Retainers are sold as "peace of mind." But a lot of brands eventually realize they're paying monthly for one uncomfortable outcome: nothing moving.
That is not always because the agency is evil. It's because retainers create a predictable incentive problem.
If payment is fixed and outcomes are optional, velocity declines.
This is the ghost of maintenance. Work becomes invisible. Progress becomes vague. Your budget becomes a donation.
Principal-agent drift
You (the principal) want outcomes. The agency (the agent) is paid for availability.
Over time, three things happen. Your tasks become "small tweaks" that are easy to deprioritize. Their best people get pulled to urgent projects. Reporting shifts from movement to activity.
Nobody wakes up and says "let's coast." The system steers them there.
The subtle signs you're being coasted
These are not dramatic, which is why they linger for months.
Red flag 1: no deliverables ledger
If you cannot list what shipped this month, what changed in metrics, and what you learned, you are paying for vibes.
Red flag 2: work expands to fill meetings
Syncs multiply, but output does not. That is progress theater.
Red flag 3: roadmaps that never close
You keep hearing "next week." Next week never arrives.
Red flag 4: they cannot explain tradeoffs
If they cannot say what they chose not to do and why, they are not managing priorities. They are reacting.
In founder terms, it often feels fine until you notice the truth: nothing moved.
The fix: swap retainers for outcome sprints
You don't need "ongoing." You need repeated, scoped execution.
A sprint model forces clarity: scope, output, an end point, and measurable movement. You pay for active work with visible outcomes, not indefinite availability.
How to convert a retainer into something that doesn't suck
You can do this without starting a war. Start by changing what you ask for.
Step 1: ask for a deliverables ledger for the past 60 days. Not "what did you work on?" Ask: what shipped, and what changed?
Step 2: define a scoreboard. Pick 2-3 metrics max: conversion rate, AOV, organic traffic quality (not vanity volume), Core Web Vitals, or email revenue per subscriber.
Step 3: introduce sprint scope. Even if you stay on retainer, enforce a 2-week or 4-week scope with 3-6 explicit deliverables and one learning goal.
Step 4: tie meetings to output. Meetings are for decisions. Decisions produce tickets. Tickets ship changes. No tickets, no meeting.
A 10-question "are we wasting money?" checklist
Answer quickly.
- Can I name what shipped last week?
- Can I see what's in progress right now?
- Do we have deadlines?
- Are we measuring before and after?
- Are priorities explicit?
- Is there a single owner?
- Are we learning from experiments?
- Are blockers surfaced early?
- Are we reducing complexity or adding it?
- Do we feel faster month to month?
If you cannot answer six or more confidently, you are likely in drift.
The counterpoint: some work should be ongoing
Security updates, platform stability, and incident response can justify a retainer.
But even then, you need evidence: SLAs, incident logs, maintenance plans, and quarterly improvement goals. Maintenance without proof is just a subscription.
The takeaway
Retainers drift because incentives misalign. The antidote is structure: a deliverables ledger, a small scoreboard, scoped sprints, and output-driven communication.
You are not trying to fire an agency. You are trying to restore motion.
Ready to ship?
If this is your bottleneck, we can scope a sprint and start fast.
