1/ Why hire an agency?

An agency's value is based on two primary things.

1. The talent of its people

2. The ability to aggregate and operationalize institutional knowledge

Here's how we think about building a system to constantly improve these things for our clients...

2/ CTC reaps the reward of being a part of a larger ecosystem that includes:

Brands: http://www.4x400.com 
Community: http://www.youradmission.co 
Data: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/growth-data-tool

Here is a breakdown of how each node in the network benefits the others:

3/ If an agency can’t display an ability to produce better talent than what’s available in the market along with a system for distributing shared knowledge among its talent…

Then you will be better served hiring directly from the open market.

4/ I understand that we are in competition with not just other agencies but also "in-housing".

My job is to prove to potential clients that we have a unique value they cannot access in other places.

Here is an outline of that value... https://commonthreadco.com/blogs/coachs-corner/choose-ecommerce-agency