Just overheard a Shopify agency owner say he prefers referall fees over retainer deals

I was grabbing coffee last tuesday and heard this guy on the phone saying referalls pay him 3x more per client than any retainer ever did. He said retainers lock you into too many meetings and scope creep kills your profit. Made me think about my own agency partnerships. I've been pushing retainer deals hard but maybe I'm leaving money on the table. Anyone else shifting away from retainers?

3 comments

3 Comments

abby_black2mo agoMost Upvoted

Referrals aren't exactly a lottery ticket if you're good at what you do, they just take longer to build up. The key difference is that referrals usually pay way more upfront but you have to keep proving yourself over and over. Retainers give you a safety net but like that guy said, the scope creep can eat all your profit if you're not careful with your contract terms.

james_kim2mo ago

Is that guy really comparing a consistent paycheck to a maybe lottery ticket?

reesemiller1mo ago

Wait, so is the real problem with retainers just bad contracts then? Because what you said about scope creep got me thinking. Honestly, most people write retainers like a blank check for the client and then get surprised when it backfires. Tbh, if you set hard limits on what's included and charge extra for anything outside that, retainers can still work. Ngl though, referrals sound way less stressful if you're decent at what you do. Yeah you gotta keep proving yourself, but at least you're getting paid properly for each job instead of watching your profit get eaten up by meetings nobody really needed.