What $3,500 a Month Actually Buys

A plumber got off a call with an agency that quoted him thirty five hundred a month. He asked the fair question: what does that actually get me? He got two answers. Local pack visibility. Authority building. Then he asked how long before more calls come in, and they told him six to twelve months.

His reply is the whole thing. I am a plumber, I do not have twelve months and forty thousand dollars to find out if this works.

Where a retainer goes

Somebody who left that industry broke down a five thousand a month contract. Two thousand to agency overhead and the founder margin. Fifteen hundred to the sales rep commission. A thousand to the account manager whose real job was producing the monthly report. That left about five hundred for the person doing any actual work.

The ratio is not a scandal. It is what it costs to run a company with a sales floor. You are paying for the sales floor.

What the reports are for

Owners describe the same ritual over and over. A branded PDF once a month that looks impressive and says nothing. A junior sending weekly notes that amount to trust the process. Six months in, forty five thousand spent, a few blog posts and some ads that did not convert, and always next month, always one more optimization away.

The version with no retainer

One price, one time, yours when it is done. The person you talked to is the person doing the work, because there is nobody to hand it to. Nothing renews. Nothing gets held over you.

That does not guarantee you calls. Nothing honest does. What it does is stop the meter, so the thing you bought either works or it does not on its own, instead of billing you every month while you wait to find out.

You should be able to say what you got for your money. If you cannot, that is the answer.