Top 10 Skills Needed to Become an Account Manager at an Advertising Agency
There are many necessary skills that account managers should possess. These are the top 10 that account managers at advertising agencies should have.
1. Communication and Listening
I list these two together because in order to be an effective communicator you must be an effective listener. Active listening is the crucial first step in understanding a clients needs and expectations for a project. Communication includes both written and verbal. Good account managers need to be strong presenters, be able to write coherently, and hold their own in conversations with clients and management.
2. Customer Focused
The value of an account manager is directly tied to the client. There needs to be a strong knowledge of the client’s company, their targets and KPIs, and how their performance can be improved without having to explicitly be told. An account manager needs to be as engrained in the client as they are with their own agency.
3. Customer Relationship Management
There are many tools to assist in CRM. Knowing how to use them is crucial for client retention, meeting client needs, and increasing their sales.
4. Problem Solving
Clients seek out an agency because they have a problem that can be solved by advertising. Account managers are in charge of selling the solution to that problem. In addition to meeting the clients needs to solve their problem, account managers also play liaison internally to solve problems between departments for client campaigns.
5. Financial Literacy
Dollars and cents need to make sense in order to sell advertising services to clients. When financials are understood by account managers, clients feel confident in their decision making and negotiation. The ability to create financial spreadsheets and speak to project proposals contribute to decision and negotiation confidence.
6. Understanding of Creative Process
Just because account managers don’t make the advertisements, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have an understanding of how the creative process works. They have to sell the quality of the agency’s offerings and articulate the creative departments ideas to the client.
7. Self-Motivated
A large component of account management is growing business. New accounts need to be found by an “any means necessary” approach. If there is a goal to be achieved, you have to do what you’ve got to do to make it.
8. Delivery
After a new account is won and the campaign creation has started, account managers must monitor project resources, financials, and overall health in order to meet the commitment, satisfy the client, and realize a profit. To ensure this happens, the account manager should create a project roadmap with key deliverables and milestones in an effort to be transparent with the client and hold internal agency departments accountable.
9. Time Management
Time management is applicable to managing current clients and finding new ones. Account managers need to prioritize how much time they spend with each account and prospect to maximize revenue and maintain strong client relationships. They also need to understand when to cut ties with potential new business based on best case scenarios. Sometimes that large prospect isn’t the best to keep pursuing when the odds are low that they will actually sign a deal.
10. And Finally, Thick Skin
Rejection happens but it doesn’t have to hurt. Being able to deal with it and not take it personally will prevent one from getting discouraged.