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If you do not know what something should cost, you are negotiating blind.
That is where a lot of agency relationships go wrong.
On a recent episode of the Unordinary podcast, Ben Sharf, CEO of Platter, an e-commerce infrastructure company that has built and optimized more than 200 storefronts generating billions in cumulative sales, described the core issue clearly:
“There’s an incentive misalignment where as a service provider you want things to be more complicated and take more time because you make more money.”
That sentence explains why projects stretch, scopes expand, and invoices grow.
This is not about bad actors. It is about structure.
Traditional agencies are paid for time, scope, and complexity.
The more custom the build, the longer the engagement. The longer the engagement, the larger the bill.
From the agency’s perspective, complexity increases revenue.
From the founder’s perspective, simplicity increases speed and margin.
When those two realities collide, friction shows up.
Projects feel heavier than they should. Timelines drift. The work becomes harder to audit.
The structure drives behavior.
Another layer of the problem is simpler.
You do not know what good looks like.
Ben summarized it directly: “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
Founders often choose agencies through referrals.
“Who built your site?”
“Can you intro me?”
That loop creates familiarity, not benchmarks.
If the person making the referral has never pressure-tested pricing or architecture, you inherit their blind spot.
You may be overpaying. You may be overbuilding. You may be adding technical layers you do not need.
Without benchmarks, it is difficult to tell.
You do not need to be technical to sense misalignment.
Look for patterns.
Ben has seen this repeatedly while rebuilding storefronts: companies paying hundreds of thousands in annual operating expenses that were not necessary.
The waste rarely shows up in one dramatic invoice. It compounds quietly.
Clarity requires structure.
Ask directly.
Are they paid by the hour?
By retainer?
By project milestone?
By performance?
Compensation shapes incentives. Incentives shape behavior.
What is the typical timeline for a project like this?
What is the typical cost range?
What measurable improvements do clients usually see?
Vague answers signal guesswork. Clear ranges signal experience.
This question reveals alignment quickly.
If everything needs to be custom, complexity is the product.
If they can point to areas where templates or standardization make sense, they are thinking in terms of efficiency.
Even if you plan to move forward.
A short paid audit from another expert can create perspective.
You do not need to switch vendors to benefit from comparison.
Comparison builds leverage.
When incentives align, conversations change.
Speed becomes valuable to both sides.
Simplicity becomes a shared objective.
Results replace activity as the metric of success.
You do not need deep technical knowledge to protect yourself.
You need to understand the structure of the relationship and ask disciplined questions.
Complexity compounds cost.
Simplicity compounds margin.
If this topic resonates, listen to the full episode with Ben Sharf. He breaks down how incentive misalignment quietly drives unnecessary complexity across hundreds of storefront rebuilds.
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