Question about sales handoffs between account managers and delivery teams

I work for a mid-sized B2B marketing agency in Cleveland, and we keep losing clients during the transition from sales to the actual service team. Last quarter we lost 3 contracts worth about $45k total because promises made during the pitch didn't match what we could actually deliver. The sales guy told one client we'd have monthly strategy calls with their CEO, but our standard package only includes quarterly check-ins with a project manager. My boss keeps saying "just communicate better" but nobody has actually written down exactly what handoff steps need to happen. Has anyone else dealt with this gap between what sales sells and what services can actually provide?

3 comments

3 Comments

ivan_harris1d ago

Oh man, does this hit close to home. We went through the exact same thing at our agency last year, lost a $30k account because the sales guy promised weekly performance reports but our team only does monthly ones. Did you guys ever figure out a concrete checklist for those handoffs? We tried putting together a "promise sheet" that tracks every single thing said in the pitch, but the sales team fought it because they said it slowed them down. Honestly, what finally worked for us was making the sales rep sit in on the first delivery meeting and watch the client realize the gap themselves.

rodriguez.mia1d ago

...and that forcing them to sit in on the fireworks totally changed their tune, at least for a while. My buddy's agency tried the same thing with a "promise sheet" and the sales guys just ignored it until the CEO made them fill it out before they got their commission. Now they all hate it but nobody's promising stuff we can't deliver anymore.

carr.abby1d ago

Holy crap, yes. We had the exact same disaster with a $50k client. Sales guy promised them a dedicated project manager who would respond to emails within 2 hours. Our team barely had enough people to cover the actual work, let alone babysit a client's inbox. We tried the promise sheet too and got the same pushback - "it kills our flow." What finally broke the cycle was when we pulled the sales guy into a meeting with the client who was furious about the broken promises and made him explain why we couldn't deliver. He had to sit there and stammer through the whole thing. After that, he started writing everything down himself before the handoff.