Tracey Shirtcliff, Founder & CEO of Scope Better, joins John Horsley live from Cannes Lions to unpack one of the biggest commercial problems facing agencies: why so many are still pricing the future using models built for the past.

Having previously built and sold agency workflow platform Traffic Live, Tracey has spent years inside the economics of creative and professional services businesses. Her argument is simple: agencies cannot embrace AI, automation and new ways of working while continuing to sell hours, roles and rate cards.

In this episode, they explore:

  • Why 60–70% of agencies are still recording and charging for time
  • How poor scoping quietly destroys agency margins
  • Why Excel spreadsheets and disconnected systems are holding agencies back
  • The shift from selling hours to deliverables, outputs and outcomes
  • How agencies should commercialise their investment in AI
  • Why pricing, CRM, workflow and finance need to become connected
  • How AI agents could fundamentally change agency pricing and scoping
  • Why fixing the commercial engine can be more valuable than simply chasing another client

Tracey also explains why the agencies that win will be those that treat pricing and scoping as a strategic discipline, not an administrative task.

“The Excel spreadsheet is 30 years old. It’s not a model for the new world.”

A sharp conversation about agency economics, AI, pricing, profitability and what it really takes to build a more scalable services business.

Recorded live at Cannes Lions from the DEPT® Secret Garden.

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