PM/AM Time in Pricing, With Carson Pierce

About this episode

Marcel Petitpas and Carson Pierce discuss the challenges of pricing project and account management time in agencies and offer strategies to improve profitability.

About this Episode In this episode of the Agency Profit Podcast, Marcel Petitpas is joined by Carson Pierce to unpack one of the most persistent and misunderstood profit leaks in agencies: how account and project management time is priced (or not priced) into client work. Drawing on years of operational experience, they challenge the outdated belief that clients won’t pay for PM and AM effort and argue that the real issue is usually agency-side insecurity and weak pricing models. The conversation explores why PM and AM work is inherently difficult to track, how excluding it distorts metrics like average billable rate and utilization, and why many agencies unknowingly erode margins by treating these roles as overhead. Marcel and Carson break down two viable approaches to pricing PM and AM time—directly through scope or indirectly through margin targets—and explain when each makes sense based on the nature of the work. The episode closes with practical guidance on role design, delivery overhead vs. true overhead, and how agencies can structure pricing to protect profitability without creating unnecessary client friction.

People in this episode

Host: Marcel Petitpas

Guest: Carson Pierce

Topics covered

• pricing
• project management
• account management
• profitability
• agency operations

Keywords

• pricing models
• profit leaks
• billable rate
• utilization
• agency margins

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