How to Consolidate Internal Feedback for Your Agency
Consolidate internal feedback by appointing a final approver, defining each reviewer's role and resolving contradictory comments before sending instructions to the agency. Preserve the reasons behind decisions so the agency can understand what matters.
Download the editable worksheet (Markdown). Replace the bracketed prompts with your own details.
Your colleagues can contribute different expertise without having equal authority over every aspect of the work. A legal reviewer, product specialist and sales leader should be asked to review the matters they are qualified and responsible to assess.
Decide who needs to review the work.
Identify the people whose input is necessary for accuracy, compliance, business fit and final approval. Separate those reviewers from people who simply need to know what is happening.
Tell each reviewer what question they are being asked to answer. A product expert might confirm factual accuracy. A sales leader might assess whether the message addresses an important customer objection.
The IPA's 2025 BetterIdeas summary identifies problems in creative approval processes and recommends involving the necessary decision-makers. Use that as support for clarifying roles, without assuming that every organization needs the same number of reviewers.
Agree on approval authority before collecting comments.
Name the person who can settle ordinary disagreements and approve the next stage. Record any separate specialist approvals that remain necessary.
For example, a marketing approver should not overrule a legal requirement merely because it complicates the design. The decision process must respect the organization's actual authority and obligations.
If a senior executive can reverse the direction, involve that person while the direction is still open. An apparently efficient approval process becomes expensive when it excludes the person whose decision will ultimately govern.
Collect feedback against the same version and criteria.
Give reviewers the same brief, the same version and a clear deadline. Explain the stage of review and what has already been approved.
Ask for specific observations and their business consequences. A reviewer who wants a different audience or proposition is proposing a change in direction. That needs to be handled separately from a correction to the current execution.
Keep a record of comments even when they are not adopted. The final agency response should contain the decisions and relevant reasoning, while the internal record explains how conflicting views were resolved.
Resolve contradictions inside the client team.
Read the comments together and identify instructions that cannot all be followed. Examples include shortening a page while adding several sections, or emphasizing price while removing every price reference.
Ask the responsible approver to decide which objective takes precedence. Where the conflict reveals a gap in the brief, bring the agency into a focused discussion about that gap.
Do not ask the agency to infer which executive matters more. It can explain creative or technical consequences, but the client must resolve its own authority.
Set a clear point for approval.
State what approval permits the agency to do next. A concept approval might authorize production, while a final approval might authorize publication subject to a technical check.
Agree on how late comments will be treated. A late factual or safety concern may require a pause. A late preference may be deferred or handled as additional work, depending on the agreement.
Silence should not be treated as consent unless that process has been explicitly accepted and fits the risk. Set a named backup when the approver is unavailable.
Use this approval worksheet.
Prepare the worksheet before distributing work for review.
- We are reviewing [version] at [stage] against [brief and criteria].
- [Reviewer] will assess [specific area] by [deadline].
- [Final approver] will resolve ordinary conflicts and approve [next action].
- Separate approval from [specialist] is required for [matter].
- We received conflicting comments about [issue] and resolved them by [decision and reason].
- The agency should implement [consolidated changes] while preserving [approved elements].
- Comments received after [deadline] will follow [agreed change process].
- We will record final approval and its conditions in [location].
Send the agency a response it can execute, with unresolved questions clearly identified. Use the feedback guide to improve the wording of individual comments and the brief-change guide when the client has changed its mind about the assignment.