An Agency Business Coach is a partner who works alongside agency leaders to help them improve the way they run and grow their business.
They generally fall into two categories: Generalists, who provide a holistic view to help diagnose challenges across the entire business, and Specialists, who bring deep expertise to solve a specific, known bottleneck in an area like finance, sales, or operations.
From Parakeeto’s perspective, the best coaches—regardless of their focus—don’t just offer motivation. They are able to help a firm identify not only what to focus on, but when to sequence their priorities. This ensures that you’re putting time and effort into the right things in the right order.
This is why at Parakeeto, we always start client engagements with an Assessment aimed at clearly identifying a firm’s biggest profit leaks, and a prioritized roadmap for success.
Why it matters for agencies
Agencies operate in a dynamic environment where critical challenges can arise from any part of the business—client strategy, team performance, sales cycles, or operational efficiency. Choosing the right type of coach is crucial because a sales problem requires a sales solution, and a leadership problem requires a leadership solution.
Making the right match between your agency’s current need and a coach’s expertise is what creates real impact. It ensures you are applying the most effective tools to your biggest obstacle, which is the fastest path to building a more resilient and successful agency.
Benefits of working with a coach:
- Get clarity on core challenges and a structured plan to address them.
- Make measurable progress on your most critical business goals.
- Make better, more confident decisions with an expert sounding board.
- Create accountability to ensure plans turn into action.
- Shift from reactive problem-solving to proactive, system-driven leadership.
From Parakeeto’s perspective, as specialists in agency profitability and operations, an effective coach implements systems rooted in data. Our focus is on the financial engine of an agency—installing frameworks to manage Agency Gross Income (AGI), Delivery Margin, and capacity planning. A great sales or leadership coach would apply this same level of rigor and implementation focus to their specific domain.
How to choose and measure impact
The agency coaching world is broad. The key is to start by being honest about your agency’s current needs to determine if a generalist or a specialist is the right fit for you right now.
What to look for:
- The Right Profile (Generalist vs. Specialist): First, diagnose your primary need. Are you facing broad, interconnected challenges where the root cause is unclear (best for a Generalist)? Or do you have a specific, well-defined bottleneck (best for a Specialist)?
- Implementation Focus: Whether they are a generalist or a specialist, do they have a clear process for helping you execute plans? Where do they sit on the spectrum of a coach (guiding you) vs a consultant (doing it with you or for you)
- A Track Record in Their Lane: Look for clear outcomes and references from past clients or direct experience that are relevant to their stated area of expertise.
- Stage Alignment: Have they successfully helped agencies similar in size, model, and maturity to yours?
- Philosophical Fit: Do they challenge your thinking constructively? Do you trust their approach and align with core values? Are they willing to challenge you on assumptions, biases or fears that have been holding you back?
How to measure impact:
- Are you clearer on the key metrics for the area you hired them to improve (e.g., financials, sales pipeline, team performance)?
- Has your confidence in decision-making improved?
- Have you made measurable progress on your highest-priority goals?
- Is your team better aligned and more accountable?
- Are you experiencing less chaos and more predictability in your business?