Sales says the client is excited. Delivery says the scope makes no sense.
The client hasn't even attended kickoff, and your team has already nominated them for Problem Account of the Year.
Before you blame the buyer, find out whether everyone is talking about the same engagement. A signed document can travel from sales to delivery while the reason somebody signed it gets left behind.
Hand over the reason they bought
The SOW tells your team what to produce. It may not explain why the work matters now, who fought to fund it, or what happened with the last agency.
Your delivery lead needs that context to make good decisions.
For example, imagine a client buys paid media support ahead of a product launch. The scope lists channels, creative volume, and reporting. Sales also knows that inventory will arrive in stages and that the client is worried about spending ahead of availability.
If that context doesn't transfer, delivery can execute the written scope beautifully while creating exactly the situation the buyer wanted to avoid.
This is Return on Understanding becoming an operating responsibility. Understanding the client only helps if the people doing the work can use it.
Make one brief carry the important facts
Create a handoff brief with a named owner and links to the underlying documents. Keep it short enough that people will read it, specific enough that they won't have to guess.
For the hypothetical product launch, the useful entries might look like this:
| What delivery needs | Illustrative entry |
|---|---|
| Business purpose | Support the launch while matching acquisition activity to available inventory. |
| Why now | Launch preparation is underway; inventory dates still need confirmation. |
| Agreed work | The channels, assets, reporting, and service period listed in the signed scope. |
| Success measures | Measures agreed with the client, including how inventory constraints affect interpretation. |
| Buyer concerns | Prior spending ran ahead of stock availability; the client wants visibility before changes. |
| Client responsibilities | Supply inventory updates, asset approvals, and access by agreed dates. |
| Approval authority | Named people who can approve creative, budget changes, and scope changes. |
| Open questions | Final stock dates and approval coverage during the launch week. |
Add any material promise made during sales, including things the client might reasonably have understood as a promise. Link to the call or email where it appeared.
"We can probably help with that" has launched a remarkable number of unpaid projects.
Give delivery a chance to disagree before kickoff
Have the delivery lead review the brief alongside the signed scope. Ask them to explain the engagement back, including dependencies and risks.
Let them challenge it. If the staffing, schedule, or assumptions don't work, that needs daylight now.
For unusual work, involve delivery before the proposal is finalized. A handoff meeting can't repair an engagement your agency should never have promised to deliver.
If sales created a mismatch, resolve it with the client. Don't leave an account manager to announce at kickoff that the exciting part of the pitch was apparently decorative.
Use kickoff to confirm, not rediscover
The client shouldn't have to repeat their entire business story because a new person joined the call.
Open with your understanding: "You brought us in to help with this change, under these constraints. This is what we've agreed to do, and these are the items we still need to settle. What have we missed or misunderstood?"
That gives them something concrete to correct.
Confirm responsibilities, approvals, communication, and what happens when a dependency slips. Identify which questions need an answer before work can proceed.
A warm welcome is good. A warm welcome followed by three weeks of arguing about asset ownership is less good.
Put scope changes somewhere they can be seen
Once work starts, new information will emerge. That is normal. Your team needs a way to distinguish clarification from a change in commitment.
Record the request, its effect on time or resources, the proposed response, and who approved it. Update the relevant scope and working plan when required.
Don't use "the client expects it" as the entire approval process. Find out where the expectation came from and agree on what to do about it.
Check the handoff after the work becomes real
After the first meaningful delivery milestone, ask the account lead what surprised them, what they had to ask sales again, and where the client expected something different.
Use those answers to improve the brief and the sales conversation. Track recurring types of missing information rather than blaming a different person each month.
The agency sales playbook should end with an engagement delivery can understand and run. SalesOS connects that handoff to the decisions and promises made earlier in the deal.
The sale is a lot more valuable when the team can deliver what the client thought they bought.
Go deeper: The handoff is the last step of the sales process, not the first step of delivery. Here is the whole process. The Agency Sales Playbook