What It Takes to be an Account Leader

The next step for account managers is building client leadership skills -- this is the ultimate goal for improving your client relationships and for increasing the importance of account management in the agency.

“We want the client to be more successful, but we also want the agency to be more successful,” Campbell said. “It can't just be the client. It has to also be the agency who's getting better because of the account manager.”

There are many more, but here are three core account leadership skills account people must master to be seen as leaders:

1) Can sell ideas to clients.

Because account managers are the closest to the client, they are the most likely person to persuade clients on new projects. But there is an art to upselling a client, especially if you have been working with the client for several years on the same set of marketing projects.

Selling is not about getting everyone in the same room, turning down the lights, and doing a big presentation.

“Nobody like surprises,” Campbell said. “It is human nature to be resistant to new things. Very often, the first thing the client is thinking is, ‘I don't know anything about this. I will have to manage this. I have to explain it to my management. I have to make sure nothing goes wrong, It would just be safer for me not to go there.’”

Instead, Campbell says account leaders should focus on seeding the idea, mentioning it a few times and sending a few articles over a number of months -- these articles should address the client’s fears and help them to see the implications for their own products or services. The client then realizes the opportunity on their own and becomes familiar with the idea. Eventually, they will want the agency do mock-up or create a plan to implement their idea. The client has to get to the point of wanting what you know they need. 

The client might even succumb to what Campbell calls corporate inevitability: where a project seems inevitable because of how long or often it is discussed.

2) Says “no” to clients.

“It's really hard, and yet it is important because every client isn't right all the time,” said Campbell.

There are two types of "no’s" account leaders need to learn: 1) The philosophical “no” or you’re asking us to do something that is unethical or outside of our comfort zone, and 2) the operational “no” or the response when the client is asking for unreasonable turnarounds or budgets, etc. 

The point isn’t to say “no” but to be able to determine if a “no” is necessary. Can the account manager ask the right questions to understand why the timeline is so short or why the clients wants something done a certain way? Can the account manager uncover the real problem and if possible, find the right solution -- for the client and the agency? That's a sign of leadership. 

3) Has mastered the art of managing meetings.

“Managing meetings does not mean making a list of things we are going to talk about,” said Campbell.

The art of meeting management is about figuring out which meetings are actually necessary, what things need to be accomplished during the meeting, and what follow-up action items need to be done.

Agencies are notoriously bad at meetings: They plan too many brainstorming and status and check-in meetings that do little to move a project forward. In addition, there are too many client meetings that occur where the agency wants to get approval on or move forward on a project yet fails to even address this during the conversation. It’s all a waste of time.

An account leader needs to consider the goal of the meeting, make this clear to the group, and be the one who keeps things on track. And Campbell warns against wasting time writing up detailed meeting notes, rather she suggests sending a list of action items that the client is responsible for after the meeting. Consider if you added a line item to all your proposals that outlines how meeting notes will be provided at $150 per document. How many clients would really care about this?

The art of a meeting is also about body language, i.e., how you sit, how you make eye contact with the client, how you take notes. An account manager who understands and studies this can better lead client and internal meetings.