What Makes a Great Account Manager

I've spent many years as an account manager and managing other account managers. Being an AM is a highly demanding role that involves managing workloads, personalities, and challenging situations. There are a lot of good account managers out there, but here are some characteristics that set great AMs apart.

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Know how to manage yourself.

You can't expect to manage others well if you can't even manage yourself. This not only applies to your workload but also to managing your own emotions. Digital marketing is full of demanding situations and challenging personalities, and keeping a calm state of mind in the face of chaos is paramount to being a great account manager. (Here is my secret video to calm me down in times of chaos)

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Don't leave your client waiting.

As a rule, I always shoot to address my client's messages within the day they are sent. This doesn't mean I'm staying online until 8 PM answering questions that need in-depth answers that they sent at 4:58 PM. It does mean that I confirm receipt, set a timeline for when I'll send a response, and then stay true to that timeline.

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Respect your client's time.

Nothing grinds my gears more than not being respectful of clients' time. There's no louder do whistle for "you're not a priority" than showing up to meetings late, not having agendas for calls, and not being invested in meetings with clients. Additionally, being respectful of clients' time means being efficient—if a call can be ended in 15 minutes, there's no reason to make it fill the full 30 minutes. Everyone loves some time back.

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Communicate clearly & succinctly.

Speaking of respecting your client's time, one of the most essential skills as an account manager is knowing how to take incredibly complex concepts and boil them down into quick, digestible points. This also means managing communication between experts on your team and your client and being comfortable giving feedback when your team members are too in the weeds (I see this problem, especially with consultants).

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Be honest (even when it's not easy to be) 

Shit happens, especially with media buying. How you act when things go wrong can make or break a relationship and can mean the difference between your client questioning your every move or trusting that you have their best interests at heart even more.

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Maintain Boundaries

As an account manager, we always try to meet our client's needs. With that being said, saying yes to every client request without reason is a quick way to burn out you and your team (and is very common with new account managers). Communication cadence and expectations should be set at the beginning of the relationship. Suppose a client is doing something outside of those expectations (like calling you at 3 AM for a performance update and in-depth report), conversations should be had to revisit what is expected and discuss if more is needed.

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If you're on the client side working with an agency with account managers who aren't doing the above, I'd like you to follow these steps.

1) Forward this to your team

2) Send an email to langston@langstoncreative.co & hire me ;)

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