Audit The Real Scope
Most agencies do more than the SOW suggests: they triage Martech issues, update landing pages, patch analytics. Map daily, weekly, and monthly deliverables so you know what disappears on day one.
Interview your internal stakeholders — marketing ops, demand gen, product marketing. Capture the off-book asks they rely on so you don’t discover gaps once the agency is gone.
- Categorize tasks into strategy, execution, optimization, and maintenance.
- Quantify hours and systems touched for each category.
- Identify owners internally before you sign a termination letter.
Phase Out With A Knowledge Transfer Plan
Structure a 4- to 8-week ramp-down: document processes, export assets, and shadow recurring workflows. Put acceptance criteria on every handoff item.
Record walkthroughs of automation, reporting, and integration touchpoints. Store them in the knowledge base your teams and copilots rely on.
- Set up shared checklists for campaign builds, analytics pulls, and escalation paths.
- Secure access to Martech accounts, documentation, and code repositories early.
- Schedule overlap weeks where the agency and internal team co-own deliverables before the cutover.
Decide If Replacement Or Retainer Makes Sense
Once you know the workload, decide if you need to backfill with hires, another partner, or a smaller specialist retainer. Sometimes retaining the agency for a strategic slice is cheaper than rebuilding from scratch.
If you stay, renegotiate the scope with clear KPIs and a cadence that keeps both sides accountable.
- Compare the annualized cost of internal headcount plus ramp against the agency fee.
- Plan for a quarterly health check on the transitioned responsibilities.
- Document what you still don’t know — and assign owners to close those knowledge gaps.