it so the next team member doesn’t start from scratch.
• Referral conversations: When a client is happy, ask specifically who else in their network might benefit from what you do.
• Relationship mapping: Understand who your client knows. Their network is part of the yield.

The agencies that do this consistently look qualitatively different over time. They have fresh proof, institutional knowledge that survives employee turnover, and warm inbound from referrals. It’s not that they worked harder, they just captured the yield their engagements were already generating.

The Real Cost of Low Yield

The surface-level cost is obvious: you miss out on case studies and referrals. The deeper costs are worse:

• Linear growth mode: Without compounding proof and referrals, your customer acquisition cost never declines. Every new client requires the same effort as the last.
• Knowledge doesn’t accumulate: When people leave, uncodified learning leaves with them. The team repeatedly solves the same problems.
• Positioning decay: Proof has a half-life. A case study from five years ago is less valuable than one from a few months ago. Without fresh yield, your credibility erodes even if your delivery quality stays the same.
• Pricing pressure: Proof and reputation justify premium pricing. Without compounding yield, you start to become indistinguishable from low cost providers.

A Tale of Two Agencies, Same Starting Point

Agency A (low yield) treats each engagement as a transaction. They deliver, they invoice, they move on. After five years, they have a handful of outdated case studies, a few scattered testimonials, and rely on outbound and paid channels to fill the pipeline.

Agency B (high yield) invests in the right engagements and has systems to receive what those engagements generate. Every project produces or updates proof. Referrals are requested and received. Learning accumulates and is accessible. After five years, they have a library of relevant case studies, warm inbound from referrals, institutional knowledge that makes delivery faster, and a reputation that justifies premium pricing.

Same effort per engagement in terms of delivery, but radically different trajectories.

Audit Your Engagement Yield

If you want to know where you stand, run a simple audit. Pull your last 10-20 completed engagements and score each one across eight questions. One point for yes, zero for no.

Proof

• Did this produce a case study, testimonial, or portfolio piece?
• Do we have documented results we can reference in future sales conversations?

Leverage

• Did we create or update an SOP, template, or internal resource?
• Is what we learned accessible to the rest of the team?

Relationships

• Is the client relationship stronger now than when we started?
• Would they take a call from us in six months?

Referrals

• Did we ask for a referral or introduction?
• Did we receive one?

A perfect engagement scores 8. Across our Barrel Holdings agencies, a growth lever has been taking Engagement Yield seriously so that most engagements score at least a 5 or higher.

When you’ve gone through the process of scoring your own client engagements, look for patterns. Which engagement types generated the most yield? Which clients were highest-yield and what did they have in common? Where are you consistently scoring zeros?

If the average is low, you either have a positioning problem (taking on engagements that don’t generate yield) or a systems problem (yield is being generated but not captured). Both are fixable once you see them clearly.

Note: check out our site AgencyHabits, where we talk a lot about the “habits” that agencies can adopt to get more yield from their engagements