No bullsh*t honest answer:  You and your organization enjoy wasting time and money, but it's not your fault—you don't know better (yet). Read on.

Warm and kind answer:  An agency's sole purpose is to spend time and money executing marketing campaigns in an effort to generate brand awareness along with annual growth potential and sustainability. They have convinced you that you need their services to connect with target audiences.

Cold hard truths:  Agencies specialize in wasting time and money by suckering clients into higher rates, extended deadlines, and endless meetings and phone/screen conferences. Know that you're paying for those lunches and meetings through the budgeted contract; it's in there, you may not see it written out but those dollars are there. It's a waste of time and money.

Achieving lackluster results and a lower ROI is what you'll face in the end. A majority of agencies treat their creative staff like garbage on top of it all. They're worn out—and it reflects in their work—because they're grossly underpaid with zero incentives; bonuses and comps, all of the perks that Sales Reps and Account Executives are gaining to pad their year-end six figure incomes.

Bottomline:  You're paying for all of it—breakfasts, lunches, golf, beers, sporting events—the list of A.E. expenditures is long. Spending more with a traditional firm or name brand marketing agency does not guarantee you anything but a larger annual marketing expense to report to the IRS.