When the pandemic started, the accounts management industry faced an unprecedented challenge in terms of communication. Since most companies moved towards remote setups, everything must be communicated online. Without the convenience of face-to-face meetings, the key challenge for account managers is to relay messages that are clear, precise, and straight to the point.

If you’re new to the industry and still adjusting to the work from home arrangement, you might find this article helpful.

• Defining account management vs. account manager
• Tips to become an efficient account manager
• Recommended project management tools
• Conclusion

Account Management vs. Account Manager

Account Management is the process of building and growing relationships between the organization and its roster of Clients. An Account Manager, on the other hand, ensures that the day to day deliverables of the Client are taken care of, by providing services, offers, and regular alignment meetings.

Here are some tips to become an efficient account manager:

1. Be in Tune with What your Client Needs

A good account manager must have more than just the ability to listen. Taking down notes to understand the client’s requests is important. But, during meetings and interactions, it is good to have a sense of the situation. When updating a stressed client, they may not want to hear an overload of information, and a summary will do. A more upbeat client might be more open to hearing new ideas from your team.

Having this skill can make the process much smoother on both ends. But, it’s more challenging now that things are online.We don’t have the luxury of face-to face meetings to observe body language. One way to go about this is to observe the way your client words their emails, as there can be a big difference between “Got this, Thanks!” and “Noted.”. Another way is to mind the tone of their voice during calls.

2. Manage your Time Wisely and Always be Two Steps Ahead

As with any other job, racing against the clock to meet a deadline is never fun. But when you’re an effective account manager, time is not the enemy. Instead, it should be an asset. In other words, you should be able to juggle accounts and the responsibilities that come along with it with ease. With proper time management, those reports due Monday morning should feel light and easy.

You can do this by planning ahead. Mistakes are not uncommon, revisions are pretty much a given. So you can save time and look like a boss doing it by thinking ahead. It helps to have a clear big picture view of the project, as well as an idea of what your client likes. You’ll learn these over time. But, it’s a time saver when you can tell your team that a client prefers dramatic content over funny. 

Pro tip: Having an organized and structured daily to-do list and a weekly calendar, can help you avoid being overwhelmed with upcoming deadlines.

3. Be a Strong Communicator

As an account manager, we cannot avoid clients who are overly demanding with their requests. And while it is your job to provide them the best quality service your company has promised, pleasing them too much by committing to things that are impossible is not a good idea.

To avoid this uncomfortable situation, a good account manager will be able to get out of this murky water by setting expectations and explaining the situation as clearly as possible so that both parties are on the same page. Further, it is important to strongly communicate an effective solution, rather than saying yes to a plan that is not actionable.   

4. Be Flexible

The daily tasks and process of an account manager is never the same, day-in and day-out. There will always be times that you will need to rush a certain requirement to meet a new launch date. This is where planning ahead really comes in handy. The more you know your client, the more that you can adjust to how they are, so you can welcome these challenges.  This makes you more flexible as an account manager, and it helps  you keep calm, being able to offer an effective solution.

5. Be Results Oriented

You know you’re an effective account manager when you start your day with clear goals to achieve an objective. This mental state equally applies when dealing with a task or project in your accounts. In digital marketing, a campaign is always directed towards an objective and as account manager, it is imperative to know all the moving parts to ensure that the team is on the right path to success.

6. Organize your Tasks

You don’t want to get stuck. If account management is driving you nuts, here are some project management tools we recommend that you can use to help you manage your accounts and daily tasks effectively.

1. Trello – a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in a process. Imagine a white board, filled with lists of sticky notes, with each note as a task for you and your team. Sign up here

2. Asana – Use Asana to keep all the projects in your program organized and on track. Map, manage, track, and talk about your team’s projects in Asana to go beyond planning and get results. Save time, reduce distractions, and work more productively by centralizing your team’s work in Asana. Sign up here

3. Monday – monday.com is a Work Operating System (Work OS) that powers teams to run projects and workflows with confidence. It’s a simple, but intuitive, Work OS for teams to shape workflows, adjust to shifting needs, create transparency, connect collaboratively, and stop doing manual grunt work. monday.com makes teamwork click. Sign up here

Conclusion

To be an efficient account manager is not easy but it is rewarding. It has challenges that require excellent time management, effective communication skills, flexibility and adaptability. On top of that, they have to be results oriented and goal oriented. But, the feeling you get when you see your team’s work getting approved is a unique high. Especially when you see them posted on social media and other platforms.

Are you interested in becoming an accounts manager? Are you looking to start a career working with clients to hit goals and reach objectives? Well, why not give it a shot? We have a form just for you at the bottom of the page, to inquire about possible job openings with Xiklab Digital.

Do you want more helpful content like this one? Head over to our blog for the latest tips and trends on digital marketing.