AGENCY INNER CIRCLE / RESOURCES
THE STUFF THAT ACTUALLY WORKS
Tools, vendors, and books I trust enough to share with my clients & my readers.
Most "resources" pages junk - this isn't (I hope). Everything below is something I either use to run my own business or send agency owners to when they ask. If a tool stops being worth the money, it comes off the page. If a vendor flakes, they come off the page. If a book ages badly, same deal. The list is short on purpose.
You don't need a list of the best 47 CRMs. You need a quick culling of the market so you can find the one that fits your agency. Check out the resources below and if you find something amazing that DESERVES to be on this list, let me know.
Sales
Marketing
Delivery
Finance
AI
Vendors
Books
Media
SALES & PIPELINE
CRMs, proposals, call recording, scheduling.
TIM'S PICK — CRM
Copper CRM
This is my daily driver. It's simple, direct, terrific support, really cost-effective, and it has terrific API access and MCP access so you can do whatever you need to do with Copper CRM using the AI tool of your choice. This is kind of a sleeper hit. They offer a free trial. You absolutely should give it a shot.
Check it out →ALSO WORTH A LOOK
Discovery Lab Pro — This is the best call prep tool built for agencies. I might be a little biased because I built it, but I built it specifically for agencies. This analyzes your offers/services, the vertical, the client and gives you real talking points, angles and questions to ask. Check out a sample Discovery Lab Pro report. Or if you want, check out the free version at Discovery Lab.
Call Lab Pro — This is the best sales call review tool built for agencies. I am biased because I built it. But Call Lab Pro scores your sales call against six popular sales methodologies and my very own WTF Sales Method. It gives you active coaching on what to improve, and on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis, it will send out tailored coaching direct to your inbox. Check out a sample Call Lab Pro report. If you want to check out the free version, visit Call Lab.
HubSpot — Amazing ecosystem (seriously), great product (CRM, Marketing, Email, Landing Pages - everything you need). My only issue is price - upgrading to Pro or Enterprise is VERY expensive.
Monday.com — It's roots as a task management system are clear, but I really like Monday's vibe. Growing eco-system and new AI-focused capabilities getting unearthed regularly. Pricing is good.
PipeDrive — PipeDrive is ONLY sales focused and doesn't worry itself with a bunch of customer-relationship nonsense - this is way closer to a pure Sales Relation Management system. Good pricing and few distractions.
MARKETING & VISIBILITY
Email, content, SEO, social — the visibility stack.
TIM'S PICK
Beehiiv - Newletter Marketing PLUS WAY MORE
Super easy to operate newsletter publishing engine, website builder, webinar HQ, podcast host, ad network, and simple product sales all in one. These guys ship superfast, and their API & MCP capabilities are growing by leaps and bounds. Their on-platform AI agent is shockingly good. (And they have a 14 Day trial + 20% off your first 3 months when you follow one of my links.)
Check it out →ALSO WORTH A LOOK
Brevo — They are a sleeper in the space. They have great email marketing and a burgeoning CRM function. They may not be completely whiz-bang cutting edge, but the pricing is great and the product is really solid.
Active Campaign — ActiveCampaign it is a really powerful email marketing tool. It has emerging landing page capabilities and a really full-featured CRM, and it is really positioning itself as AI and automation first. I was an ActiveCampaign user for years and years and years, and I really appreciate the platform. Beehiiv, for my use cases, is better and less expensive, but ActiveCampaign is a terrific sales and marketing tool for almost any agency
Ubersuggest — At $29/mo, Neil Patel's Ubersuggest is an SEO/AEO steal. It doesn't cover advertising data like SEMRush, but it is literally 1/5 of the cost.
ClickMinded — ClickMinded started its life as an SOP tool, but it has gloriously changed into a really good marketing operations system. This isn't going to replace a real content strategist and real writer, but if you are a small agency looking to get a start and to leverage AI for both efficiency and depth, it's tough to find better content marketing tools than the ones inside of ClickMinded. It starts at $25/month
DELIVERY & PROJECT OPS
Project management, client portals, time tracking, SOPs.
THE SHORT LIST
Productive — Great integrated platform that runs ops, project management, and HR, has a reasonable CRM, and it's a really good value.
ClickUp — This is the most advanced, fullest-featured management platform that I can think of. Really well thought out. Their AI integration is really good. Super smart people. Definitely worth strong consideration
FINANCE & OPS
Accounting, invoicing, payroll, reporting. The part no one loves but everyone needs.
