Case Study: How a B2B Firm Saved $60k/Year (And Got Better Results)

In the agency world, the "Retainer" is standard.

You pay a marketing agency a fixed fee—often between $7,500 and $15,000 a month—to manage your regional presence.

For this fee, you are promised a full team. Account managers, strategists, copywriters, and designers.

But the reality is often different. Your account is usually managed by a junior employee. The "strategy" is a template used for ten other clients. The output is generic.

We recently worked with a B2B technology firm expanding into Malaysia and Indonesia. They were trapped in this exact cycle.

The Problem: High Cost, Low Output

This client was paying a regional agency SGD 15,000 per month ($180,000 per year).

For this significant investment, they were receiving:

• Generic social media posts ("Happy Monday!").
• A monthly report full of vanity metrics (Impressions).
• Zero qualified sales leads.

The agency was not "bad." They were just misaligned. They were incentivised to do activity, not to drive business.

The We are Brand Utility Solution: Fractional Strategy + Focused Execution

We replaced the agency retainer with our hybrid model.

Step 1: The Fractional Lead (Strategy) We installed a Fractional Partner for 2 days a month.

• Role: Set the strategy, interview key customers, and define the "Sales Qualified Lead" (SQL) criteria.
• Cost: Significantly lower than a full-time Director.

Step 2: The Execution Partner (Delivery) We removed the generic "social media management." We replaced it with a targeted "Account-Based Marketing" (ABM) campaign.

• Action: We identified the top 50 target companies in the target expansion market. We created specific content (whitepapers, direct mail) for the Decision Makers in those 50 companies.
• Cost: Variable. We spent money only on the assets we needed.

The Results

By removing the agency overhead and paying only for high-level strategy and specific execution, the financial shift was dramatic.

Financial Impact:

• Annual Marketing Spend: Reduced from $180,000 to $120,000.
• Total Savings: $60,000 (reinvested into product development).

Commercial Impact:

• Sales Pipeline: Generated 10 qualified opportunities (20% of target list) within 90 days (the previous team generated zero in 12 months).
• Close Rate: The sales team closed 3 of these deals, worth $250k in new annual revenue.

The Lesson

You do not need a large agency team to win in B2B Asia. You need a smart strategy and focused execution.

Stop paying for headcount you don't use. Start paying for results.