Chapter 2: You’re a Creative Pro—What Are Your Clients Really Paying For?

Regardless of deliverables, your clients aren’t hiring you to know how to use your tools. They’re not paying for your lenses, your camera body, or the new Photoshop plugin you splurged on. Some might care about those things, but most don’t.

That doesn’t mean those tools aren’t valuable to ME. My latest $10K day that could’ve been a $5K day happened because I HAD to have a particular camera and lens package, and the beautimous imagery we got from this investment in bad ass people and bad ass tools was totally worth it to the project.

The Real Product: Chemistry and Differentiation

This is the creative professional’s real charge: to create delight, joy, and connection first in the client relationship—and then transmit that chemistry to their audience in a meaningful way. This fundamentally human dynamic is what builds differentiation and it's what clients have always paid for.

But alas the dollars spent on creating this differentiation doesn’t make as much sense in today’s market.

Right?

RIGHT???

I’m only baiting you here. Of course that’s not true.

The perception that creative dollars make less sense comes from AI— or, more specifically the illusion that because AI can mimic (some) of the output of creative services that it’s a replacement for that whole “chemistry leads to joy leads to big ideas [that , in the right hands] leads to great work = simulating that same chemistry in the client’s buying audience”

The truth is that AI can't replace this sequence.

And I’ll prove it to you.

Proof: Chemistry vs. Delivery

According to a 2023 Marketing Relationship Survey,

Chemistry is the #1 criteria clients use when selecting a creative partner.

If you've ever been in the room when the right idea strikes, you already know that Human Chemistry is the actual currency of creative work. And if you haven't been in one of these rooms, well, I know a couple guys who will gladly take you there.

But here’s the paradox: that same survey shows that “dissatisfaction with delivery” is the #1 reason they fire agencies.

That’s the rub.

The old models of creative services were built in an era when technology—and client expectations—looked completely different. Pricing, process, and delivery were defined before the internet demanded as much as it does today.

Old Reality:

• Client needs one video
• Agency produces one video
• Client is happy with one video
• Relationship continues

New Reality:

• Client needs content across 7 platforms
• Each platform needs multiple variations
• Audience expects personalization
• Budgets haven't increased to match demand
• Old model: Choose 3 platforms, compromise on others
• Result: Dissatisfaction with delivery

To keep up, creative services need a complete robustification—a rebuild around today’s reality. The single-deliverable pricing model is fundamentally mismatched to multi-channel content demand.

And with flat or declining budgets…

SOMETHING HAS TO GIVE.

Why Custom Tools Matter (Again)

Back to the claim from Part 1:

“Creative-services $pend today doesn’t make market sense without the leverage that technology provides in the form of custom tools.”

The friction between the old and new realities is exactly why this matters.Not because AI is replacing us, but because client demands have evolved faster than our delivery models.

Custom Tools aren’t about replacing creativity. They’re about preserving it—while scaling delivery, proving ROI, and protecting the chemistry that started the relationship in the first place.

The Three-Part Formula

Here’s how we’re thinking about it at version47—and how you can apply it in your own business:

1. Chemistry → You’re already good at this.

2. Creative Rigor → This is your craft.

3. Custom Tools → This is what you need to add.

When these three combine, you get:

• Maintained Differentiation — what clients pay for
• Scalable Delivery — what they need
• Measurable Outcomes — what they demand

The Uncomfortable Truth

We’re being forced, as an industry, to solve a 2025 problem with a 2005 model. And that gap between chemistry and delivery is why so many agencies are getting fired for “dissatisfaction with delivery."