THE SHORT LIST
QuickBooks — This is the granddaddy of SMB financial systems. Your accountant uses this. Everybody uses this. It's simple and easy and worthwhile. It's a little expensive, but payroll, invoicing, and credit card payments are all integrated
Mercury.com — Mercury is just the best bank on the planet: unlimited virtual cards, free domestic and international wiring, set up as many accounts as you want, automated transfers for you Profit First folks, integrated invoicing and payments - I can't say enough good things about this bank. Really.
Gusto — Employee management, Payroll benefits, 401K, contractor payments, all wrapped in one easy-to-use portal. It integrates with everything you can imagine, and they are really great to work with.
Databox — If you are looking for a reporting tool that is actually a business intelligence engine in disguise, Databox is the ticket. It's a company that is really expanding fast, amazing leadership, and a product that is second to none
BugHerd — This is an incredibly easy-to-use visual feedback tool that allows you and your clients to coordinate on web designs, ad copy, anything that gets displayed on a web page. You can share and get specific comments back via BugHerd. It is an incredible efficiency tool, and you get a free trial and 20% off your first three months when you follow my link.
AI & AUTOMATION
The tools worth actually learning. Not the ones just hyped on LinkedIn.
TIM'S PICK
Claude.ai — Smart, Helps Me Build Stuff I Could Never Do On My Own
I love Claude a lot. It makes me so much more effective in creating content, web pages, and my own paid-for tools. It's almost hard for me to imagine going backwards and not using Claude.
Check it out →ALSO WORTH A LOOK
ChatGPT & Codex — So similar in functionality to Claude, it's hard to recommend one over the other. I just like Claude better. I don't know if it is one thing to recommend ChatGPT for however is really good image creation
TRUSTED VENDORS
Agencies and people Tim has personally paid, trusted with client work, or referred without hesitation.
FiNANCE
Parakeeto
The Parakeeto team is, without a doubt, the best collection of thinkers and operators in agency finance.
BOOKKEEPING
AccountsBalance
Bookkeeping designed specifically for agency owners, and they have an in-house CPA to help with tax prep. Highly recommended.
CLARITY CONSULTING
Joao Landiero
Joao runs a clarity workshop that so wonderfully helps you clarify your thinking and your offer. He does it in a way that is magical, human, and so beautiful that I highly recommend him
SHORT FORM CONTENT
Demandii
The Demandii team are experts at taking one hour of your spoken words and turning it into a bunch of shareable social assets. They are phenomenal at what they do.
BOOKS FOR AGENCY OWNERS
You've got to read these books. They are going to help you build your business.
The Business of Expertise
by David C. Baker · If you want to understand how people buy agency services, this is the book to read, hands down.
Profit First
by Mike Michalowicz · This book makes it easy to manage business finances so they make sense and they feed the machine rather than just track spending.
Extreme Ownership
by Jocko Willink · This book breaks down company leadership into a high-context, high-trust framework that you need to implement in your agency.
PODCASTS & NEWSLETTERS
Media Tim actually consumes. Curated from years of filtering out the noise.
PODCASTS
Marketing Against The Grain — HubSpot's CMO & SVP of Marketing, get together and talk about the stuff that they think about the tools they use. Some of it is a HubSpot shill, but the techniques, topics, and insights are really, really good.
Marketing School — Neil Patel and Eric Siu get together and talk about everything: tools, techniques, attitude. These are smart dudes
Startup Ideas Podcast — Greg Isenberg walks you through the latest and greatest in marketing tools and talks about product market fit and how to really dial into your customer. Pretty compelling
NEWSLETTERS
Spark Toro Blog — I'm sad that this isn't a daily newsletter. Rand Fishkin and Amanda Natividad are super smart marketers. They understand content, SEO, AEO, business consumers, everything. They are brilliant. Read it.
Stacked Marketer — A little quirky and a little irreverent. This is a newsletter that is really focused on tactical marketing. It's well done.
MarketingBrew — This is a pretty funny, really well-researched, really well-executed newsletter that could be the most professional newsletter that I subscribe to. It's really great
" All of the tools on this page have been personally vetted by me. I hope this is different — I only include what I actually use, recommend to clients, or have seen work in the field."
GOT A TOOL I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT?
If you're using something that's genuinely changed how you run your agency, I want to hear about it. No guarantees I'll add it, but I read every message.
