Client Engagement Playbook

Goals

Hand off cleanly from Sales to the pod that will run the account. No client should feel a seam between "the people who sold us" and "the people who deliver."

Who does what

• Sales / Partner: close the deal, countersign the MSA + SOW, collect first payment.
• Delivery Lead: assign the account to a pod with capacity; introduce the Pod Lead to the client over email.
• Pod Lead: reads the SOW end-to-end, books the kickoff call, sets up the client’s shared spaces.

Deliverables before kickoff

• Signed MSA + SOW filed in the client’s Drive folder.
• First invoice issued and paid (or net terms confirmed in writing).
• Attio deal status moved to Won → Onboarding.
• Workspaces created: Drive folder, internal Slack channel #[brand-partner]-internal + external Slack Connect channel #[brand-partner]-cmg, Linear project (connected to Slack), Notion client page. Full steps in the New client setup SOP.
• Pod Lead introduced to client point of contact via email with kickoff scheduled within 5 business days.

Goals

Align on what we’re building, by when, and how we’ll measure success. Every later disagreement traces back to a fuzzy kickoff — don’t let it be fuzzy.

Internal kickoff first. Before the client call, the Pod Lead runs a pod-only kickoff in the internal channel — walk the SOW, assign owners, lock the 14-day plan, and prep the agenda below. Walk into the external kickoff already aligned.

External kickoff agenda · 60 minutes

• 0–5 min: Pod introductions. Pod Lead introduces every pod member with their role, region, and what they own.
• 5–15 min: Client introductions & goals. What does success look like in 90 days? In a year?
• 15–30 min: Scope review. Walk the SOW out loud; flag anything that’s changed since signing.
• 30–45 min: Cadence and tools. Weekly call slot, Slack channel, Linear board, reporting cadence, who pings whom.
• 45–55 min: First 30 days — what the pod will ship and what we need from the client to ship it.
• 55–60 min: Questions, next steps, recap to be sent within 24h.

Deliverables

• Kickoff recap email within 24 hours: success metrics, scope summary, cadence, asks of the client.
• Shared client roadmap (Linear or Notion) populated with the first 30 days of work.
• Weekly recurring meeting on the calendar with the right attendees.
• Slack channel populated with relevant pod members + client contacts.

Goals

Ship something visible in the first two weeks. Confidence in week 2 sets the tone for month 12 — we don’t earn the right to ambitious work later if we look slow now.

What the pod does

• Project Manager: stands up Linear project, breaks SOW into tickets, builds the 14-day plan.
• Growth Marketer: ships the v1 growth plan (audiences, channels, creative angles, testing matrix) by end of week 1.
• Performance Media Buyer: gets ad accounts wired up — pixel verified, conversion events checked, attribution sanity-checked.
• AI-Native Designer: ships the first creative batch (3–5 ad concepts) for review by end of week 2.
• AI Developer: stands up any custom tooling the engagement needs (custom dashboard, agent, integration).
• Creators / Affiliate Manager: if applicable, opens the creator pipeline — outreach started, 5+ creators in conversation by end of week 2.

Deliverables by end of week 2

• v1 growth plan signed off by the client.
• First ad set live in production (even at small budget — signal > perfection).
• First batch of creative delivered.
• Reporting dashboard wired up; client can self-serve performance numbers.
• Week 2 recap email with screenshots of what shipped.

Goals

Predictable rhythm. Clients should never wonder whether they’re going to hear from us this week. Surprises are reserved for the upside.

The week

What the weekly report contains

• Last week: bulleted list of what shipped. Screenshots welcome.
• Numbers: spend, revenue, ROAS, top creatives, top audiences — whatever the SOW specified.
• Next week: what the pod is working on, what we need from the client.

Goals

Step back from week-to-week execution. Look at the quarter, compare against the kickoff goals, and have an honest conversation about what’s working, what isn’t, and what the next quarter should be.

QBR agenda · 60–90 minutes

• 15 min: The numbers. Quarter-over-quarter performance against the success metrics defined at kickoff.
• 15 min: What worked. Concrete examples — campaigns, creative, programs — with the data to back them.
• 15 min: What didn’t. Honest read on what we tried that didn’t move the needle and why.
• 15 min: Next quarter’s priorities. Top 3 bets we’re making.
• 10–20 min: Scope / renewal. If the engagement is up for renewal, surface it here — never as a surprise.

Renewal decision

• Pod Lead and Delivery Lead align before the QBR on whether to renew at current scope, expand, or wind down.
• If renewing or expanding, send the next SOW within 5 business days of the QBR.
• If winding down, propose a clean transition plan in the same window — we never strand a client.

Goals

Leave clients better than we found them. Future referrals come from clients who ended their engagement gracefully, not ones who churned in frustration.

Wind-down checklist

• Transition document delivered: account state, what’s working, what to watch, who owns what going forward.
• All client assets handed back (Figma files, raw video, ad accounts ownership transferred).
• Access revoked from CMG side — we don’t linger in ex-client accounts.
• Final invoice issued + paid.
• 30-day check-in from the Pod Lead — one short email to see how they’re doing post-CMG.