Theory: Being a Good Account Manager

I didn't use the word "Great" in the title because I'm certainly not a guru on the topic, and can't claim to know all the answers. However, I have some top-line ideas in my back pocket that have been useful in job interviews.

The job of an account manager or account management person is to be the interface between the client and the rest of the agency. At the highest level, it is the job of an account manager to keep both the client and the agency happy with the account. Lets start with the client.

• Client. An account manager keeps a client happy by listening to the client's objectives and goals, making appropriate recommendations and making sure that jobs run smoothly. She will know when to bring other resources (including bosses) into the equation and when to tell the client that they are right even if they aren't. Of course being buddy-buddy with the client doesn't hurt either. The client responsibilities is the more intuitive of the two. It's often the one that's stressed more when you're interviewing and getting trained. It's more in your face.
• Agency. An account manager's obligations to his agency is the one that more often gets neglected. Making sure that the account is profitable etc. goes without saying, although that responsibility is often handed to project management, especially if they're the ones that write the estimates/SOWs. However, the dark secret of account management within this industry is that they're so caught up with their client and financials, that they don't pay much attention to the people that they're working with. Whether the people are working below you, or with you in different departments, it's an account manager's responsibility to try to make sure that they're happy working on the account. That means pushing back on a demanding client (working until 10pm is fine once in a while, but not if it's every night) and also extending opportunities to those around you (especially those below you) to do and learn new things and gain new responsibilities, and otherwise grow.

Don't be a negative presence. I can't stress the importance of this enough. I have been at work places where certain account management personnel have either been incompetent or tough to work with to the point where it drove employees away. Company management is often to pick up on this as it's happening, but I have experienced first hand instances where a single employee would prompt many good employees to leave the company. If your colleagues are leaving because of you, then it's time to overhaul the way that you work and communicate.

Well, those are my thoughts. Sure there's a lot of other smaller stuff, such as being buttoned-up and writing comprehensible briefs, which are just as important, but I didn't feel that I needed to list those out here.