SP fees are less than you think

As a director of a medium-sized agency that has been charging fees for many years, may I respectfully distance myself and our agency from the remarks made by Clive Mishon in the sales promotion article “Paying the game” (MW February 26) .

We do not charge 120-130 an hour as the SPCA report suggests unless it is on specific consultancy work and unless it is delivered by a senior member of staff.

More importantly we do not think it is crazy that we cannot charge the same as lawyers or doctors.

This kind of rhetoric is only driving a bigger wedge between agencies and clients over the fees issue.

We, as most agencies do, attempt to recover fees that are directly representative of the time and the level of expertise that we bring to bear. However, unlike Mishon we do not throw logic out the window when it comes to fee negotiations.

We are professionals with experience and training and deserve to be remunerated accordingly. But we don’t claim to have ten years of professional training behind us or life saving abilities.

Mark Joy

Business Development Director

The Ingram Agency

London