Why Agency Owners Need to Get Out of Client Services with Chase Clymer
Key Takeaways
- Agency owners must remove themselves from day-to-day client services to unlock growth and avoid becoming a bottleneck
- Define clear swim lanes for every team member so roles and responsibilities never overlap or create confusion
- Content marketing - especially podcasting and guest appearances - can drive 50% of new business when done consistently
- Referral partnerships are not passive - they require deliberate nurturing and reciprocal value to generate consistent deal flow
- Paid discovery or strategy sprints serve as a low-risk entry point that qualifies prospects and builds trust before larger engagements
- Cold outreach still works when targeted correctly - tools like GMASS, Postaga, and niche databases improve efficiency
- Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is an underutilized service line that provides measurable, ongoing value to ecommerce clients
Gray MacKenzie sits down with Chase Clymer, co-founder of Electric Eye, to discuss one of the most common traps agency owners fall into - staying embedded in client delivery long after they should have stepped back. Chase and his team at Electric Eye build Shopify-powered sales machines through strategic design, development, and marketing. He also hosts the Honest Ecommerce podcast, a weekly show that provides online store owners with actionable advice on growing their businesses.
Getting Out of Client Services
The central theme of the conversation is the critical transition from agency owner-as-doer to agency owner-as-leader. Chase is direct about the challenge: most agency founders started their business because they were great at the work. They were talented designers, skilled developers, or sharp marketers. But the skills that make someone excellent at client delivery are different from the skills required to build and lead an agency.
When the founder stays deeply involved in client work, they become the bottleneck for everything. Projects cannot move forward without their input. The team cannot develop autonomy because every decision routes through one person. And the founder has no time or energy left for the strategic work - sales, partnerships, hiring, systems - that actually grows the business.
Chase’s solution is deliberate and structured. He advocates for establishing clear swim lanes - explicitly defined roles and responsibilities for every team member. When everyone knows exactly what they own and where their work begins and ends, the founder can step back without the organization losing clarity or momentum. Swim lanes also reduce internal friction because there is no ambiguity about who handles what.
Building Revenue Through Content
Chase shares a detailed breakdown of how Electric Eye generates new business, and the numbers are instructive. Approximately 50% of revenue comes from partnerships and referrals, while the other 50% is driven by content marketing. Within that content bucket, roughly 30% comes from guest appearances on other shows and platforms, and 20% from Electric Eye’s owned content, including the Honest Ecommerce podcast.
The podcasting strategy serves multiple functions simultaneously. It positions Chase and Electric Eye as experts in the Shopify ecosystem. It creates networking opportunities with potential partners and referral sources. And it generates a steady stream of content that can be repurposed across social media, email, and the website. Chase views podcasting as the highest-leverage content activity because a single recording produces so many downstream assets.
Guest appearances on other shows are equally valuable, if not more so. When Chase appears on a podcast with an audience of Shopify store owners, he is speaking directly to Electric Eye’s ideal client profile. The host’s endorsement - implicit in the invitation to appear - transfers credibility in a way that self-published content cannot replicate.
Referral Partnerships and Cold Outreach
The partnership and referral side of the business is not accidental. Chase explains that referral partnerships require deliberate effort - regular communication, reciprocal value, and genuine relationship building. Simply signing a partner agreement and waiting for leads does not work. The agencies and technology partners who consistently refer business to Electric Eye do so because Chase has invested in those relationships over time.
On the cold outreach front, Chase takes a practical, tool-driven approach. He uses platforms like GMASS for email campaigns, Postaga for outreach automation, Listen Notes for identifying podcast appearance opportunities, and niche databases like StorageLeads.net for targeted prospect lists. The key insight is that cold outreach works when it is precisely targeted and the messaging is relevant to the recipient’s specific situation. Spray-and-pray campaigns fail. Focused, research-backed outreach converts.
Paid Discovery as a Sales Tool
Chase highlights the paid discovery or strategy sprint model as a powerful entry point for new client relationships. Rather than asking prospects to commit to a large engagement upfront, Electric Eye offers a structured, paid discovery process that assesses the client’s current situation, identifies opportunities, and delivers a strategic roadmap.
This approach solves two problems simultaneously. For the prospect, it reduces risk - they get tangible value and a clear picture of what working with Electric Eye looks like before committing to a major investment. For Electric Eye, it qualifies the prospect. By the end of the discovery sprint, both sides know whether there is a genuine fit for a larger engagement. Clients who go through paid discovery convert at a dramatically higher rate than those who skip straight to proposals.
CRO as a Growth Service Line
Chase also discusses conversion rate optimization as an emerging and underutilized service line for ecommerce agencies. While most Shopify agencies focus on design and development, CRO provides measurable, ongoing value that extends the client relationship well beyond the initial build. By continuously testing and optimizing the shopping experience, Electric Eye helps clients extract more revenue from their existing traffic - a proposition that is easy to measure and hard for clients to say no to.