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Hi AMs, Cramer (experiential marketing agency) is hiring for Account Directors and Account Managers. In office 3 days a week. Links below to the job openings!
Account Director (Hybrid) https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3044834981 Account Supervisor (Hybrid) https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2998231407 Account Manager (hybrid) https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3047386705
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Where is your account staff and project manager in all this? They should be managing the scope details and budgeting.
This sitch happens often with marketing folks who are too junior and have never worked with agencies before to know what a scope is and rarely check in with their managers. The result is agency churn and a financial situation that will result in overservice and a write off.
Basically your client f’d up. Discuss how many people on your client side need to sign off on projects moving forward because this person can’t be trusted. Make sure your supervisor is copied and aware because “letting a client go out of scope of a retainer” is a red flag and potential money drain.
Seems like this retainer is the catch-all for overall client requests and odds n ends. When estimated, you should tell the client what was included to get the cost. You might need to make a list of things you all did to-date and the time involved that have contributed to your financial sitch. Full transparency to tell the client they are burning through this and need to give you all more money. Also check if your management is willing to eat some costs as an “investment” to create good will with the client.
Just make sure this client knows what work you are doing and that you all are billing to this retainer. If your boss wants to use the retainer because there is money still in it, confirm protocol when the money runs out. And make sure your team has regular financial meetings with client. No one wants to hear they are out of money after the fact.
This is nothing new in client service. Just a hiccup to get over. Better to learn this lesson now before things get out of hand on more costly projects.
I'm going to ask what SVP MD already asked: where are your account people and project managers? This is not at all something that you should have to navigate. This sounds like a very poor team structure with VERY unclear roles and responsibilities.
I understand if the big boss says to take on more work if there are hours left, but who is determining how many hours are left and what can be done with that remaining time? If you only have 10 hours left, but the clients ask for 100 hours worth of work, are you supposed to do that work? Who makes that determination? Again, none of this should fall on you.
Context: the retainer is for event marketing, deliverables are one, 1-hour meeting and one deck outlining the marketing strategy for one event per month. The sales person sold this as an agency of record service wherein the agency would provide consulting on anything and everything. Sales person didn’t review the contract with the marketing director’s boss or the marketing director. So I was the one to break the news that that’s not what they bought. I thought everything was fine after we completed the first month. Then I got the email from client’s boss out of the blue and this resulted in my boss telling me I did something wrong by stating deliverables. and that if we have extra time on the job we have to do whatever the client asks. I am so confused and don’t understand how we got here AT ALL. Any advice on how to handle? Anything I need to clarify?