I'm not sure yet. I'm still exploring what agencies are doing. I've heard about this book, but it's pre-digital? The reviews are mixed.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1736929615/ref=as_li_tl
The key is that there are different kinds of agencies, depending on the type of service you provide. And the services you attract depends on the kinds of clients you attract.
I just interviewed (interviews are still in production):
Six and Flow, a Hubspot Elite Partner, who generates a healthy pipeline from their relationship with Hubspot to fulfil and onboard and support Hubspot customers
The Winders Group, which is a network agency. They're main value add is they have a stable of excellent professionals they can call upon, and then they PM the projects to deliver client results. But to make this work, they hone in on projects with commonality so it's repeatable.
FountainCity, a bespoke custom development agency. Every project is novel and innovative, so it's hard to build packaged SOP services.
Graziani Multimedia who just shifted their mix of engagements from 50/50 retainer:project to 80:20 retainer:project because they are building repeatable processes and deliverables.
So what do you make of this? Answer these questions.
WHAT IS YOUR CLIENTS' CHAOS? Who are your clients really? Why are clients freaking out enough to hire you? What chaos are you bringing to order? What is their anxiety?
WHAT ORDER DO YOU BRING TO CLIENTS? How are you bringing to order their businesses? What are the services you know you can consistently provide? What is inside the scope of your core competence? What is outside your scope that you either don't do, or recruit partner agencies or subcontractors to deliver?
WHAT CHAOS IS YOUR AGENCY IN? How similar are projects between clients, or how different? Are they repeatable? Are they renewing on retainers? Are you able to deliver consistent results? How often are you innovating for a client?
HOW ARE YOU BRINGING ORDER TO YOUR AGENCY? Do you have set packages? Do you have standard operating procedures? Do you have systems in place to deliver consistent results? Are you finding leverage to increase margins? Are you on the time for money treadmill of hell?
If you're willing, I'd be happy to be a sounding board for you on a call.