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Have a tracker and show how their delays are effecting it.
Then when they harangue you about it, you say, "Hey, thanks for following up. Our team sent X over to [Your Team Member] on this date and haven't heard back. Can we loop [Your Team Member] into this conversation and see where they're at so we can keep making progress?"
If they aren't giving deadlines and then springing "Hey, where's this project? We need it now", detail your turnaround time and ask them to confirm in writing, or provide an alternate.
If there's a call, follow up by email with a summary to document important details. Firmly and professionally say, "As per this email..."
Provide timely updates, as agreed upon. Frequently check in.
Meet with them to see how you can work together, get a sense of their processes and workflow. Then, you can determine where issues may occur and be proactive. See where flexibility may be needed.
Escalate up to your management and theirs, as a last resort. After all this, there may be a need to grin and bear it. As long as everything is documented, it really shouldn't reflect badly on you.
Clear communication and milestone tracking. Meeting regularly to discuss delays, causes, and resolutions.
There is no other way to settle the situation by having communication with them. No one can settle it but by both teams involved. If you don't talk it out, it will be just a recurring situation.
Thanks for the advice - definitley helpful to see different approaches! for context, the team lead on the client side seems to be new in the role and doesn't quite get HER role as well as how to work with agencies. Keeps implying that we're not working hard enough or not competent enough even though delays are not on our side and she undermines our suggestions constantly. I think the milestone approach definitely makes sense though and will take this back to the team to see if there are other approaches from here we can adopt. Thanks very much guys!
Dangerous situation. We once had a client we nicknamed “The Advertising Prevention Department.” The approval process they mandated started at the low levels and progressed up. The mid level client killed every idea so the process started over and over again and nothing ever made it to the top, or on air. The agency was blamed for missing deadlines. The ideas that did make it to the top were picked over iterations that sucked. Our president finally met privately with their leadership. The agency was fired. The ad prevention person was moved to their product department. The end.
Present timelines and detail associated deliverables well ahead of the product launch. Stress that missing these dates doesn’t adjust future dates on the timeline, it simply puts subsequent milestones/deliverables, and ultimately the project, at risk.